Texas Retail Electric Providers: 2026 Guide

Picture two companies involved every time a Texas light switch flips. One owns the poles, wires, and meters that physically deliver power to your home. The other is the company whose name appears on your monthly bill, the one that bought electricity on the wholesale market, priced it into a plan, and sold it to you.

The first company is a Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU). In the Dallas area that is Oncor. In Houston it is CenterPoint. Across West Texas and the Panhandle it is AEP Texas, and in parts of the Panhandle and South Texas it is TNMP. You cannot choose your TDU, it is assigned by geography.

The second company is a Retail Electric Provider (REP). Texas law lets any household in a deregulated area pick its own REP, and that choice directly determines the supply rate it pays. REPs compete for your business by offering fixed-rate, variable-rate, indexed, and usage-tiered plans. The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) licenses every REP operating in the state and sets the disclosure rules they must follow.

Ready to compare? See every active plan at your ZIP, ranked by real 12-month cost: [Compare Texas electricity plans](/texas/).

Texas restructured its electricity market under Senate Bill 7 in 1999, and most of the state opened to retail competition in 2002. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid, which covers roughly 90 percent of Texas's land area, is where deregulation applies. A handful of cities and co-ops, including Austin Energy, Garland Power and Light, and most rural electric cooperatives, kept their legacy rate structure and are not part of the competitive market.

In deregulated areas the model works like this: power generators sell wholesale electricity into the ERCOT market. REPs buy that power, layer on their own margin and operating costs, then offer retail plans to consumers. TDUs charge delivery fees that every REP passes through on its bills. Those fees are regulated by the PUCT and are identical no matter which REP you pick.

The result is that two neighbors on the same block, served by the same TDU, paying the same delivery charge, can have wildly different supply rates depending on which REP contract they signed. That spread is why shopping matters.

The rate landscape across deregulated Texas is wide. As of July 2026, ElectricRates.org shows about 132 active plans available in Oncor territory (Dallas area) at the standard 1,000 kWh reference level. The lowest all-in advertised rate sits at roughly 7.1 cents per kWh. The median lands around 16.5 cents per kWh. A household on a median plan is paying more than twice as much per kilowatt-hour as one on the cheapest available plan, a gap that compounds fast when Texas summers push usage into the thousands of kilowatt-hours.

A few important caveats. These figures apply to Oncor territory at 1,000 kWh. Rates differ by TDU because each utility has its own delivery fee schedule. Rates also shift dramatically by usage level because many Texas plans use kWh-tier pricing: a plan might advertise one rate at 1,000 kWh but charge a materially different effective rate at 500 kWh or 2,000 kWh. That quirk is why the PUCT requires EFLs to disclose all-in rates at all three tiers.

For live rates across every Texas TDU territory, check ElectricRates.org's Texas electricity page or the PUCT's own shopping tool at powertochoose.org.

Every Texas REP is required by the PUCT to publish an Electricity Facts Label (EFL) for each plan it sells. Think of the EFL as a nutrition label for electricity. It must disclose the average price per kWh at 500 kWh, 1,000 kWh, and 2,000 kWh of monthly usage; the contract length; early termination fees; renewable energy content; and any base charges or bill credits that affect your actual cost.

The EFL is where kWh-tier pricing becomes visible. A plan that advertises 9 cents per kWh in large type may apply a $50 bill credit only if you use at least 1,000 kWh that month. At 900 kWh you miss the credit and your effective rate climbs. The EFL table at the 500 kWh row would show the higher effective rate, but a glance at the headline number alone would not.

Always pull the EFL before signing up for any plan. If a REP cannot provide one, walk away. The EFL is a legal document and its numbers are the controlling reference, not a salesperson's summary or a comparison site's display rate.

Fixed-rate plans lock your supply rate for a set contract term, typically six, twelve, or twenty-four months. Your rate does not change when ERCOT wholesale prices spike during a heat wave. This is the most common choice for households that prioritize budget certainty.

