Setting up electricity when you move in Texas

Setting up electricity at a Texas address is one order with a retail provider, and on a smart meter it can be done the same day you ask. The part people get wrong is the sequence. First find out whether the address chooses its provider at all; most of Texas does, but Austin, San Antonio and several other cities don’t. Then gather three things, pick a plan without a year of bills to price it on, and close out the old address without paying a fee. Here is the whole sequence, in the order you’ll meet it.

1. Can this address choose a provider?

About 85% of Texas electricity customers can choose who sells them power, by ERCOT’s count. The rule, as the Public Utility Commission puts it: if you live inside the ERCOT region and aren’t served by an electric cooperative or a municipally owned utility, you choose. Everywhere else one company owns the wires and sells the electricity, and setting up service is a single call to that company.

Lubbock joined the choice market in 2024, when about 110,000 meters moved into ERCOT and LP&L became a wires-only utility. Nueces Electric Cooperative is the only co-op to have opted in.

The leasing office, the seller or the previous occupant’s bill will name the utility; on a bill it appears next to the delivery charges. Utility borders don’t follow city limits, so an address can sit on a different utility from the city around it (Galveston is CenterPoint, not TNMP; Pearland is mostly CenterPoint; parts of Lewisville are TNMP, not Oncor). The utilities page has each of the six, with their current delivery charges. If the address turns out to be on a municipal utility, a co-op or a utility outside ERCOT, you can stop reading here: call that utility, and it will set you up.

2. What you need

• The service address, exactly, including the unit number. Most move-in problems are a mismatch between the address on the order and the address on the meter.
• The move-in date. Not the lease start, necessarily; the day you want the lights on.
• The ESI ID, if you can get it. It is the number that identifies the meter at that address in the Texas market: 17 digits for Oncor, AEP Texas and TNMP and 22 for CenterPoint, as the utilities and comparison sites describe it. It is on any previous bill for the address, and the leasing office often has it. Providers can look it up from the address, but having it avoids the mismatch above. See what an ESI ID is and where to find it.
• Identification for the credit check. A credit check is standard on a new account. If you have paid an electricity provider on time for the last year, ask that provider for a letter saying so before you move; under the Texas deposit rule it counts as satisfactory credit.

3. How fast the power comes on, and what it costs

Most homes in the choice areas have a smart meter, and a move-in on a smart meter is a remote command, not a visit. Under the delivery utilities’ tariffs, a move-in is completed on the requested day if the order reaches the utility by 7 pm on an operational day, which is any day except Sunday or a holiday. The provider has to get the order to the utility by then, so ask the provider what time it needs the order by. If the home has an older meter, someone has to come out, and the utility’s priority and truck-roll charges apply.

Two separate parties can charge for the move-in: the utility and the provider.

From the utilities’ published tariff sheets. The provider passes the charge through on your first bill. Lubbock’s sheet isn’t covered here.

The provider’s own fee is the one to watch. Providers may charge a priority or same-day fee of their own for a move-in ordered for today or tomorrow; comparison sites report figures around $30. On a smart meter the utility’s charge is the same whether the move-in is today or next week, so ordering two or three days ahead usually removes the provider’s fee and changes nothing else.

Two things about the previous occupant. Their unpaid bill is not yours; Texas rules prohibit disconnecting you over a prior occupant’s debt. And if the utility placed a switch-hold on the meter after finding tampering, the hold blocks a move-in until your provider confirms to the utility that you are a new, unrelated occupant and asks for it to be removed. If an order is rejected, that is the first thing to ask the provider about.

4. The credit check and the deposit

A provider may require a deposit unless you have satisfactory credit, and the Texas rule (16 TAC §25.478) says what that means. Any one of these is enough:

• No more than one late payment in the last 12 months, and nothing currently overdue.
• An acceptable credit rating from a consumer reporting agency.
• You are 65 or older and not currently behind with any provider.
• You are a victim of family violence, with a certification letter from the Texas Council on Family Violence.
• You are medically indigent: household income at or below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines, with a physician’s certification that you can’t perform at least three activities of daily living, renewed each year.

If none applies, the deposit is capped at the greater of one-fifth of your estimated annual bill or your next two months’ estimated bills. For an apartment the provider estimates at $100 a month, that is $240. For a home at the Texas average bill of about $164 a month (EIA, 2024), it is about $393. The deposit earns interest at a rate set by the commission, and after you pay 12 consecutive bills on time the provider must refund it, by check or as a bill credit. When you leave, it comes back with interest, net of anything you owe. Two alternatives: another customer can sign a letter of guarantee for you, or you can take a prepaid plan, which by rule can’t require a deposit at all. The deposits guide has the detail and what to do if a provider asks for more than the cap.

