November 2, 2026

U.S. Commercial Electricity Sales Rise 5.1% in August as Industrial Sales Fall

November 02, 2026

November 2, 2026 | Market Watch

U.S. electricity sales to commercial customers rose 5.1% year over year in August 2026, while industrial sales declined 1.5%, according to the Energy Information Administration's Electric Power Monthly released on October 23.

Commercial sales reached 150.6 billion kWh, compared with 143.3 billion kWh a year earlier; industrial sales were 93.7 billion kWh, down from 95.1 billion kWh.

Commercial growth and industrial weakness

Across all customer sectors, electricity sales increased 4.6% to 412.6 billion kWh.

Commercial electricity revenue rose 9.6%, while the average commercial price increased 4.3% to 14.47 cents/kWh. Industrial electricity revenue increased 5.8% despite lower sales volume, alongside a 7.3% rise in the average industrial price to 9.64 cents/kWh.

From January through August, commercial sales were up 3.3%, while industrial sales edged up 0.3%, tempering the single-month contrast.

These are preliminary U.S. billing-based figures for August, not a measure of UPS installations. The commercial category includes many business types; the release does not isolate data centres, retail sites or office networks.

Implications for backup-power planning

For small businesses, electricity use is one reason to revisit which point-of-sale terminals, network switches and security devices need backup.

Choosing a UPS for a POS system still depends on load criticality, acceptable transfer time and required runtime, not national consumption trends.

Industrial users face a different problem: a decline in aggregate electricity sales does not rule out voltage disturbances at individual plants.

Critical controllers and process instrumentation may require online UPS protection even when the wider sector's consumption is flat or declining.

The EIA figures describe electricity sales, not UPS orders, new data-centre capacity or manufacturers' revenue. Equipment demand cannot be inferred from these totals without project-specific evidence.