In this paper, we introduce a new power spectral efficiency (PSE) metric, to quantify the spectral efficiency and the total required power to cover a certain area with a predefined received signal quality. This metric offers the possibility to find the optimal transmission power in each base station to cover the total given area with the minimum total consumed power. We start by deriving the closed-form expression of the maximum transmission range under Rayleigh fading environment. Based on the maximum transmission range, we define and derive the average affected area, the total consumed power and the average ergodic capacity. Then, we introduce the PSE expression, to quantify the power spectral utilization efficiency. After that, we evaluate the new metric for cellular network with 3-cell frequency reuse cluster (3-CFRC), without inter-cell interference (ICI), and the network with 1-cell frequency reuse cluster (1-CFRC) and ICI. Through mathematical analysis and numerical examples, we show that the PSE metric provides a new perspective on the design and optimization of wireless transmissions, especially on the transmission power selection.