TDU Delivery Charge Texas: Rates by Utility (2026)

A Dallas homeowner switches to a shiny new 7-cent plan and expects a low bill. The electricity cost is low. But the bill still lands at $140 because of a line item that never changes no matter which Retail Electric Provider she picks: the TDU delivery charge.

In Texas, the power grid is split between the companies that sell electricity and the companies that move it. Retail Electric Providers (REPs) compete for your business with fixed, variable, and indexed plans. The Transmission and Distribution Utilities (TDUs) own the poles, wires, meters, and substations that actually deliver the power. You cannot choose your TDU. It is determined by your address, and its fees appear on every plan in your territory as a pass-through, whether you shop on Power to Choose or sign up directly with a REP.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) sets TDU delivery rates through a formal rate-case process. REPs collect those fees and remit them to the TDU. No REP can undercut them, and no REP can inflate them beyond the approved tariff. What REPs compete on is the energy charge layered on top.

Texas's deregulated grid (the ERCOT footprint) is divided among four investor-owned TDUs:

Oncor Electric Delivery serves the largest territory, covering the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, most of West Texas, and a wide arc of North and Central Texas. If you live in Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, Midland, or Odessa, Oncor is your TDU.

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric covers greater Houston and surrounding counties. CenterPoint territory includes one of the densest concentrations of residential electricity customers in the country, which makes Houston one of the most competitive REP markets in Texas.

AEP Texas splits into two operating zones, AEP Texas Central and AEP Texas North, serving the Corpus Christi area, the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, San Angelo, and the Texas Panhandle.

Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP) is the smallest of the four, serving smaller communities in West Texas, the Permian Basin, and portions of the Houston suburban ring (including parts of Brazoria and Fort Bend counties).

Your TDU determines which plans are available to you on the Texas electricity market and what delivery fees appear on every EFL you review.

The phrase "delivery charge" is shorthand for several distinct cost components that TDUs bundle together on a bill. Understanding the components helps explain why the fee varies by territory and usage level.

Transmission charge: Covers the high-voltage lines that move power from generators to local substations. This is partly a statewide cost allocated across TDUs.

Distribution charge: Covers the lower-voltage lines from substations to homes and businesses. This is the largest and most locally variable piece.

Metering and customer charge: A fixed monthly fee, sometimes called a base charge or customer charge, that covers the cost of your meter and basic account maintenance. This charge is the same whether you use 1 kWh or 3,000 kWh in a month.

Transition and miscellaneous charges: Smaller line items that may include securitization charges (legacy storm-cost recovery), nuclear decommissioning, or rider adjustments approved by the PUCT.

When you look at an Electricity Facts Label (EFL), the REP is required to show the all-in average price per kWh at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh. That number already bakes in the TDU delivery fees applicable to your territory. But the delivery fee components are also listed separately lower in the EFL, so you can see exactly what the TDU is collecting.

Each TDU files its own rate case with the PUCT, sometimes on a schedule driven by capital investment cycles, sometimes in response to storm-recovery legislation. Because Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, and TNMP have different infrastructure ages, geographic footprints, line-loss profiles, and capital structures, their approved tariffs land in different places.

A few factors that drive the differences:

Geography and density: Dense urban areas like Houston (CenterPoint) can spread fixed infrastructure costs across more customers per mile of wire. Rural AEP Texas territory requires longer distribution lines for fewer customers, which tends to push per-kWh delivery costs higher.

Storm hardening investment: After major weather events, TDUs may file interim surcharge riders approved by the PUCT to recover rebuild costs. These riders are temporary but can meaningfully affect the all-in delivery rate during recovery periods.

Timing of rate cases: A TDU that filed a rate case recently may have its costs more fully reflected in current tariffs than one operating under older approved rates. This can swing delivery charges in either direction.

Because the approved tariffs change on PUCT's schedule and can include interim riders, the most accurate current delivery-charge breakdown for your address is the EFL of a plan available in your ZIP code. ElectricRates.org's Texas page shows live all-in rates by territory so you can compare plans that already include your TDU's current delivery fees.

