The Arbor Rate Forecast projects each utility's residential default supply rate — the 'price to compare' on your bill — across 23 utilities in 9 deregulated markets in 8 states and DC. The underlying forecast is re-run weekly; this page reflects the latest published edition, dated above. The model projects several years out, though the table shows the 12-month view.
Most rate information tells you what you're paying today, or gives a generic estimate of what's "typical." We forecast forward instead, by rebuilding each rate from the wholesale costs utilities actually procure. A wholesale-energy layer draws on PJM/ISO-NE power markets and natural gas curves; a capacity layer draws on PJM's annual capacity auction; and a procurement layer folds in each utility's own default-service auctions (PA's DSP, NJ's BGS, Ohio's SSO) as they clear. A model tuned to each utility then translates those inputs into that service area's posted rate — so the forecast reflects how that specific utility passes costs through, not a one-size-fits-all markup.
The chart at the top is the overall average: the simple, unweighted average of these utilities' rates each month, in cents per kWh. Every utility counts equally, whether it serves five million homes or five hundred thousand, so the average deliberately understates the biggest individual movers, and several utilities are projected to rise well beyond it. The higher and lower estimates are an 80% confidence range, widening the further out the forecast goes.
Every forecast carries a confidence tier — High, Medium, or Low — based on how closely the model has tracked real rates in past backtests; well-covered utilities usually land within a few percentage points of the actual rate at the one-year mark, while areas with thinner auction history or recent regulatory changes get wider ranges and lower confidence, shown plainly rather than buried.
Read the forecast as a schedule of upcoming changes with uncertainty attached, not a single prediction of your future bill. Rates move in steps on each utility's reset date, and the further out the forecast looks, the wider that uncertainty gets.