Moving to Texas: Setting Up Electricity

Moving brings a long list of things to set up, and electricity is usually near the top. If you’re coming from another state, you may expect to call the one power company in town and give them your new address. In most of Texas, it works differently: you pick the company you buy electricity from.

That surprises a lot of newcomers, and it can feel like one more decision you didn’t plan on making in the middle of a move. It’s manageable, though. Once you know who does what, getting the lights on at a new address comes down to a few steps: find out who serves the address, choose a plan, and agree on a start date with your new provider before you move in.

In the parts of Texas with choice, two different companies are involved. The local utility delivers the electricity, reads your meter and responds to outages. The company you choose, your retail provider, is the one you sign up with and buy electricity from.

You don’t pick the utility. That depends on where the address is. You only pick the provider, and whichever one you choose, the same utility keeps delivering your power, so the choice doesn’t change how reliable your service is. If you’re curious which utility covers your new area, see which utility serves which part of Texas.

Not every Texas address has a choice, though. Some communities are served by a city-owned utility, an electric cooperative or a utility where you can’t choose your provider. You can check by entering your new ZIP code on Power to Choose, the state’s official shopping site, which shows the providers that serve it. You can also call 1-866-797-4839.

The exact process varies a little by utility, but it generally runs in this order:

1. Find the ESI ID for your new address. This is the number that identifies the meter location, and it also tells you which utility’s territory you’re in. It appears on an electric bill for the address, and if you don’t have one, some utilities offer an ESI ID lookup on their websites.
2. Choose a provider and plan.
3. Sign up and agree on a start date. Give your new provider the ESI ID and tell them the day you need power.
4. Let the provider handle the rest. It sends the move-in request to the utility so service starts on about the date you agreed, as the utility’s rules allow. The provider has to tell you the approximate start date and any delays it knows about.

Only you, or someone you’ve authorized to act for you, can request service in your name.

On timing, the practical advice is not to leave it until moving day. Each provider sets its own rules for how quickly it can start service. Some may offer a faster start. If your timeline is tight, ask the provider what it can do before you sign up.

When you switch providers at a home where you already live, the rules give you a short window to cancel after signing up. That window doesn’t apply when you’re starting service at a new address, so treat the sign-up as your decision point and compare plans first.

Every plan comes with an Electricity Facts Label, a standard sheet that lays out the rates, fees and contract terms. It shows the average price per kWh at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh a month. That average includes the plan’s recurring charges, including the utility’s delivery charges, but not taxes.

Pay attention to which of those three numbers fits your home. A plan with an eye-catching advertised price may only be that cheap at one usage level. If you’re not sure how much you’ll use in a new place, look at how the price holds up across all three. When you’re ready, you can compare current plans for your area.

When you sign up, the provider has to confirm who you are with one piece of identifying information. That might be the last four digits of your Social Security number, your driver’s license or another government ID number, your month and day of birth, your city or town of birth, or your mother’s maiden name.

A provider can also ask you to show satisfactory credit. Whether it runs its own credit check is up to that provider. If you can’t show satisfactory credit, it may ask for a deposit before service starts, but the deposit has a limit: it can’t be more than one-fifth of your estimated yearly bill or an estimate of your next two months’ bills, whichever is higher.

There are also ways to show credit without paying a deposit. These include:

• a satisfactory consumer credit rating
• being 65 or older and not behind on any electric account
• a family violence certification
• with some providers, a recent good payment record as a customer of an electricity provider or utility

If a provider asks for a deposit, it has to tell you about these options and explain how you can get the deposit back. A deposit earns interest unless it’s refunded within 30 days, and it must be refunded once you’ve paid 12 monthly bills in a row with no late payments.

If you run into a problem with a provider that you can’t sort out with them directly, you can file a complaint with the Public Utility Commission of Texas at 1-888-782-8477.

If you’re moving within Texas, your current contract is for the address named in it. You don’t have to take it with you to the new place, and the provider can’t charge you an early termination fee because you moved. To get that protection, give your provider a forwarding address and, if they ask, reasonable proof that you no longer live at the old address.

That leaves you free to shop for a plan at your new address the same way a newcomer would. If your contract is close to its end date anyway, other protections apply, and our guide on how to switch electricity providers covers them.

The rules and consumer guidance behind this page come from the Public Utility Commission of Texas and, for the move-in steps, Oncor. We last checked them on October 2, 2026.

Power to Choose FAQ; PUC Electricity FAQs; 16 TAC §25.474, Selection of Retail Electric Provider; §25.475, General Retail Electric Provider Requirements and Information Disclosures; §25.478, Credit Requirements and Deposits; Oncor, Moving Into a New Place.