Comparing Commercial Electricity Quotes Apples to Apples
To compare Texas commercial electricity quotes apples to apples, match the contract term, start month, and usage basis across every bid, then confirm each quote states supply-only or all-in pricing, pass-through or bundled delivery, and identical demand assumptions. A lower headline rate with pass-through delivery and demand charges often costs more than a higher all-in bundled rate.
For example, consider a hypothetical Fort Worth warehouse pulling 35,000 kWh a month that receives two quotes. Say Quote A comes in at 6.9 cents per kWh, supply-only, and Quote B comes in at 7.6 cents per kWh, all-in. Example numbers to show the math, not a live quote. Quote A looks cheaper on the cover sheet. But once you add Quote A's pass-through TDU delivery rider and its demand charge on a 120 kW peak, the real bill lands at $4,110 a month, an effective rate of 11.7 cents per kWh. Quote B's bundled all-in price stays flat at $2,660 a month, 7.6 cents per kWh, exactly what the cover sheet said. That's a $1,450-a-month gap, $17,400 a year, hiding behind a headline rate that looked lower.
Match the Term, Start Month, and Usage Basis First
This mistake happens before anyone even reads the rate. A 12-month quote and a 36-month quote from two different suppliers are not competing offers, they're two different products. Term length changes risk pricing on both sides. Start month matters just as much: ERCOT wholesale power prices move with the seasons, so a rate quoted to start in August is priced against different summer demand than the same term starting in January. And usage basis has to match too. A quote built off your actual 12-month metered history from your TDU is a real number. A quote built off a supplier's own estimate of your load is a guess dressed up as a price. Pull the same usage file, request the same term, request the same start month, from every supplier you ask. Anything less isn't a comparison.
Supply-Only vs. All-In: The Number That Tricks Everyone
The average commercial account in Texas pays 8.66 cents per kWh all-in, versus 14.19 cents nationally (EIA, 06/2026). That 8.66-cent figure is a useful market anchor, but it's an all-in number, energy plus delivery plus fees. It is not a supply-only rate, and you should never hold a supplier's quoted supply rate up against it as if they measure the same thing. A retail energy provider (REP) sells you the energy. The TDU, Oncor in Dallas-Fort Worth, CenterPoint around Houston, AEP Texas Central and North, TNMP in pockets statewide, delivers it regardless of who your supplier is. Your reliability never changes with supplier choice. What changes is whether the number on the quote sheet is the whole story or half of it. Before you set two quotes side by side, get a straight yes or no on each: is delivery included in this number, or added on top?
Pass-Through Delivery, Bundled Delivery, and Demand Assumptions
A pass-through quote passes the TDU's delivery charges straight through to your bill at whatever the TDU's tariff says that month. Those charges can move up or down over your contract term, and you carry that risk. A bundled quote absorbs delivery into one flat all-in rate; the supplier carries the tariff risk, not you. Neither structure is automatically wrong, but comparing a pass-through quote's supply rate to a bundled quote's all-in rate is comparing a part to a whole. Then there's demand. Commercial accounts with significant HVAC load, refrigeration, or heavy equipment often get billed a demand charge on top of energy, based on the single highest 15-minute kW interval in the billing cycle. Larger interval-metered accounts also feed into ERCOT's 4CP calculation each summer, which sets transmission cost allocation the following year. Two quotes can show nearly identical energy rates and produce wildly different bills if one assumes your peak demand is 100 kW and the other assumes 140 kW. Ask every supplier what kW figure they used.
- Same contract term length on every quote (12, 24, and 36 months are not directly comparable)
- Same requested start month on every quote
- Same usage basis: 12 months of actual metered kWh from your TDU account, not a supplier estimate
- Each quote states plainly whether the price is supply-only or all-in
- Each quote states whether delivery is pass-through or bundled into the flat rate
- Each quote lists the demand charge rate and the kW assumption it's based on
- Each quote is priced against the correct TDU tariff for your service address
- Quote A, supply-only: energy charge $2,415/mo (35,000 kWh x 6.9 cents)
- Quote A: pass-through TDU delivery rider $735/mo (35,000 kWh x 2.1 cents)
- Quote A: demand charge $960/mo (120 kW peak x $8/kW)
- Quote A total: $4,110/mo, effective rate 11.7 cents/kWh
- Quote B, all-in bundled: $2,660/mo flat, effective rate 7.6 cents/kWh
- Result: Quote B wins by $1,450/mo, $17,400/year, despite quoting the higher headline rate
Watch for this exact trap: a supplier quotes a low per-kWh number, doesn't mention it's supply-only, and doesn't disclose the demand charge until the first invoice arrives. By the time you're comparing bills instead of quotes, you're already locked into a term. Get the structure in writing before you sign, not after your first cycle.
We recommend requesting an itemized breakdown from every supplier: energy rate, delivery treatment, demand rate and kW assumption, and any fees, all against the same term, start month, and usage file. Normalize the inputs first, then compare the total monthly dollar figure, not the cover-page cents-per-kWh number.
Get quotes on your business account normalized side by side, same term, same start month, same usage, so you're comparing real numbers instead of headline rates.
Get My QuoteFrequently asked questions
Supply-only covers just the energy commodity; delivery charges from the TDU (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, TNMP) get added on separately. All-in bundles energy and delivery into one flat rate. Always confirm which one you're looking at before comparing two numbers.
ERCOT wholesale pricing and supplier risk premiums shift by season, so the same term starting in June prices differently than the same term starting in January. Comparing quotes with different start months compares different market conditions, not different suppliers.
Not on the headline number alone. A pass-through quote's delivery rider moves with the TDU's published tariff over the contract term. A bundled quote locks that risk into one flat all-in rate. Ask both suppliers for a total estimated monthly cost using the same usage before you decide.
Commercial bills can carry a separate demand charge based on the highest 15-minute kW interval in the billing cycle, on top of the per-kWh energy charge. Two quotes with similar energy rates can produce very different total bills if their demand charge assumptions don't match your account's actual peak.
Comparing the per-kWh number on the cover page without confirming supply-only versus all-in, pass-through versus bundled delivery, and matching demand assumptions. That's exactly how a lower headline rate ends up costing more once every line item hits the actual bill.