Prototype · 2 October 2026 · built from public data listed at the bottom · not reviewed by CCE Tompkins or any agency
Six plain questions about energy, answered with the public numbers that exist for Tompkins County, New York. Most end with things you can do. The idea is meant to work for other places too; Tompkins is the first.
Question 1
What this doesn’t show: wholesale is only the supply part of your bill, and it swings. After inflation its yearly average was $21 to $41 per MWh in 2016–2021, then $67 in 2022, $30 in 2023, $37 in 2024 and $59 in 2025.
The example values are $300 in 2019 and $475 now. A bill also changes with how much you use (a new heat pump, an electric car, more people at home), so this shows what changed in total, not why.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average price series APU010072610 and APU000072610, monthly. Includes delivery and supply. Inflation adjustment uses the BLS Consumer Price Index (all items) for each region; October 2025 is missing from BLS data, so the line has a gap there.
Your NYSEG bill has two parts. Delivery pays for the poles, wires and pipes; the state Public Service Commission approves its rates. Supply is the energy itself, and its price follows the wholesale market below. You can't shop for delivery. You can choose who supplies the energy.
NYISO day-ahead zonal prices, Zone C (Central), which NYISO’s interconnection queue lists for every Tompkins County project. Hourly values averaged by month, January 2016 to September 2026. Inflation adjustment uses the BLS Consumer Price Index for the Northeast; October 2025 and September 2026, which BLS hasn’t published, use neighboring months.
This is the price of the energy itself on the grid, before delivery. January to September 2026 averaged –. January 2026, at $176, was the highest month since 2016.
Question 2
The example value is 650 kWh. Your bill shows your own number. A billing period rarely matches a calendar month exactly, so treat the comparison as approximate.
NYSERDA Utility Energy Registry, county monthly residential consumption ÷ number of accounts. NYSEG only. August and September 2023 are left out: the state file puts both months’ use in August and reports zero for September.
The average Tompkins home account used – kWh in 2025, a figure that mixes apartments, large houses and electrically heated homes. Use per home rose about 6% between 2016 and 2025 (7,598 kWh to 8,082).
What this doesn’t show: home accounts also grew about 12% from 2016 to 2025, and the data doesn’t show what kinds of homes were added.
Question 3
Energy numbers come in units nobody pictures: watt-hours, megawatts, therms. Here everything is measured with one yardstick, the electricity an average Tompkins home used in 2025: – kWh. Pick something to measure. Each one is a single example, not the whole story of that technology.
Question 4
NYSERDA Statewide Distributed Solar Projects, Tompkins County.
Small systems on homes and businesses are most of the projects; community solar farms are most of the power. Together they’re estimated to produce the equivalent of about of the electricity NYSEG delivered here in 2025.
What this doesn’t show: most projects are net-metered, so much of their power is used where it’s made and never counted in NYSEG’s deliveries.
Question 5
Energy keeps homes warm, food cold and hospitals running. It also has costs beyond the bill, including the carbon dioxide released when fuel is burned. Both sides can be measured, and so can where the energy goes.
World Bank indicators EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS and SP.DYN.LE00.IN, 2023.
In the 15 places where fewer than half of people have electricity, median life expectancy is 62.2 years. In the 140 where at least 99% do, it’s 77.6.
What this doesn’t show: places with more electricity are also richer, with more doctors, clean water and food, so this doesn’t show how many years electricity adds on its own.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. energy facts explained, 2024. Primary energy, with the losses from generating and delivering electricity assigned to the sectors that buy it. Rounded as published, so the shares add to 101%.
Each sector turns energy into something people use: moving people and goods, making things, running homes, shops, schools and hospitals. Data centers, which run everything from email and banking to AI, used 4.4% of US electricity in 2023. The Department of Energy projects 6.7% to 12% by 2028, depending on the scenario.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, December 2024.
What this doesn’t show: these are shares of electricity, which is only part of all energy use, so data centers’ share of total energy is smaller.
EPA eGRID2023, subregion NYUP (Upstate NY), share of net generation. Power also flows between regions, so this describes what was generated here, not exactly what each home received.
About two-thirds of upstate generation is hydro and nuclear, so electricity here carries about a third of the US average carbon per kWh (242.1 against 767.2 lb per MWh). The gas figure covers homes with gas service; many rural homes heat with oil or propane.
Rates used: electricity 242.1 lb CO₂ per MWh (EPA eGRID2023, upstate average). Natural gas 5.31 kg per therm, heating oil 10.21 kg per gallon, propane 5.72 kg per gallon, gasoline 8.78 kg per gallon (EPA Emission Factors Hub, January 2025).
What this doesn’t show: gas use here is mostly winter heating (169 therms per gas home in January 2025, 13 in July), so these two figures don’t compare heating methods.
Question 6
This part isn't built. New York lets a resident authorize an organization to receive their utility data through a state system, without ever handing over a password, and take that permission back at any time. With a household's own usage, a site like this could show:
Heating, cooling and always-on use separated, by matching your usage to local weather.
What your current heating would cost from a heat pump, at today's prices, with the uncertainty shown.
Your yearly use against what a roof your size here produces, so a quote can be checked.
Usage before and after an upgrade, adjusted for a colder or milder winter.
Where these numbers come from
| Source | What it gives | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| NYSERDA Utility Energy Registry | Monthly electricity and gas use by county, town and ZIP code, with account counts | 2016 – Dec 2025, gaps |
| Bureau of Labor Statistics | Average household price per kWh, Northeast and US | 2017 – Aug 2026 |
| NYISO | Hourly wholesale prices by zone | 2016 – Sep 2026 |
| NYSERDA distributed solar | Every connected solar project, size, town, type | 2001 – Aug 2026 |
| EPA eGRID2023 | Carbon per MWh and generation mix, upstate New York and US | 2023 |
| EPA Emission Factors Hub | CO₂ per therm or gallon of fuel | Jan 2025 edition |
| World Bank | Share of people with electricity; life expectancy | 2023 |
| U.S. Energy Information Administration | US energy use by sector | 2024 |
| U.S. Department of Energy | Data centers' share of US electricity (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report) | 2023, 2028 projection |
| Google and OpenAI | Energy per AI text prompt, published by each company for its own product | 2025 |
Not used yet: NYSEG's own monthly supply prices (its site blocks automated downloads), Census data on how Tompkins homes heat (needs a free access key), and the state's IEDR platform for grid and household data. The registry file is missing home electricity for all of 2021, July–December 2022 and February–June 2024; August and September 2023 are left out because the file puts both months’ use in August. The price series is missing October 2025.