Five steps to a plan that fits your home: know your usage, pick a plan type, compare real cost, then choose a term and a provider.
Open any comparison site and you'll find hundreds of electricity plans for your address. That's the hard part of shopping in Texas: not finding a plan, but telling which one actually fits your home. Only three things decide that.
That's why two households rarely need the same plan. Someone in a small apartment with steady, modest usage is usually best served by a plan that stays cheap at low usage every month. A large home with big summer air-conditioning bills needs a plan that holds its price when usage spikes. The plan with the lowest advertised rate can be the right answer for one of them and a poor fit for the other.
One thing you don't have to decide is who delivers the power. In most of Texas you pick the retail provider and the plan, but the utility that owns the poles and wires is set by where you live, and it stays the same no matter which plan you choose. Its delivery charges are identical across every plan and already built into the average price a plan shows, so you're really comparing what providers charge, not the wires.
This guide walks through the decision in the order that keeps it simple:
Everything else in this guide depends on one number: how much electricity your home uses each month. It's measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), and you'll find it on every bill. Your provider's online account usually shows a usage history too, which saves you digging through a drawer of old statements.
Pull up the last 12 months and jot down four things:
The swing between your high and low months matters as much as the average. Some plans reward you for landing on a particular usage level and quietly punish you for missing it. A plan with a bill credit that kicks in at 1,000 kWh is a nice deal in August when you blow past it, and a poor one in April when you don't. If your usage moves a lot through the year, that swing will decide which plans are actually cheap for you, not the headline rate.
Moving into a new home, or new to Texas? You won't have bills to work from, so make an estimate instead. Think about the size of the home, how many people live there and how much you'll be running the air conditioning. Whatever number you land on, plan for summer to run well above spring and fall.
Because an estimate can be off, lean toward plans whose price doesn't depend on hitting a usage target. Once you have a few months of real bills, you'll know your actual pattern and can shop with confidence. Starting service at a new address also works a little differently from switching, and our guide to setting up electricity in a new home walks through what to expect when you enroll.
For most households, a fixed-rate plan is the right place to start. But it's worth a quick look at the other plan types, because the right structure depends on when and how much power you use, and ruling out the wrong ones now makes the rest of the comparison simpler.
| Plan type | How the price works | Who it suits | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-rate | Price per kWh holds for the whole term (at least three months) | Almost anyone who wants a predictable price and doesn't want to think about it again until the term ends | The bill still moves with usage |
| Variable-rate | Month to month; the provider decides how and when the price changes | A short-term bridge, say a home you're only in for a couple of months | Price swings, and summer is when they hurt |
| Time-of-use (free nights or weekends) | Cheap or free in a set window, priced higher the rest of the day to make up for it | Homes that can move heavy use into the window: EV charging overnight, laundry after hours, empty on weekdays | Daytime-heavy use usually wipes out the savings |
| Bill-credit or tiered | A credit when monthly usage lands in a set range, or different rates at different usage tiers | Steady usage that reliably hits the target | Miss the threshold, even by a little, and the credit disappears while the higher base rate stays |
| Prepaid | You load money first and the balance draws down as you use power | People who want to avoid a deposit or credit check | Service depends on keeping the balance funded |
| Renewable | A feature, not a structure; comes on fixed, variable, time-of-use and other plans | Anyone who wants renewable content | Compare it like any plan with the same structure; don't assume it changes the price math |
One thing trips people up with fixed-rate plans: a fixed rate is not a fixed bill. The price per kWh stays put, but your bill still rises and falls with how much you use, so a hot August costs more than a mild April. The only things that can move the price during the term are changes in your local utility's delivery charges and certain regulatory or government charges. Beyond that, the provider can't change the price or the term past what the rules and the plan's label allow.
Indexed plans, which tie the price to a formula, are uncommon for homes, and plans that pass wholesale prices straight through can't be sold to households at all.
| Your situation | Start with | Steer clear of |
|---|---|---|
| Working from home, or most use is during the day | Fixed-rate | Free nights or weekends |
| Charging an EV or running laundry overnight | Time-of-use, if you can keep the heavy use in the window | Nothing in particular |
| Small apartment, modest and steady usage | Fixed-rate | Bill-credit plans whose threshold sits above your usage |
| Big swings between summer and the rest of the year, or you don't know your pattern yet | Fixed-rate | Single-threshold bill credits, variable-rate |
| Just want the simplest predictable bill | Fixed-rate | Variable-rate, time-of-use |
If you're still not sure, fixed-rate is the safe default. Every other plan type is a bet that your usage pattern matches the plan's design, and that bet only pays when you know your pattern well.
The advertised price is almost never the price you'll pay. Once you've ruled out plan types that don't fit, the only fair way to compare what's left is to work out each plan's cost at your own usage, and the EFL gives you the numbers to do that.
