Lubbock's city-owned utility delivers the power. Since the market opened in 2024, a retail provider sells the electricity.
LP&L is the newest delivery territory in Texas open to retail choice. Here is what that means for your service, your bill, and who to call when the lights go out.
Utility territories follow service addresses rather than city or ZIP boundaries. Confirm the utility for your specific address before you rely on it.
Lubbock Power & Light is unusual twice over: it is owned by the City of Lubbock rather than by investors, and it is the only municipally owned utility territory in Texas where residents can shop for a retail electricity provider.
For most of its history LP&L both delivered electricity and sold it. That changed with the move onto the ERCOT grid and the opening of the local market in 2024. LP&L is now a transmission and distribution utility: it maintains the wires, delivers the power, and bills the delivery charge, while the electricity itself is sold by a retail provider the customer chooses.
If you have lived in Lubbock a while, that is the key shift — LP&L is still your utility, but it is no longer your electricity provider.
Across the city of Lubbock, whoever you buy your plan from.
Poles, wires, substations and the meter on your building belong to LP&L, which builds, inspects and repairs all of it.
LP&L records the usage your retail provider bills you for.
Storms on the South Plains are LP&L’s responsibility. Its crews handle downed lines and restoration — a retail provider has no crews and cannot restore service.
Since 2024, two organisations have been involved in Lubbock electricity service where there used to be one. LP&L delivers the electricity. A retail electricity provider (REP) sells you the plan.
This is the part longtime Lubbock residents most often need to unlearn: LP&L used to be both. It is now only the first.
| LP&L (utility) | Your provider (REP) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who are they? | LP&L, your city-owned utility | The retail provider you chose in or after 2024 |
| What do they do? | Delivers electricity to your meter | Sells you the electricity plan |
| Did you choose them? | No — set by your address | Yes |
| Who owns the wires and meter? | LP&L | No one — the REP owns no equipment |
| Who restores your power? | LP&L | Cannot restore power |
| Who sets your rate? | No — its delivery charges are regulated | Yes |
| Who do you call about a bill? | Not LP&L | Your retail provider |
Power out, downed line, damaged meter, or a problem with the wires: LP&L. Rate, contract, deposit, bill, or enrollment question: your retail provider.
LP&L's territory is the city of Lubbock. That makes it one of the most compact utility territories in Texas — and, unusually, one where the boundary question is mostly about the city limits rather than about neighbouring utilities.
The distinction that matters is between the city and the country around it.
LP&L serves addresses within the city of Lubbock. For rates and plans in that market, see our Lubbock electricity rates guide.
Rural Lubbock County is not LP&L: the areas around the city are served by South Plains Electric Cooperative, a member-owned cooperative that is not part of retail choice. A rural address outside the city generally cannot shop for a provider, even though an address a few miles away inside the city can.
Parts of the city have historically been served by the cooperative too, so a Lubbock mailing address on its own does not guarantee LP&L service. Check a bill or your ESI ID.
The 2024 transition applied to LP&L customers only. If you were never an LP&L customer, the opening of the market did not change your service.
For the statewide picture of which utility covers which region, see our guide to Texas electric utilities.
Report outages to LP&L, not to your retail electricity provider. Providers sell plans and handle billing; they have no crews, no trucks, and no ability to restore your power. Every outage, downed line and piece of damaged equipment belongs to the utility.
Never approach or drive over a downed line, and assume it is live. Move well clear, call 911 if anyone is in danger, then report it to LP&L.
| What you need | Lubbock Power & Light |
|---|---|
| Report an outage | 806-775-2509 |
| Report a downed line | Call 911 first if anyone is in danger, then LP&L |
| Rate, bill or contract question | Not the utility — contact your retail electricity provider |
Check whether the outage is only your property. If your neighbours have power, the problem may be your own breaker or equipment on your side of the meter, which is the property owner's responsibility rather than the utility's. If the whole street is dark, it is a distribution outage and the utility already needs to hear about it.