5. Picking a plan with no usage history

Every plan’s Electricity Facts Label prints an average price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh a month, with all recurring charges and credits included. Advertising uses the 1,000 kWh number. Don’t shop by it unless you know you use about that much. The Texas average of roughly 1,100 kWh a month (EIA, 2024) includes large houses with pools and electric heat; a one- or two-bedroom apartment usually sits well under 1,000, and the 500 kWh column is the closer guide. A house with no history is harder; see the no-history options in how to find your kWh usage, starting with asking the previous occupant or the builder for a bill. The rates pages price this month’s plans for small, typical and large homes in each city.

Match the contract to the lease, and lean longer rather than shorter. If the contract outlives the lease, it costs nothing: Texas rules bar an early termination fee when you move, as long as you give a forwarding address. If the contract ends before the lease does, the provider must move you to a default month-to-month product whose price can change every month, and that is where expensive bills come from. Then look at the end month. Texas homes used about 1.8 times as much electricity in August 2025 as in April (EIA), so a contract that expires in June through September leaves you shopping, or lapsing onto a monthly price, with the biggest bills of the year at stake. If a 12-month term from your move-in date lands there, see whether the provider offers a term that ends in spring or autumn instead. Choosing a contract length goes further.

Bill-credit plans are the usual trap for a new address. They advertise a low 1,000 kWh price because a credit of $100 or so kicks in at or above a usage threshold, often exactly 1,000 kWh. An apartment that never reaches the threshold pays the high underlying rate every month. A 2024 industry-sponsored study of 501 households found bill-credit plans cost about 24% more over a year than a low-cost fixed plan, and free-nights plans about 30% more. A plain fixed-rate plan, which by rule holds its energy charge for the whole term with only delivery and regulatory charges passing through, is the safe default when you can’t predict your usage. See bill-credit plans explained and the providers selling in your area.

6. Leaving the old place

If you are moving out of a Texas address under contract, you owe no early termination fee. The rule requires only that you give the provider a forwarding address and, if asked, reasonable evidence that you are moving, such as the new lease. Tell the old provider the move-out date; order it for the day after you hand over the keys so the last night isn’t in the dark. The final bill goes to the forwarding address, and any deposit comes back with interest, net of what you owe.

If the new address is also in a choice area, ask whether the contract can move with you. Price the transferred plan against a fresh one on the new home’s likely usage before saying yes; a plan that suited a house rarely suits an apartment, and the move is a free exit either way. Don’t cancel the old service before the new one is ordered, and don’t ask a new provider to “switch” the new address: a move-in and a switch are different orders, and the wrong one is a common cause of delay.

7. There is no three-day window on a move-in

Texas gives you three federal business days to cancel a switch without penalty after you receive the terms. It does not apply to a move-in. Once the power is on, leaving the plan early means the early termination fee on its label. So read the Electricity Facts Label before you enroll, not after: the term, the price at the usage column closest to yours, the base charge, the termination fee, and whether any credit depends on a threshold. The enrollment itself happens on the provider’s site, and the rest of the process is in how to switch.

Move-in day checklist

1. Confirm the order is in before the provider’s cutoff, with the exact address, unit number and date. Keep the confirmation number.
2. Check the breaker panel. A remote connection on a smart meter won’t reset a main breaker someone switched off.
3. No power by evening: call the provider first; the order is theirs. If the provider says the utility has completed it, call the utility’s outage line. Outages, today and later, are always the utility’s job, not the provider’s.
4. Photograph the meter on day one: the reading on the display and the meter number printed on the face.
5. Save the Terms of Service and the Electricity Facts Label from the welcome email. The label is the contract, and the first bill should match it line by line.
6. Note the contract end date. The provider must send renewal notices in the last third of the term, the final one at least 30 days before expiry, but a reminder of your own is cheaper than a missed one.
7. When the first bill comes, check that the service address, the ESI ID and the delivery utility on it are the ones you expected.

When you want to compare plans and have no Texas bill yet, WattaWatt takes 12 monthly kWh figures typed in and prices every plan sold at your ZIP code on them; the rates pages’ small, typical and large homes are a reasonable place to borrow the numbers from. If you have a bill from the address or your old home, upload it and the numbers are read for you.