22 guides
Guides
How Texas electricity plans work, with the numbers from real bills. Short, specific, and free of sales talk.
Choosing a plan
- How to read an Electricity Facts Label (EFL)What every line of a Texas EFL means, why the three advertised prices rarely match your bill, and how to price a plan on your own usage.
- Bill credit electricity plans: when a $125 credit costs you moneyHow bill-credit plans get their low advertised price, a real Dallas–Fort Worth year priced month by month, and when a credit plan does pay off.
- What's a good electricity rate in Texas right now?Why cents per kWh is the wrong number to shop by, what a good all-in price looks like for small, typical and large homes this month, and how to compare plans properly.
- Power to Choose: how to use it, and what it can't tell youHow the state's official plan list works, how to filter it well, and the one thing it can't do: price a plan on your own 12 months of usage.
- 12, 24 or 36 months? Choosing a Texas electricity contract lengthWhat this month's prices say about 12 versus 24 and 36-month plans in each part of Texas, what a longer contract buys and costs, why short contracts are ranked apart, and how to pick.
- Free nights and weekends electricity plans in Texas: are they worth it?How time-of-use plans price daytime kWh, the night share you need to beat a flat plan this month, what a 2024 study of 501 homes found, and who comes out ahead.
- Fixed vs variable rate electricity plans in Texas: which to chooseHow Texas rules define fixed, variable and indexed plans, what a fixed rate does and doesn't fix, where most people end up on a variable rate, and the bill-credit trap inside some fixed plans.
Switching, moving and timing
- When to switch electricity providers in TexasThe 14-day window with no cancellation fee, what happens if you let a contract expire, why mid-summer is the worst time to shop, and what to do if you're under contract now.
- How to switch electricity providers in TexasWhat you need (your ESI ID is on the bill), what happens after you enroll, why the lights never go out, and the three-day window to change your mind.
- Early termination fees in Texas: when paying one to switch pays offWhat Texas providers charge to leave a contract early this month, the cases where you owe nothing, and the arithmetic that says whether a cheaper plan is worth the fee, with a worked example.
- Setting up electricity when you move in TexasWhether the new address can choose a provider, what to have ready, how same-day move-in works and what it costs, the deposit rules, picking a plan with no usage history, and leaving the old place without a fee.
- What is an ESI ID, and where to find yoursThe number that identifies your meter in the Texas market: 17 or 22 digits depending on the utility, where it's printed on your bill, what it's used for, when not to share it, and why WattaWatt never asks.
- Electricity switch hold in Texas: why you can't switch, and how to lift itThe two reasons a switch-hold is placed on a Texas address (a deferred payment plan, or meter tampering), how you find out, what it doesn't do, and how to clear each one.
Your bill and your usage
- Oncor delivery charges, explainedWhat Oncor charges every Dallas–Fort Worth home for delivery, how it shows up on your bill and inside advertised prices, and why you can't shop around for it.
- How to find your monthly kWh usageWhere your last 12 months of electricity usage are hiding: your bill, your provider's app, and Smart Meter Texas. Plus what to do if you have no history yet.
- Why is my electricity bill so high? Seven Texas reasons, in orderThe reasons a Texas electricity bill jumps, from the most common (your contract expired and you're on the holdover rate) to the ones nobody mentions, and the line on your bill that gives each one away.
- Average electric bill in Texas: how many kWh a home uses and what it costsTexas homes used 1,096 kWh a month and paid $163.72 in 2024, sixth highest in the US at a below-average price, plus the monthly swing and what a year costs now.
- Electricity deposits in Texas, and how to avoid oneWhen a Texas provider may ask for a deposit, the cap (one-fifth of a year's bills), the five waivers, how to get it back with interest, and the no-deposit routes: prepaid plans and credit checks you may pass.
- What a typical Dallas home pays for electricityAverage usage in Dallas–Fort Worth, the summer swing, and what a year costs for small, typical and large homes on this month's cheapest plans.
Small business
- Small-business electricity in Texas: what's different from home serviceHow a small business buys electricity in Texas's choice market: its own plans and labels, a different delivery charge, sales tax, longer contracts, and how to compare a listed plan with a quote.
- Demand charges, and whether your business counts as smallWhat a kW demand charge is, how Texas utilities measure it, the 10 kW line that separates the small-business class from the rest, and how to read it on your bill.
- Sales tax on business electricity in Texas, and who is exemptWhy a business pays sales tax on electricity when a home doesn't, the state and local rates, how nonprofits and other exempt buyers stop the charge, and why it never changes which plan is cheapest.