Part of every LP&L-area electricity bill pays LP&L to deliver the power rather than your provider to supply it. These delivery charges are regulated, they apply to every plan in the territory, and they are the same whichever retail provider you choose.
This is the piece of the old LP&L bill that remains. Before 2024 a single LP&L bill covered both the electricity and its delivery; now the delivery portion is LP&L's and the energy portion belongs to your retail provider.
Estimated delivery cost = monthly base charge + (per-kWh delivery charge × kWh used)
| Monthly usage | Base charge | Per-kWh delivery | Estimated delivery cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 kWh | $9.20 | 4.8850¢ | $33.63 |
| 1,000 kWh | $9.20 | 4.8850¢ | $58.05 |
| 2,000 kWh | $9.20 | 4.8850¢ | $106.90 |
Providers present delivery charges in one of two ways, and the difference matters when you compare plans. Some itemize them as a separate TDU delivery charge line, so you can see exactly what goes to LP&L. Others fold them into a single all-in cents-per-kWh rate. Neither is cheaper by itself — but two plans are only comparable once you know which style you are looking at.
Delivery is a floor under every plan available at your address, so it is not what separates a good plan from a bad one. For a deeper look at how these charges move and why a "fixed" rate can still change, see our guide to TDU delivery charges in Texas.
No. Switching your retail electricity provider changes nothing physical about your service.
LP&L remains your utility. The same wires deliver your power, the same meter records it, the same crews respond when it fails, and the same regulated delivery charges apply. Nobody visits your home, nothing is disconnected, and there is no interruption during the switch.
Your energy charge, your contract length, your plan structure, any bill credits or fees, and who sends your bill. In other words, the parts of the bill a competitive market is meant to compete over — not the delivery infrastructure underneath it.
If you are considering a change, our guide to how to switch electricity providers walks through the process and the timing.
Because LP&L's delivery charges apply identically to every plan at your address, they are not the variable worth shopping. What varies between plans is how each provider prices energy on top of delivery, and how clearly it tells you so in advance.
Start with the Electricity Facts Label. Every plan is required to have one, and it breaks out the energy charge, the TDU delivery charges, base or minimum-usage fees, bill credits, contract length, and the early termination fee.
Then check the price at your usage. The EFL shows an average price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh, and plans routinely swap places between those levels. Lubbock is a young competitive market, and households here are still building a sense of what a good offer looks like locally. Customers who did not choose a provider during the 2024 transition window were assigned one by default, so it is worth checking whether the plan you are on is one you actually picked.
To compare plans available in this territory, start with our Lubbock electricity rates page, or see how to choose a Texas electricity plan for the full comparison method.
Retail electricity providers began competing for Lubbock customers when the market opened in 2024, and customers who did not choose during the transition window were assigned a default provider.
Because this market is new and the set of participating providers is still settling, we are not publishing a provider list for LP&L territory yet — we would rather show nothing than show a list that is out of date. Current offers for a Lubbock address are the reliable guide.
Compare current offers for a specific address on our Lubbock electricity rates page.
Your utility follows the address, not you. Moving within the city of Lubbock keeps LP&L as your utility, and you can take an existing plan with you or shop for a new one.
Moving outside the city is the case to watch. An address in the surrounding county is likely served by South Plains Electric Cooperative rather than LP&L, and cooperative customers generally cannot shop for a retail provider at all.
Confirm the utility for that exact address rather than the city or ZIP, since both can straddle a boundary. An existing electricity bill for the property, or its ESI ID, settles it. Then start service in your name before your move-in date so the power is on when you arrive.
Texas electricity plans can be difficult to compare. Power Texas brings rates, providers, plan details, and helpful information together so you can understand your options and choose an electricity plan with confidence.
Whether you want to shop on your own or have questions along the way, our goal is to make finding electricity simpler.
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Power Texas may receive compensation from electricity providers when customers enroll through our marketplace. However, commissions, advertising relationships, and other commercial arrangements do not determine our editorial content or recommendations.
Our recommendations are based on our independent assessment of the Texas electricity market and the information we believe is most useful to consumers.
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