Variable-rate plans let the REP adjust your supply rate month to month based on market conditions. They can be cheaper during mild weather but carry real risk during high-demand periods. Texas winters and summers can produce extreme wholesale price events.

Indexed plans tie your rate directly to a published market index, usually with a small adder. The transparency appeals to some customers, but the volatility is real.

Prepaid plans require no credit check and no deposit. You load funds in advance and power stays on as long as your balance is positive. REPs offering prepaid service typically provide daily usage and balance alerts by text.

Green or renewable plans match your consumption with renewable energy certificates sourced from wind or solar. Texas hosts some of the largest wind capacity in the country, so genuinely renewable products are widely available. The EFL discloses the exact renewable percentage.

Some plans also include smart-thermostat integration, free nights or weekends, or usage-based rewards. These features affect your effective cost, so model your own usage pattern against the EFL numbers before deciding a specialty plan saves you money.

Start by knowing your own usage. Pull three to six months of bills from your current or previous REP. Note your kilowatt-hour totals, not just your dollar amounts. Texas summers routinely push households past 2,000 kWh per month, so a plan that looks cheap at 1,000 kWh may look very different at your actual summer peak.

Next, go to powertochoose.org, the PUCT's official comparison site. Enter your zip code and your TDU will populate automatically. You can filter by contract length, renewable content, plan type, and company. Every listed plan links directly to its EFL.

Then cross-reference on ElectricRates.org, which aggregates plan data and flags unusual pricing structures. Look specifically at the EFL's three usage tiers and mentally map them to your own summer and winter peaks. Note the early termination fee. A plan with a $200 cancellation fee is fine if you plan to stay; it is a liability if your lease ends in eight months.

Finally, check the REP's complaint history. The PUCT publishes complaint data by provider. A low rate from a company with a high complaint rate is a trade-off worth knowing about before you sign.

No matter which REP you choose, you will pay TDU delivery charges. These cover the cost of maintaining the poles, wires, transformers, and meters that bring power to your door. They also include transmission charges from ERCOT-level infrastructure.

TDU charges typically include a fixed monthly customer charge plus a per-kWh volumetric charge. Because these fees are identical across every REP in a given territory, they do not affect which plan wins on a side-by-side comparison. They do, however, form a floor below which your all-in rate cannot fall regardless of what a REP charges for supply.

TDU fee schedules are regulated by the PUCT. Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, and TNMP each file their own tariffs. These schedules change periodically and the change flows through every REP's bill in that territory simultaneously. If your all-in rate rises and you did not change plans, a TDU rate adjustment may be the reason.

Switching REPs in Texas is straightforward. You sign up with a new REP, it coordinates the switch with your TDU, and service transfers without interruption. No truck rolls, no outage. The timeline is typically a few business days unless you request a specific start date.

Before switching, check your current contract's expiration date and early termination fee. Switching mid-contract may trigger that fee. Many REPs send a renewal notice thirty to sixty days before your contract ends. That window is the best time to shop, because your incumbent REP will also offer a renewal rate, sometimes competitive, sometimes not.

If your contract expires and you take no action, most REPs automatically move you to a month-to-month variable rate. Variable rates can be substantially higher, so letting a contract lapse unintentionally is one of the more common ways Texas households overpay.

The single most effective move is comparing total all-in cost at your actual usage level, not the advertised headline rate. Use the EFL's three-tier table, plot your own kWh history across it, and calculate an estimated annual cost for each finalist plan.

For households in Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, or anywhere in the Oncor footprint, the July 2026 market shows a meaningful spread: the cheapest plans cluster below 8 cents per kWh all-in at 1,000 kWh, while median plans sit at 16.5 cents. Signing up at the median when competitive options are available costs real money across a twelve-month term.

Start your comparison at ElectricRates.org for aggregated current rates, verify any plan you like at powertochoose.org, and read the EFL before committing. Repeat the process at every contract renewal. Texas's competitive market works best when consumers use it.