Utilities 401(k) plans
The median 401(k) plan at utilities paid $138.21 per participant per year in plan-paid administrative fees, computed from 387 of the 407 utilities plans on file, form year 2024.
Computed from DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data, not surveys. All 57,824 large plans in the form-year-2024 data are read here, so the 407 plans in this industry are every plan of that size filed under its business codes. The median is taken over the 387 of them whose filing reports a plan-paid administrative cost, because a filing that reports none has no cost to rank. It still does not describe the whole industry: a plan with fewer than 100 participants files a shorter form and is not in this data at all.
$138.21
Median plan-paid administrative cost per participant per year among 387 utilities plans with usable fee data, form year 2024.
$16.04 above the $122.17 median across all published plans.
How do utilities 401(k) fees compare?
Plan size drives fees more than industry does: bigger plans pay less per head. See median fees by plan size before reading an industry gap as an industry effect.
36 of the biggest utilities 401(k) plans
| Plan | Sponsor | Active participants | Assets | Fee ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Southern Company Employee Savings Plan | Southern Company Services, Inc. | 28,079 | $9.3B | 46.93 |
| Duke Energy Retirement Savings Plan | Duke Energy Corporation | 26,616 | $11.3B | 144.76 |
| Exelon Corporation Employee Savings Plan | Exelon Corporation | 20,243 | $6.3B | 205.87 |
| Clean Harbors Savings And Retirement Plan | Clean Harbors Enviromental Services, Inc. | 18,877 | $1.2B | 56.23 |
| PG&E Corp. Retirement Savings Plan For Union-Represented Employees | PG&E Corporation | 17,676 | $5.0B | 153.12 |
| National Grid USA Co. Incentive Thrift Plan | National Grid USA Service Company, Inc. | 17,603 | $6.4B | 51.35 |
| Nextera Energy, Inc. Employee Retirement Savings Plan | Nextera Energy, Inc. | 16,733 | $5.5B | 168.00 |
| Aep Retirement Savings 401(k) Plan | American Electric Power Service Corporation | 16,345 | $5.2B | 311.04 |
| The Consolidated Edison Thrift Savings Plan | Consolidated Edison Company Of New York, Inc. | 15,022 | $6.4B | 203.46 |
| Constellation Employee Savings Plan | Constellation Energy Generation LLC | 14,256 | $6.0B | 183.71 |
| Edison 401(k) Savings Plan | Southern California Edison Company | 13,749 | $6.4B | 286.31 |
| Firstenergy Corp. Savings Plan | Firstenergy Corp. | 12,394 | $3.9B | 205.83 |
| Dominion Energy 401(k) Plan | Dominion Energy, Inc. | 12,152 | $4.4B | 156.96 |
| Nrg Affiliates Employee Savings Plan | Nrg Affiliate Services, Inc. | 11,745 | $2.3B | 61.63 |
| Usic 401(k) Savings Plan | Usic, LLC | 11,502 | $206.7M | 39.63 |
| Siemens Energy, Inc. Savings Plan | Siemens Energy, Inc. | 11,052 | $4.0B | 418.03 |
| Kinder Morgan Savings Plan | Kinder Morgan, Inc. | 10,966 | $2.9B | 186.85 |
| PG&E Corporation Retirement Savings Plan | PG&E Corporation | 10,864 | $4.9B | 168.46 |
| Eversource 401(k) Plan | Eversource Energy Service Company | 10,538 | $4.0B | 98.64 |
| Centerpoint Energy Savings Plan | Centerpoint Energy, Inc. | 9,444 | $3.1B | 365.16 |
| Savings Plan Of Entergy Corporation And Subsidiaries | Entergy Corporation | 9,114 | $4.4B | 64.34 |
| Ameren Corporation Savings Investment Plan | Ameren Corporation | 9,085 | $3.2B | 230.82 |
| Xcel Energy 401(k) Savings Plan | Xcel Energy Inc. | 9,075 | $3.1B | 131.35 |
| Southern California Gas Company Retirement Savings Plan | Southern California Gas Company | 8,846 | $3.1B | 37.45 |
| Avangrid 401(k) Plan | Avangrid Management Company, LLC | 8,263 | $2.6B | 90.25 |
| Consumers Energy Company Employees' Savings Plan | Consumers Energy Company | 8,218 | $2.9B | 29.33 |
