Houston Electricity Rates 2026: What to Pay

Picture two neighbors on the same Houston street, served by the same wires, using roughly the same number of kilowatt-hours each month. One locked in a plan at 9 cents per kWh last spring. The other is still on a plan they signed two summers ago at 17 cents. Same grid. Same CenterPoint infrastructure. About $96 difference per month.

That gap exists because Texas runs a fully competitive electricity market. There is no single utility rate for Houston. Instead, dozens of Retail Electric Providers (REPs) compete for your business, each setting its own prices. As of July 2026, the lowest all-in advertised rate in the Oncor and CenterPoint service territories sits around 7.3 cents per kWh, while the median across roughly 132 active plans lands at 16.6 cents per kWh, both measured at 1,000 kWh monthly usage. The spread is enormous, and most of it comes down to whether a household is actively shopping or not.

Houston sits inside the CenterPoint Energy transmission and distribution territory. CenterPoint owns the poles, wires, and meters. It repairs outages and reads your usage. What it does not do is sell you electricity.

That job belongs to a licensed REP. When you pick a plan, the REP buys power on the wholesale market and charges you a retail rate that bundles energy cost, their margin, and the pass-through fees CenterPoint charges for delivery. You pay one bill to the REP, but a meaningful slice of it flows to CenterPoint regardless of which REP you chose.

The regulator overseeing this whole system is the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). It licenses REPs, sets rules for how plans must be disclosed, and runs Power to Choose, the official state shopping portal where every licensed REP must post its plans. If a REP is not listed there, it is not authorized to sell you power in Texas.

The delivery charge is one of the most misunderstood line items on a Houston electricity bill. CenterPoint sets it, not your REP. It covers the cost of maintaining the physical infrastructure that gets power from generation plants to your outlet.

Delivery charges typically include a fixed monthly customer charge (charged regardless of usage), a per-kWh distribution charge, and various rider fees tied to infrastructure investment programs. Because these fees are set by CenterPoint and approved by the PUCT, every REP in the Houston market passes them through at the same underlying cost. A REP cannot waive them or undercut a competitor on them.

Why does this matter when shopping? Because a plan advertised at a low headline rate can look very different once delivery fees are added. The Electricity Facts Label (EFL), a standardized disclosure document the PUCT requires every REP to publish, shows the all-in average price at three usage tiers: 500 kWh, 1,000 kWh, and 2,000 kWh per month. Always compare EFL prices at the tier closest to your actual usage. A plan with a low 2,000 kWh price may be far more expensive if your household uses 800 kWh. The EFL is the authority. Check it before you sign.

As of July 2026, the market-wide picture for CenterPoint territory at 1,000 kWh per month looks like this:

Lowest advertised all-in rate: approximately 7.3 cents per kWh.
Median all-in rate: approximately 16.6 cents per kWh.

That median is the number a household effectively pays if they pick a plan at random or stay on an expired term without re-shopping. The gap between the low end and the median, more than 9 cents per kWh, adds up to over $90 per month for a typical household. Annualized, that is more than $1,000.

A few important caveats. Rates shift week to week as wholesale natural gas and power prices move. The 7.3-cent figure represents the most competitive promotional offers available at a specific point in time; not every plan qualifies at every contract length or for every address. Rates also differ by usage tier. A plan priced attractively at 1,000 kWh can look very different at 500 kWh once fixed fees are spread across fewer kilowatt-hours. For the most current numbers by plan and address, see the Texas rate comparison page at ElectricRates.org or browse powertochoose.org.

Texas law requires every REP to provide an EFL before you enroll. Think of it as a nutrition label for your electricity plan. It discloses the contract length, cancellation fee, the pricing structure (fixed, variable, or indexed), and the all-in average price at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh.

A few things to watch for on the EFL:

Bill credits tied to specific usage bands. Some plans offer a flat bill credit, say $50, if you use between 1,000 and 2,000 kWh. That can make the per-kWh price look low at exactly 1,000 kWh but expensive if you use 900 or 1,100. The kWh-tier pricing on the EFL will expose this.

Variable versus fixed rates. A fixed-rate plan locks your energy charge for the contract term. A variable-rate plan can change monthly. In summer, when Texas demand spikes and grid stress is high, variable rates can move sharply.

Cancellation fees. Most term contracts include an early termination fee. If you are moving or switching before the contract ends, factor that into your total cost comparison.

Renewable content. The EFL discloses the percentage of power from renewable sources. For households that want a higher green content, this is where to verify the claim rather than relying on marketing language.

Shopping for electricity in Houston takes about fifteen minutes if you know where to look.

Start at powertochoose.org, the PUCT-run portal. Enter your zip code to filter for CenterPoint-territory plans. The portal lets you sort by price and filter by contract length, renewable content, and provider. Pull the EFL for any plan that catches your eye and compare the all-in rate at your typical monthly usage, not just the headline number.

For a side-by-side view of current Houston plans with live rates, the Texas electricity comparison tool at ElectricRates.org pulls data across active REPs and updates regularly.

A few practical habits that help:

Know your average monthly usage. Your CenterPoint bill or online account shows 12 months of usage history. Use that average as your EFL comparison point.

Watch your contract end date. When a fixed-rate term expires, most REPs roll customers onto a month-to-month variable rate. Set a calendar reminder 45 days before expiration to shop again.

Be skeptical of unusually low rates on very short terms. A six-month plan may have a great rate, but if wholesale prices rise when you go to renew, you could end up paying more over a full year than a slightly higher 12-month fixed plan would have cost.

Houston summers are brutal on electricity budgets. Average daily highs above 95 degrees push air conditioning loads to their peak, and Houston homes can easily use 1,500 to 2,000 kWh or more in July and August. Because CenterPoint delivery charges include a per-kWh component, higher usage means higher delivery costs, on top of whatever energy rate you locked in.

Texas electricity runs on the ERCOT grid, which is largely separate from the rest of the country. During periods of extreme heat, ERCOT manages grid reliability and can call for conservation. While this does not directly change the fixed-rate price on your REP contract, it is a reminder that wholesale market volatility is real. Households on variable-rate plans are most exposed to that volatility. If you are shopping in summer and see an unusually low variable-rate offer, read the EFL terms carefully before assuming that rate will hold through a hot August.

Texas has several assistance programs that can reduce electricity costs for qualifying households. The LITE-UP Texas program, administered through the PUCT, has provided discounts on electricity bills for income-eligible customers. Eligibility and availability can change; check with the PUCT directly at puc.texas.gov for current program status and how to apply.

The federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) provides bill payment assistance through local agencies in the Houston area. The Community Services of Greater Houston administers LIHEAP locally; eligibility is based on household income and size.

Beyond income-based programs, some REPs offer budget billing that spreads costs evenly across 12 months, which can help households manage summer spikes without changing their underlying rate.

Houston electricity is competitive by design. The market gives residents real choices, but it also puts the burden of shopping on the consumer. The spread between the lowest available rate and the median rate, as of July 2026, is wide enough that not shopping is effectively choosing to pay more.

The core checklist: pull your average monthly kWh from your CenterPoint bill, compare EFL all-in prices at that usage tier on powertochoose.org or at ElectricRates.org, read the contract terms before enrolling, and mark your renewal date before you forget it.

The CenterPoint delivery charge will be there on every bill no matter what. The energy rate is the variable you control. Given the difference between 7.3 cents and 16.6 cents per kWh, it is worth the fifteen minutes.