Texas Renters’ Electricity Guide: Who Chooses the Plan, Deposits, and Lease Traps

Updated 2026-07-22

If you rent in deregulated Texas, electricity is usually your shopping problem — not the landlord’s utility department. Leasing offices hand out flyers. Roommates forward group texts. None of that replaces a ten-minute comparison at your real usage. This guide is the renter-specific path: who must enroll, how deposits hit tenants harder, what to do on a six-month lease, and which “apartment preferred provider” pitches to ignore.

Who is responsible for choosing a plan?

In most apartments, duplexes, and rented houses inside the competitive ERCOT market, the tenant establishes service in their own name with a retail electric provider (REP). The landlord does not “turn the power on” the way they might in a regulated state. Your lease will say something like “tenant shall establish electric service before occupancy.” That sentence means: pick a REP, enroll for your move-in date, and put the account under your name (or a roommate’s — one name still has to own the contract).

Exceptions exist:

• Master-metered buildings where the landlord keeps a single utility account and bills you a flat utility fee or a ratio-utility billing (RUBS) share. You are not shopping REPs; you are stuck with whatever is in the lease. Read that clause before you sign.
• Municipal / co-op / non-choice cities (Austin Energy, CPS Energy in San Antonio, many co-ops, El Paso Electric territory, etc.). No retail shopping — you take the local utility. See which parts of Texas are deregulated.
• All-bills-paid marketing — confirm in writing whether electricity is truly included or capped, and what happens if usage exceeds a threshold.

If the unit is standard competitive choice, treat move-in power like internet: you order it, you pay it, you cancel it when you leave.

The leasing-office flyer problem

Property managers often partner with one REP (or a “concierge” enrollment site) and stack brochures at the desk. Sometimes there is a small incentive — gift card, waived admin fee, priority same-day connection marketing. Run the math anyway. A $50 gift card does not offset a plan that costs $30/month extra for a year. You are not obligated to use the preferred provider unless the lease explicitly restricts choice (rare in true deregulated apartments and worth legal/lease review if you see it).

Same rule as our moving-to-Texas guide: panic-picking the desk flyer is how renters overpay.

Deposits hit renters harder — plan for them

REPs run credit checks. Thin credit, new-to-country files, or prior utility collections often mean a deposit (commonly low hundreds of dollars) on top of first month’s rent, apartment deposit, and application fees. Sequence the cash early:

1. Compare plans at a realistic apartment usage (many 1-beds land ~500–900 kWh outside deep summer; Texas AC can push small units over 1,000 kWh in July–August).
2. Know your deposit risk before you spend the last of the moving budget on furniture delivery.
3. If a deposit quote lands badly, try another REP or use prepaid / no-deposit options as a bridge — then re-shop a standard plan once you have on-time history.

Deposits are refundable under PUCT rules after satisfactory payment history or when you close the account — track them like you track the apartment security deposit.

Lease length vs. electricity contract length

This is the renter-specific trap. A 12-month fixed electricity plan looks cheap until you break a lease at month seven and face an early-termination fee (ETF) from the REP — separate from any apartment ETF.

• Align terms when you can. Six-month lease → favor ~6–12 month plans you can exit, or month-to-month if the premium is small.
• Moving waiver: Texas rules generally require REPs to waive ETFs when you move and provide reasonable evidence of the new address. That helps when you leave the unit; it does not help if you stay put and just hate the plan. Document the move.
• Roommates: put the account in the person most likely to stay through the term, and get a written roommate agreement on who pays. REPs collect from the name on the account, not from “the group chat.”
• Sublets and early move-outs: the named customer must switch out or move service; landlords closing a unit still leave you liable if your name is on the REP contract.

For how a clean switch works (and why you should not “cancel” the old REP yourself mid-switch), see how to switch providers.

What usage should renters enter on comparison tools?

Guessing 1,000 kWh because “that is the default” mis-ranks bill-credit plans. Better inputs:

• Prior unit’s kWh if you lived in a similar Texas apartment last year
• Floor plan + orientation notes (top floor west-facing = more AC)
• Two scenarios on our slider: spring-like 600 kWh and summer 1,200 kWh — pick a plan that is not a disaster in either

Bill-credit cliffs that reward 1,000+ kWh can punish efficient studio renters. Read the bill-credit trap before you chase the biggest “@1,000 kWh” teaser on a flyer.

Submeters, allocation, and “the bill looks fake”

Some properties pass through power with submeters (you pay your measured kWh plus fees). Others allocate a master bill by square footage or occupancy. Allocation is not the same as a competitive REP rate — you cannot shop your way out. Red flags:

• No access to kWh data when they claim you are metered
• Fees that dwarf energy charges with no lease disclosure
• “Average bill” marketing with no seasonal range

If you do have your own REP account and meter, a sudden spike is still the usual suspects: AC, broken weatherstripping, vacation holdover rates after a short-term plan expired. Work through why is my bill so high before accusing the property of theft of service.

Move-in checklist (renters)

1. Confirm the property is in a choice area and not master-metered.
2. Get the exact service address and unit number (enrollment typos delay connection).
3. Compare plans at apartment-realistic kWh; open the EFL on your top pick.
4. Enroll 2–3 days before move-in when you can; same-day is often possible with smart meters but August move-ins are busy.
5. Save REP chat/phone and your TDU outage number — different jobs. Outages: Texas outages by TDU.
6. Take a phone photo of the meter and breaker panel on day one.
7. Calendar the electricity contract end date the same day you calendar lease renewal.

Move-out checklist

1. Schedule stop service for the lease end date — do not assume the landlord’s turn-on cancels your REP.
2. Provide forwarding address for the final bill and deposit return.
3. If moving within Texas competitive territory, ask the new REP about seamless switch / move and ETF waiver documentation.
4. Keep the final bill PDF; apartment deposit disputes sometimes drag utility proof into the mix.

Bottom line

Texas renters in choice areas are retail electricity customers who happen to move more often. That means shorter planning horizons, tighter cash for deposits, and a higher cost to trusting the lobby flyer. Compare estimated bills at apartment-scale usage, match contract length to how long you will actually stay, use prepaid only as a deliberate bridge, and keep REP vs. TDU responsibilities straight. Do that, and renting stops being an excuse for overpaying on power.