If you live in Houston, you cannot change to another utility company like Oncor, because CenterPoint is the only company that delivers electricity to your area. For example, Houston's only electric utility company is CenterPoint Energy. There is only one utility provider for a designated area. It owns and maintains the electrical infrastructure (poles, wires, transformers, etc.) to ensure you have reliable electricity service. What Is a Utility Company?Īn electric utility company delivers electricity to your home. It will walk you through everything you need to know about Texas's competitive electricity market.

If you want to learn more about the electricity market in Texas, check out our page on comparing electricity rates in Texas.

These primarily serve rural areas of the state. Cooperative Utility These utilities are owned by the people that they serve.Municipal Utility These utilities are owned and operated by the city.The other utility companies in Texas don't offer Energy Choice as the utilities above do. Other Types of Utility Companies in Texas Its service area is sporadic, with larger areas in west Texas and south of Houston, and some service areas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP ) is the smallest utility provider out of the four, serving 260,000+ homes and businesses throughout the state. However, it also serves portions of western Texas. The bulk of its service area is in Dallas, Fort Worth and the surrounding areas. Oncor is the largest electric utility provider in Texas, serving over 10 million customers throughout the state. AEP Texas Central – Despite its name, AEP Texas Central's service area predominantly serves the southern part of the state.ĬenterPoint Energy delivers electricity to 2.2 million+ customers in the greater Houston area.

AEP Texas North – Service area runs throughout the northern and western parts of the state.

AEP Texas is unique because the electricity plans available to you and how much you're charged for electric delivery depend on where you live within AEP Texas's service area. You can locate contact information for all six TDUs in our Texas power outage contact guide.Rates valid as of at 8:00 AM EST See All Plans Texas Utility Providers Service Area Map List of Texas Utility Companies AEP TexasĪEP Texas is a subsidiary of American Electric Power (AEP) and delivers electricity to over one million customers. You’ll find background information on Texas TDUs, along with outage tracking links and contact information on our Centerpoint (Houston area) and Oncor (Dallas-Fort Worth) profile pages, and our AEP American Electric Power, TNMP Texas New Mexico Power and Sharyland Utilities pages. The largest TDUs in Texas are Centerpoint Energy in the Houston metro area and Oncor Electric in the Dallas metro area. You can conveniently access your kWh usage data at Smart Meter Texas. TDUs maintain the wires and poles, check meters and track your home’s energy usage, and their charges are included in the monthly amount you pay to your REP. Read our article to understand the functions of a TDU versus a retail electric company.

In the event you have a power outage, the regulated Transmission and Distribution Utility company (TDU, or TDSP) in your area corrects outages, not the retail energy provider (REP) who sells you electricity.

Texas power utility companies