West Virginia energy profile

Manufacturing energy costs in West Virginia

As of Jul 2026, industrial electricity in West Virginia runs 8.4 cents per kWh. That is 14% cheaper than the U.S. average and places the state 14 of 51 nationally.

Current prices in West Virginia

  • Industrial electricity: 8.4 cents per kWh (Jul 2026, EIA).
  • Commercial electricity, the rate a warehouse or distribution center in West Virginia typically pays: 11.44 cents per kWh.
  • Industrial natural gas: 4.57 per Mcf (Jul 2026), 0.2% below the national average.
  • Just below West Virginia on the price ladder: Oklahoma at 8.16, North Dakota at 8.21, North Carolina at 8.37 cents. Just above: Alabama at 8.42, Kansas at 8.52, Wyoming at 8.62 cents.

What the rate does to operating cost

  • A 10 kW machine running a 4,000 hour year costs about 3,360 in electricity at West Virginia rates versus 3,908 at the national average; at 50 kW the gap is 16,800 versus 19,540, and at 200 kW it is 67,200 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 West Virginia than in most of the country, which strengthens make-versus-buy cases for keeping those operations in-house.

What factory labor pays in West Virginia

  • Industrial production managers: $53.73/hr median in West Virginia versus $60.61 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Industrial engineers: $52.10/hr median in West Virginia versus $49.25 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Production supervisors: $33.17/hr median in West Virginia versus $35.79 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Industrial machinery mechanics: $29.67/hr median in West Virginia versus $31.02 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • CNC tool operators: $23.86/hr median in West Virginia versus $24.37 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • Welders, cutters, and brazers: $23.46/hr median in West Virginia versus $25.84 nationally (OEWS 2025).
  • West Virginia employs about 45,000 manufacturing workers as of Aug 2026 (BLS).

Manufacturing base in West Virginia

  • West Virginia has 1,060 manufacturing establishments employing about 48,350 workers (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).
  • Largest sectors by establishment count: fabricated metal products (218), wood product manufacturing (143), chemical manufacturing (85), machine shops (79), food manufacturing (78).

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 West Virginia observation so the local price history deepens over time.

Last reviewed 2026-10-01.