Every plan's EFL shows an average price per kWh at exactly three usage levels: 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh a month. Those averages are built from all recurring charges, including delivery charges, any base or monthly charge, and any bill credit, with sales taxes excluded. The advertised price is usually one of those three numbers, most often the 1,000 kWh figure, so if your usage doesn't land near that level, your real price can be quite different.
Below the averages, the EFL must list every fee the provider can charge and say whether each one is already built into the average price. The ones worth a look on every shortlisted plan:
Every plan also comes with a Terms of Service document and a Your Rights as a Customer document, and you get all three when you enroll. The EFL is the one you'll use most while shopping; if you want to go through it line by line, there's a separate guide for that.
Here's why the three published averages can mislead you. Say you're choosing between two plans (hypothetical, all-in prices to keep it simple):
| Monthly usage | Plan A | Plan B |
|---|---|---|
| 500 kWh | $70 | $85 |
| 900 kWh | $126 | $153 |
| 1,000 kWh | $140 | $120 |
| 2,000 kWh | $280 | $290 |
Plan A's EFL shows 14.0¢ at all three levels. Plan B's shows 17.0¢ at 500 kWh, 12.0¢ at 1,000 kWh and 14.5¢ at 2,000 kWh. Glance at the 1,000 kWh column and Plan B looks like the clear winner, $20 cheaper. But use 900 kWh in a mild month, just short of the credit, and Plan B costs $27 more. Use 2,000 kWh in a hot one and it costs $10 more. Plan B only wins in a band that starts at the credit threshold and runs up to roughly 1,650 kWh, and the months just under the threshold are where it costs you the most.
That's the lesson: a plan can be built to look cheapest at exactly one of the EFL's display levels, and the credit's threshold is often set right at that level. Households that dip below the threshold in spring and fall pay the full higher rate those months, with no credit to soften it.
Usage tiers work the same way. A plan might charge one rate for your first block of kWh and a different rate after that, with the breakpoint placed so the 1,000 kWh average looks great and the other two don't.
So don't compare plans on the 1,000 kWh figure alone. Take the low, typical and peak months you found in Step 1, work out what each shortlisted plan would cost at all three, and compare those totals. The plan that wins across your real range is the one that's actually cheapest for you.
Contract lengths run from month to month up to several years. The trade-off is simple: a longer fixed term locks your price in for longer, and a shorter one keeps your options open. Neither is better in the abstract. The right length is the one you can live with for the whole term.
The easiest way to decide is to match the term to how long you expect to stay in your home. If you own and plan to stay put, a longer term buys you more years of price certainty. If you rent, line the contract up with your lease so the two end around the same time. If you're not sure how long you'll be there, lean shorter.
The reason this matters is the early termination fee. Leaving a term contract before it ends usually triggers one, and the amount varies by plan. It's listed on the EFL, so check it before you sign rather than finding out later.
One exception is worth knowing. A provider can't charge you an early termination fee because you're moving, as long as you give a forwarding address and, if asked, reasonable proof of the move. So if you're moving to a new home mid-contract, you can leave without the fee. That takes some of the risk out of a longer term for people who might relocate.
By now you should be down to a handful of plans: the right type for how you use power, priced at your actual usage, with a term you can live with. The last filter is the company selling them.
The provider is the company you'll deal with for the next year or two: it sends the bill, takes your payment and answers the phone when something's off. That's what to judge it on, because billing is the part of the deal you'll actually live with. A few things worth a look before you commit:
One last check before you enroll: pull up the EFL and Terms of Service for the plan you've picked and make sure they match what you compared. The average price at your usage level should be the one you worked from, the fees should be the ones you expect, and the contract length should be the one you chose. If the documents don't say what the ad said, that's your answer.
When you sign up, your power stays on. The utility keeps delivering it, your new provider takes over the billing, and the only thing that changes is who you pay. If you want the details on timing and what to expect, here's how switching works once you've chosen.
The next step is the same one you started with: take your monthly usage and compare current plans for your ZIP code. Prices change often, so compare what's offered today, not what you saw a few weeks ago.
There isn't one number that works for everyone. Rates move with the market, and what you actually pay depends on how much power you use and the plan's structure. A rate that looks good at 1,000 kWh can be a bad deal at 600 kWh once the fixed charges and credits are figured in.
So a good rate is the lowest total cost at your own monthly usage, on a plan whose terms you can live with. For a sense of where the market sits right now, check current Texas electricity rates, then judge any plan by what it would cost you, not by the headline number.
The same way, but a few things matter more:
If you're switching from one provider to another, yes. You can cancel the new agreement within three federal business days of receiving your Terms of Service, with no penalty. After that window closes, the contract's early termination fee applies.
That right doesn't apply to a move-in. If you're starting service at a new home, you're committed once you sign up.
No. City-owned utilities and electric co-ops decide for themselves whether to offer retail choice, so some Texans can't pick a provider. If you live in one of those areas, you buy electricity from your local utility, and this guide doesn't apply to you.
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