Colorado energy profile

Manufacturing energy costs in Colorado

The current industrial power rate in Colorado is 9.98 cents per kWh (Aug 2026, EIA), ranking 31 of 51 states and sitting 3.5% above the national average.

Current prices in Colorado

  • Industrial electricity: 9.98 cents per kWh (Aug 2026, EIA).
  • Commercial electricity, the rate a warehouse or distribution center in Colorado typically pays: 13.94 cents per kWh.
  • Industrial natural gas: $10.42 per Mcf (Aug 2026), 140.1% above the national average.
  • Just below Colorado on the price ladder: Ohio at 9.75, Missouri at 9.89, Minnesota at 9.96 cents. Just above: Virginia at 9.98, Nevada at 10.2, Delaware at 10.4 cents.

What the rate does to operating cost

  • A 10 kW machine running a 4,000 hour year costs about $3,992 in electricity at Colorado rates versus $3,856 at the national average; at 50 kW the gap is $19,960 versus $19,280, and at 200 kW it is $79,840 versus $77,120.
  • Colorado sits mid-pack for power cost, so energy is neither a site-selection advantage nor a penalty. Estimates built on national averages will land close here, though demand charges and rate schedules still swing the real bill.

Cost to manufacture in Colorado

  • Colorado scores 107.7 on the MFG Calcs State Cost-to-Manufacture Index, where the U.S. is 100: the 36th lowest of 51 (Aug 2026).
  • Its labor factor (manufacturing wages) is 109.1 and its energy factor (industrial electricity) 103.5; the index weighs wages at 75% and electricity at 25% and leaves out taxes, land and incentives.

What factory labor pays in Colorado

  • Industrial production managers: $67.80/hr median in Colorado versus $60.61 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Industrial engineers: $52.77/hr median in Colorado versus $49.25 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Production supervisors: $37.93/hr median in Colorado versus $35.79 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Industrial machinery mechanics: $36.35/hr median in Colorado versus $31.02 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Tool and die makers: $30.67/hr median in Colorado versus $30.79 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Machinists: $28.94/hr median in Colorado versus $28.24 nationally (OEWS 2025).

Manufacturing jobs in Colorado

  • Colorado had 143,900 manufacturing jobs in Sep 2026, the 30th most of 51 (BLS State and Metro Area Employment, not seasonally adjusted).
  • That is down 1.4% from Sep 2025.

Manufacturing base in Colorado

  • Colorado has 5,031 manufacturing establishments employing about 133,767 workers (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).
  • Average pay per manufacturing employee is $76,989, 5% above the U.S. average of $73,202.
  • Largest sectors by establishment count: fabricated metal products (820), food manufacturing (628), printing and related support (401), machinery manufacturing (300), chemical manufacturing (283).

Manufacturing economy in Colorado

  • Manufacturing added $29.1B to Colorado's economy in 2025, 5.1% of the state's GDP, the 31st largest of the 50 states and DC (BEA).

Sources and update cadence

  • Prices come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, jobs from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, establishments and payroll from the Census Bureau and GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; each refreshes automatically when the agency publishes, and this page archives every month and year it shows so the Colorado history keeps deepening.

Last reviewed 2026-11-13.