North Dakota energy profile

Manufacturing energy costs in North Dakota

North Dakota plants pay 8.21 cents per kWh for industrial power as of Jul 2026, which puts the state 16% under the national average and 12 of 51 in the country, counting from the cheapest.

Current prices in North Dakota

  • Industrial electricity: 8.21 cents per kWh (Jul 2026, EIA).
  • Commercial electricity, the rate a warehouse or distribution center in North Dakota typically pays: 8.22 cents per kWh.
  • Industrial natural gas: 2.91 per Mcf (Jul 2026), 36.5% below the national average.
  • Just below North Dakota on the price ladder: Arkansas at 7.84, South Carolina at 7.84, Oklahoma at 8.16 cents. Just above: North Carolina at 8.37, West Virginia at 8.4, Alabama at 8.42 cents.

What the rate does to operating cost

  • A 10 kW machine running a 4,000 hour year costs about 3,284 in electricity at North Dakota rates versus 3,908 at the national average; at 50 kW the gap is 16,420 versus 19,540, and at 200 kW it is 65,680 versus 78,160.
  • For site selection and quoting, North Dakota sits on the favorable side of the power map. Processes that live or die on electricity cost, from electrolysis to induction heating, price out better here than in most states.

What factory labor pays in North Dakota

  • Industrial production managers: $55.80/hr median in North Dakota versus $60.61 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Industrial engineers: $46.61/hr median in North Dakota versus $49.25 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Production supervisors: $36.71/hr median in North Dakota versus $35.79 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Tool and die makers: $35.16/hr median in North Dakota versus $30.79 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Industrial machinery mechanics: $31.72/hr median in North Dakota versus $31.02 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Welders, cutters, and brazers: $29.81/hr median in North Dakota versus $25.84 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • North Dakota employs about 28,000 manufacturing workers as of Aug 2026 (BLS).

Manufacturing base in North Dakota

  • North Dakota has 695 manufacturing establishments employing about 29,264 workers (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).
  • Largest sectors by establishment count: fabricated metal products (140), food manufacturing (124), machinery manufacturing (65), machine shops (45), furniture and related products (42).

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 North Dakota observation so the local price history deepens over time.

Last reviewed 2026-09-30.