What is the average cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour in the
United States, Japan, and England?

Hello skippy60-ga:

Thank you for your question! The answer to your question is available
from the Department of Trade and Industry in the UK, based on the most
recently available global statistics. In the case of electricity
prices, the most recent global pricing available (for free) is:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/inform/energy_prices/section5_mar04.shtml#5.5
http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/inform/energy_prices/tables/table_551_mar04.xls

This is from the March 25th, 2004 publication "Quarterly Energy
Prices" published by the DTI.

This information, derived from Dec 2002 data as presented in the
International Energy Agency's 2003 Q2 "Energy Prices and Taxes"
publication, shows:

UK      6.68 pence/kWh (7.01 pence/kWh including taxes)
Japan  10.84 pence/kWh (11.62 pence/kWh including taxes)
US      5.60 pence/kWh (not including taxes)

The exchange rate in 2002 was, on average, US$1.00 = GBP 0.66722, or
66.722 pence per dollar, so the above prices in USD are:

UK    $0.046 /kWh
Japan $0.072 /kWh
US    $0.037 /kWh

Please note that these are domestic (ie. residential) rates;
industrial rates tend to be cheaper, as indicated on:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/inform/energy_prices/tables/table_531.xls

As averages, these numbers will not necessarily match the rates
charged by any one utility. For example, if you look at the various
utilities rate pages as linked from:

http://www.utilityconnection.com/page6a.asp#Utility_Rates

you will see a wide variance depending on how the utility obtains its
electricity for resale to its customers.

If you check back with the DTI website in July, 2004, they should have
updated their numbers with 2003 numbers. Or, if you need this
information sooner, you can purchase the current 2004 Q2 report from
the International Energy Agency from their website:

http://www.iea.org/dbtw-wpd/bookshop/add.aspx?id=37

Note that their data will lag by about six months due to the time
needed to gather the data and compile the quarterly reports, so
purchasing this publication will only give you data that is six months
newer than that provided in the DTI report, at best.

I hope this helps!

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

Great answer is right! You took great pains to find the data and
interpret it in U.S. dollars. Thank you very much --- The Skipper

great tip about this dti site. accessing data with the iea is too
expensive for non business people. However I think you got the
exchange rate wrong in your answer.
Actually looking at todays FT the $/£ exchange rate is 1.789. which
means that the dollar price of e.g. Japans kWh is 10.89 pence and in
dollar terms this is about 19.5 cents.

tstenvoll-ga:

Thanks for your comment! Please note that the data provided in the
Answer above is for 2002, not 2004. If you check your historical
exchange rates, you will see that the average exchange rate in 2002
for USD<>GBP is as stated above.

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher