Two companies are involved in every electricity bill in Dallas–Fort Worth. The one you chose sells you the electricity. The one you didn’t choose, Oncor, delivers it: the poles, wires, transformers and meters, and the crews who restore power after a storm. Oncor is a regulated utility, not a retailer. You can’t switch away from it, and its charges are the same on every plan.
What Oncor charges right now
Oncor’s residential delivery charges, effective 2026-09-01, are $4.06 a month plus 6.8673¢ per kWh. They are set by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and change a few times a year, usually by small amounts. In practice:
| Usage in a month | Oncor delivery | Per kWh |
|---|---|---|
| 500 kWh | $38.40 | 7.7¢ |
| 1,000 kWh | $72.73 | 7.3¢ |
| 2,000 kWh | $141.41 | 7.1¢ |
The per-kWh column shows why small homes pay more per kWh for everything: the fixed monthly charge is spread over fewer kilowatt-hours.
Where it shows up
Your retail provider collects Oncor’s charges and passes them through. Some bills list them as a separate line, “TDU delivery charges” or “Oncor Electric Delivery”; others fold them into a single rate. Either way you pay the same amount. The advertised prices on an Electricity Facts Label include them, which is why an EFL’s “average price” is higher than the plan’s energy charge. See how to read an EFL.
Watch for ads that quote an “energy charge” alone. A 9¢ energy charge is about 16.3¢ all-in at 1,000 kWh once Oncor’s charges are added.
What Oncor is, and isn’t
- Oncor is the wires company for most of Dallas–Fort Worth and much of North, Central and West Texas. It is one of several TDUs (transmission and distribution utilities) in the state; Houston has CenterPoint, for example.
- Oncor doesn’t sell electricity to homes and has no plans to shop. If a site offers you an “Oncor plan,” it means a plan from a retailer in Oncor’s area.
- Outages are Oncor’s job. Report them to Oncor directly (its number is on your bill), not to your retail provider, whichever company you buy from.
- Not every Dallas–Fort Worth home is on Oncor. Garland and Denton run city utilities, and CoServ, a co-op, serves parts of Denton and Collin counties. Homes there pay their own delivery rates and can’t choose a retail provider.
Why it matters when you shop
Because Oncor’s charges are identical on every plan, they never decide which plan is cheapest. But they decide how much of your bill is up to you. For a home using 12,000 kWh a year, Oncor’s charges come to roughly $872.80 a year, before any retailer’s price. The rest is the part a better plan can lower. WattaWatt includes Oncor’s current charges in every simulated bill, so the totals you compare are the totals you’d pay.