TDU delivery charges have two components that behave very differently as usage rises: the fixed monthly customer charge and the per-kWh volumetric charge.

The fixed customer charge is the same dollar amount regardless of consumption. At low usage (say 500 kWh), that fixed charge represents a larger share of your total bill. At high usage (2,000 kWh), the same fixed charge is diluted across more kWh, so its per-kWh impact shrinks.

The volumetric delivery charge scales linearly with usage. More kWh consumed means more delivery cents owed.

This is exactly why the PUCT requires EFLs to show average prices at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh. A plan that looks cheap at 1,000 kWh may look expensive at 500 kWh because the fixed fees dominate at low usage. Some REPs also embed bill credits that only trigger above a usage threshold, which further distorts the per-kWh average at lower tiers.

As of July 2026, the lowest all-in advertised rate in the Oncor (Dallas) territory at 1,000 kWh is approximately 7.2 cents per kWh, while the median across roughly 132 active plans sits near 16.5 cents per kWh. Both figures include TDU delivery fees. The gap between low and median partly reflects that delivery charges are the same across all plans in a territory. What separates 7.2 from 16.5 is primarily the energy charge the REP controls.

The Electricity Facts Label is the standardized disclosure document every REP must provide under PUCT rules. Think of it as the nutrition label for electricity plans. It is the authoritative source for what you will actually pay, including TDU fees.

To find the delivery charge component on an EFL:

1. Look past the headline average price at the top.
2. Find the section labeled "Charges" or "Price Components." It will list the TDU's distribution charge (in cents per kWh), the TDU's monthly customer charge (in dollars), transmission charges, and any applicable riders.
3. Compare these line items across EFLs for the same territory. They should be identical across all plans in that territory because every REP uses the same PUCT-approved tariff. If they differ, look carefully for a bill credit or usage tier condition that is adjusting the effective rate on the sample EFL.

Power to Choose (powertochoose.org), the PUCT-run shopping site, links directly to each plan's EFL. You can also find EFLs on each REP's own website. For live side-by-side plan comparisons filtered by your ZIP code and usage level, visit ElectricRates.org.

Texas does not have a default utility supply rate. There is no government-set fallback price that applies to customers who simply forget to choose a plan. What Texas does have is a Provider of Last Resort (POLR) program.

If a REP goes out of business or loses its license, affected customers are automatically moved to a designated POLR. POLR rates are set to be higher than market rates by design. The PUCT designates POLR providers by territory, and the intent is to serve as a short-term safety net, not a long-term supply arrangement.

The practical takeaway: if you are between plans or your REP fails, switching to a competitive plan quickly is almost always the lower-cost outcome. The TDU delivery charge will be the same regardless. What changes is the energy charge, and POLR energy charges are not designed to be competitive.

Because TDU delivery fees are the same on every plan in your territory, all of your shopping leverage lives in the REP's energy charge. Here is how to use that framing:

Filter by territory first. Rates in CenterPoint territory and Oncor territory are structurally different. A great rate in Dallas does not tell you anything about Houston pricing. Always search by your ZIP code.

Check all three usage tiers on the EFL. If your home uses around 800 kWh in shoulder months and 1,600 kWh in summer, look at both the 500 and 2,000 kWh columns, not just the 1,000 kWh headline.

Look for bill credits with conditions. Some REPs advertise low per-kWh averages that depend on a monthly bill credit that only activates above a usage floor (often 1,000 kWh). If you drop below that floor in mild months, the credit disappears and your effective rate rises.

Confirm the contract length and early termination fee. Delivery charges do not change based on contract length, but the energy charge may be locked at a favorable rate for 12 or 24 months. That lock can be valuable if wholesale prices rise.

For live plan comparisons across all four TDU territories, visit ElectricRates.org's Texas electricity page or the PUCT's own Power to Choose site.