| Nisource Inc. Retirement Savings Plan | Nisource Inc. | 7,982 | $2.0B | 5.53 |
| Midamerican Energy Company Retirement Savings Plan | Midamerican Energy Company | 7,624 | $2.0B | 61.02 |
| Veolia North America 401(k) Savings Plan | Veolia North America, LLC | 7,090 | $1.0B | 81.31 |
| Savs Pl For Emps Of Amer Wtr Wks Co Inc. & Its Desig Subs | American Water Works Company, Inc. | 6,721 | $1.4B | 48.40 |
| Salt River Project Employees' 401(k) Plan | Salt River Valley Water Users Association | 6,108 | $1.3B | 121.15 |
| Pacificorp K Plus Employee Savings Plan | Pacificorp | 5,334 | $1.8B | 365.20 |
| Atmos Energy Corporation Retirement Savings Plan And Trust | Atmos Energy Corporation | 5,287 | $1.1B | 50.83 |
| Dte Energy Company Savings And Stock Ownership Plan | Dte Energy Corporate Services, LLC | 5,078 | $2.3B | 215.11 |
| San Diego Gas & Electric Company Savings Plan | San Diego Gas & Electric Company | 4,789 | $2.1B | 32.98 |
| Evergy, Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan | Evergy, Inc. | 4,722 | $1.5B | 198.90 |
The utilities plans with a page of their own are listed below by size, and the same set is findable by employer name from the search on the home page.
Every Utilities plan page, by size
The table above is the top of the list. These 2 pages hold the 38 published plan pages in utilities, out of 407 filings of that kind in the data, split by how many people are in them, each ranked by active participants.
- 1,000 to 4,999 participants · 1 plans
- 5,000 or more participants · 37 plans
Which utilities companies disclose their 401(k) match?
For these 15 employers we also read the SEC Form 11-K and extracted the match terms, matched to this industry by the plan’s EIN.
- AES CORP
100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 4% of pay
- ALLETE INC
100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 5% of pay
- American Electric Power Company, Inc.
100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 1% of pay, then 70% of the next 5% of pay
- AVISTA CORP
100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay
- Dominion Energy, Inc.
Could not be determined from the filing; see the source quote
- Duke Energy Corporation
100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay
- Entergy Corporation
70% of the first 6% of pay
- Essential Utilities, Inc.
100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay
- Eversource Energy
100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay
- MDU RESOURCES GROUP INC
Match set at the company's discretion each year; the rate is not disclosed in the filing
- NextEra Energy, Inc.
Match formula not disclosed in the filing
- PG&E Corporation
75% of the first 8% of pay
- Southern Company
85% of the first 6% of pay (partly disclosed)
- SOUTHWEST GAS CORP
100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 7% of pay
- TUCSON ELECTRIC POWER CO
100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 4.5% of pay (partly disclosed)
Which employers count as utilities here?
Electric power, natural gas, water and combination utilities (codes 221100 to 221999). Sponsors here include National Grid, Consumers Energy and Kinder Morgan.
The code is the IRS principal business activity code the sponsor itself puts on Form 5500, line 2d. Medians count only plans whose Schedule H shows a positive plan-paid administrative expense (387 of 407 plans here). Plan-paid expenses exclude fund expense ratios and employer-paid bills, so every figure is a floor, not the all-in cost. Latest filing in this group received by the DOL July 23, 2026; source dataset last refreshed July 28, 2026. Full methodology
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, “Utilities 401(k) plans: median plan-paid administrative cost per participant”, computed from DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data, form year 2024.
