Alabama energy profile

Manufacturing energy costs in Alabama

Alabama plants pay 8.42 cents per kWh for industrial power as of Jul 2026, which puts the state 13.8% under the national average and 15 of 51 in the country, counting from the cheapest.

Current prices in Alabama

  • Industrial electricity: 8.42 cents per kWh (Jul 2026, EIA).
  • Commercial electricity, the rate a warehouse or distribution center in Alabama typically pays: 14.83 cents per kWh.
  • Industrial natural gas: 5.92 per Mcf (Jul 2026), 29.3% above the national average.
  • Just below Alabama on the price ladder: North Dakota at 8.21, North Carolina at 8.37, West Virginia at 8.4 cents. Just above: Kansas at 8.52, Wyoming at 8.62, Oregon at 8.92 cents.

What the rate does to operating cost

  • A 10 kW machine running a 4,000 hour year costs about 3,368 in electricity at Alabama rates versus 3,908 at the national average; at 50 kW the gap is 16,840 versus 19,540, and at 200 kW it is 67,360 versus 78,160.
  • Energy is a genuine competitive advantage here: energy-intensive steps like heat treating, melting, and drying carry meaningfully lower unit cost in Alabama than in most of the country, which strengthens make-versus-buy cases for keeping those operations in-house.

What factory labor pays in Alabama

  • Industrial production managers: $58.90/hr median in Alabama versus $60.61 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Industrial engineers: $48.02/hr median in Alabama versus $49.25 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Production supervisors: $35.13/hr median in Alabama versus $35.79 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Tool and die makers: $31.15/hr median in Alabama versus $30.79 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Industrial machinery mechanics: $29.77/hr median in Alabama versus $31.02 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Machinists: $26.71/hr median in Alabama versus $28.24 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Alabama employs about 282,000 manufacturing workers as of Aug 2026 (BLS).

Manufacturing base in Alabama

  • Alabama has 4,145 manufacturing establishments employing about 272,338 workers (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).
  • Largest sectors by establishment count: fabricated metal products (891), wood product manufacturing (347), transportation equipment (311), printing and related support (307), food manufacturing (305).

Sources and update cadence

  • Prices come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and refresh automatically when the agency publishes; this page also archives each month's Alabama observation so the local price history deepens over time.

Last reviewed 2026-10-01.