Moving to Texas? How to Set Up Electricity (It's Weirder Than You Think)
If you're moving to Texas from almost anywhere else in America, electricity works differently here, and nobody tells you until the leasing office asks "who's your provider?" In most other states, you call the utility. In most of Texas, there is no "the" — you choose among dozens of competing retail providers, and the power doesn't get connected until you've picked one.
The 60-second explanation of deregulation
Texas split its electric industry into three layers. Generators make power. A delivery utility (TDU) owns the poles and wires in your area — Oncor around Dallas–Fort Worth, CenterPoint around Houston, AEP in the south and west, TNMP in patches, Lubbock Power & Light in Lubbock. And a retail electric provider (REP) — the company you choose — buys power wholesale and sells it to you. Your REP sends the bill; your TDU fixes the outages. You can't choose your TDU, and every REP uses the same wires, so reliability doesn't change with your choice — only price and contract terms do.
Note the "most of Texas": Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, and areas served by municipal utilities or co-ops (plus a few regulated corners like Entergy's territory near Beaumont) don't have retail choice. If you're moving there, you use the local utility and this guide doesn't apply.
Step by step for movers
- Get your exact address ZIP code — it determines your TDU and therefore which plans exist for you.
- Compare plans at your expected usage. No usage history yet? Rough guide: apartments ~500–800 kWh/month, a 3-bedroom house ~1,000–1,500, large houses 2,000+. Texas summers roughly double whatever your spring number is — air conditioning dominates every bill here.
- Pick a plan and enroll online — takes about ten minutes on the provider's site. You'll need your new address, a start date, and identification. Providers run a credit check; depending on the result they may ask for a deposit (often $100–$400, refunded after on-time payment history). If you'd rather skip the credit check entirely, prepaid plans require no deposit and no credit history — you fund an account and pay as you go.
- Choose your move-in date. Nearly all of Texas has smart meters, so standard move-ins are remote and same-day or next-day service is routine — but don't gamble on an August afternoon; enroll a few days ahead.
- Save two numbers: your provider's customer service line (billing), and your TDU's outage line (the lights). When a storm knocks out power, calling your REP does nothing — the TDU owns the wires.
Mistakes movers make
- Panic-picking the first plan the apartment complex suggests. Leasing offices often hand out a single provider's flyer. It's rarely the best deal — ten minutes of comparison typically saves $200+ a year.
- Judging by the advertised rate. Texas plans are priced with bill-credit thresholds and base fees that make the headline number nearly meaningless. Compare estimated bills at your usage.
- Signing a long contract on a guess. Your first months in a new home are usage discovery. A 12-month fixed plan is a sensible start; consider even a shorter term if you're truly unsure, then commit once you've seen a summer bill. Rate types explained here.
- Forgetting the old place. Moving within Texas? Texas law waives early-termination fees when you move with proof of the new address — but you must actually tell your provider; they don't waive what they don't know about.
What it'll cost
As of mid-2026, competitive plans across Texas cities land in roughly the 10–16¢/kWh all-in range at 1,000 kWh — so a typical house runs $100–$200/month across the year with a well-chosen plan, higher in the depths of summer. The spread between a good pick and a lazy pick at identical usage is routinely $40+ every month, which is the entire reason comparison shopping exists here.
When you're ready, our city pages show every plan currently offered for your ZIP's utility territory, ranked by estimated bill at whatever usage you set — with links to each plan's official fact sheet before you commit to anything.