Texas Electricity. Plain English.

Where Texas is open to retail competition, two companies serve your home. The local wires company, the transmission and distribution utility (TDU), owns the poles and meters and delivers the power: Oncor, CenterPoint Energy, AEP Texas, TNMP or Lubbock Power & Light. A household with its own electricity account picks the retail electric provider (REP) that sells it the electricity. An address on the lines of a city utility or a co-op that has not opted into retail competition, such as Austin Energy or CPS Energy, has no retail choice.

An advertised rate is usually the lowest-cost slice of a plan, not the total cost. The Public Utility Commission of Texas requires every plan to publish its Electricity Facts Label (EFL) with tiered rates at 500, 1000, and 2000 kWh. The 'headline' rate you see in ads is often the cheapest tier. If your household uses a different amount of kWh, your effective rate (and bill) is completely different. Voltcheckr ranks plans by their all-in cost at YOUR usage, delivery, base charges, and fees included, and links each plan's EFL, where the official price is published, so you compare on your real numbers instead of the marketing headline.

Your ESI ID (Electric Service Identifier) is the number that identifies the meter point at your address in ERCOT's registration system. It is printed on every electricity bill. When you sign up, the new provider confirms it if it is available, so you can start without it.

Pick a plan in our comparison and finish your sign-up on our enrollment partner's checkout. The new provider starts the switch and ERCOT notifies your old provider, so you do not need to cancel your old plan. Power to Choose, the PUCT's shopping site, says a switch happens within seven business days. If you are still under contract, check your current plan's early termination fee first: it is on its Electricity Facts Label (EFL) and terms of service.

Only if you leave a fixed-rate contract before it ends. The amount is on the plan's Electricity Facts Label and terms of service. Texas rules bar the fee in the 14 days before the end date in your expiration notice, and a home's month-to-month variable plan carries none.

A fixed-rate plan keeps its price per kWh for the contract term, except for the pass-throughs the rules allow, such as actual changes in TDU charges, so your bill still rises and falls with the kWh you use. A variable plan for a home is month to month, and its price can change each billing cycle. Indexed plans are not open to homes: Texas rules have barred them for residential customers since February 1, 2022. Each plan's Electricity Facts Label names its type.

A bill credit takes a set amount off your bill in a month that meets the plan's condition, such as using at least 1,000 kWh. It is a plan term, not a Texas rule, so read the plan's Electricity Facts Label and terms of service for the usage it needs. In a month that misses it, your average price can land well above the advertised one. Compare a credit plan at your own usage, month by month, before you pick it. Each plan's details on our results show the credit terms we receive for it, next to its prices at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh.

Compare plans at your own monthly usage. A plan priced low at 1,000 kWh can cost more at 500 or 2,000 kWh because of base charges, bill credits and minimum usage fees. Voltcheckr works out each plan's monthly cost at your usage, delivery included, and ranks the plans we shop by it. Upload a bill or enter your ZIP to see them.

It depends on your current plan and your usage, so we show your own figure, never an average. Upload a bill and the comparison sets each plan's cost at your usage against what your bill shows.

Yes, but you may owe an early termination fee. Texas rules bar the fee in the 14 days before the end date in your expiration notice. Rate Watch emails you before your contract ends, so you can switch inside that window.

A switch hold stops the meter at an address from moving to another provider until it is lifted. Texas rules allow two kinds. The wires company places one when it finds meter tampering. A provider can place one when a customer with an overdue balance agrees to a payment plan, and removes it after the deferred balance is paid and processed. While a hold applies, only the current provider can serve that meter. Moving into a home with a tampering hold? Your new provider can ask the wires company to lift it once you show you are a new occupant, for example with a signed lease or closing documents and a signed statement that you are not connected to the previous occupant.

Start with your provider. When you say you cannot pay, Texas rules require it to tell you about its payment options and assistance programs, such as a deferred payment plan. The PUCT also points to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs at 877-399-8939 and to 211. On a plan you pay after you use the power, a provider can disconnect for an unpaid bill only after a separate disconnection notice, on a date at least ten days after it is issued, and not for a charge you dispute until it or the PUCT has decided it and told you. No provider, prepaid included, may disconnect for nonpayment in a county under an extreme weather emergency (freezing temperatures or a National Weather Service heat advisory).

You can cancel a switch to a new provider without penalty within three federal business days after you receive its terms of service. If you dispute a bill, your provider must investigate and tell you the result, and while the PUCT reviews an informal complaint the provider cannot start collection on the disputed amount, including disconnection or a credit report; you still pay the undisputed part. If you are switched without your authorization, you go back to your original provider, the one that switched you refunds what you paid it for that time, and you pay no more than you would have. If your provider stops serving customers, ERCOT moves you to a provider of last resort, which must send notice of its start date, its rate and how to choose a different provider. You can complain to your provider, and to the PUCT at 1-888-782-8477 or customer@puc.texas.gov.

Home plans come from our enrollment partner's live plan feed, fetched when you search, so you compare the plans offered that day, never a stored list. We work out each plan's cost at your usage and link its Electricity Facts Label. Business prices are fetched for each request.

We use your bill to show your comparison or prepare your business quote, and we never sell your data. We share it with the services that run Voltcheckr, and with suppliers for business pricing when you authorize it. To ask what we hold or to have it deleted, email support@voltcheckr.com. Our Privacy Policy explains what we keep and why.

Enter your ZIP, then pick your home's size or type your monthly usage. We estimate your usage from it and show the plans we shop for your ZIP. It works for move-ins and renters starting fresh.

On a home electricity plan, our enrollment partner pays us a flat referral fee when you complete a sign-up through Voltcheckr. A business account works differently. No separate fee: suppliers pay us a commission when a contract is signed. That commission is included in the rate the supplier quotes. What we are paid never changes the order: plans are ranked on their price at your usage. See our Disclosure page for how we are paid.

Not for homes. The home comparison, its disclosures and its support are in English only. Our business pages and business support are available in Spanish.