Every residential electricity plan sold in the deregulated parts of Texas comes with an Electricity Facts Label, or EFL. The Public Utility Commission of Texas requires it, and every provider has to use the same layout, which is the whole point: the EFL is the one place where two plans from two companies can be read side by side. It is also the only document that tells you what a plan really costs. The ad gives you one number. The EFL gives you the formula.
The three advertised prices
At the top of the label is a small table: the average price per kWh at 500 kWh, 1,000 kWh and 2,000 kWh a month. These numbers are all-in. They include the energy charge, any monthly base charge, any bill credit that applies at that level, and the delivery charges from your utility (Oncor, in Dallas–Fort Worth). The 1,000 kWh figure is the one plans advertise.
Here is the catch. Each of those prices assumes you use exactly that amount every month of the year. Almost nobody does. A Dallas home might use 450 kWh in March and 1,800 in August, and on a plan with a bill credit or tiered rates, the price per kWh in those two months can differ by a factor of two. The three numbers are useful for spotting a plan whose price jumps around between levels, which is a sign of credits or tiers. They are not a prediction of your bill.
The lines under the table
Below the averages, the EFL lists the pieces the averages were built from. These are what matter.
- Energy charge, in cents per kWh. The rate for the electricity itself. On a flat-rate plan it is one number; on a tiered plan it changes above a usage threshold, like tax brackets.
- Base charge, in dollars per month. A fixed fee charged whether you use 1 kWh or 3,000. Plans with a base charge look better the more you use, because the fee is spread over more kWh.
- Bill credits. A dollar amount taken off your bill in any month your usage lands inside a range, often 1,000 kWh and above, sometimes 1,000 to 2,000. Credits are how a plan with a 12¢ energy charge advertises 7¢: at exactly 1,000 kWh the credit is earned and the math works. See bill credit plans explained.
- Minimum usage fees. The reverse of a credit: a charge added in months you use less than a threshold, such as $9.95 under 1,000 kWh. Common on plans that advertise a low rate.
- TDU delivery charges. The utility’s fixed monthly charge and per-kWh charge, passed through at cost. Every plan in the same area pays the same ones. See Oncor delivery charges.
- Contract term and early termination fee. How many months the price is fixed, and what it costs to leave early. Texas rules waive the fee in the last 14 days of the term and when you move.
- Plan type and renewable content. Fixed, variable or indexed, and what share of the electricity is matched with renewable energy credits.
A real EFL, priced on a real year
One plan we track advertises 6.9¢ per kWh at 1,000 kWh. Its EFL shows how: an energy charge well above that, and a $125 bill credit in any month of 1,000 kWh or more. A Carrollton home we priced used 11,470 kWh over a year, averaging about 956 kWh a month, which sounds close to 1,000. But it cleared 1,000 kWh in only 4 of 12 months. The other 8 months it paid the full energy charge with no credit, and the year worked out to 15.1¢ per kWh: $344 more than a plainer flat-rate plan advertised at 12.0¢.
Nothing on the EFL was wrong. The average at 1,000 kWh was exactly right, for a home that uses 1,000 kWh every month. The label gave the formula; the home’s own months decided the answer.
How to use an EFL properly
- Get your last 12 months of usage. They are on your bill, in your provider’s app, or on Smart Meter Texas. See how to find your kWh usage.
- For each month, apply the EFL: energy charge × kWh, plus the base charge, plus Oncor’s charges, minus any credit that month earns, plus any minimum-usage fee.
- Add the 12 months. That total, divided by your total kWh, is your real price per kWh on that plan.
- Do the same for every plan you’re considering, and compare the totals, not the advertised prices.
That is tedious by hand, which is why most people don’t, and why the plans with the lowest advertised prices keep winning customers they shouldn’t. WattaWatt does the arithmetic for every plan we track from a bill you upload, and shows all 12 simulated bills for each one.
Things the EFL leaves out
Sales tax, where it applies, and a few small regulatory fees aren’t on the label, so a real bill runs a little higher than the EFL math for every plan alike. The EFL also can’t tell you what a variable-rate plan will cost next month, only this one. And it says nothing about the time of year your contract ends, which decides whether you’ll be shopping in a calm month or in the middle of a Texas summer. See when to switch providers.