What Is an Electricity Facts Label (EFL)? How to Read One in 5 Minutes
Every electricity plan sold in Texas comes with an Electricity Facts Label, or EFL. It's the nutrition label of the electricity world: a standardized document, required by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, that every retail provider must publish for every plan. If you read nothing else before signing up, read the EFL — it's where the marketing stops and the actual numbers live.
Why the advertised rate isn't your rate
When a plan advertises "11.9¢ per kWh," that number is almost never what you'll pay per kilowatt-hour. It's the average price at one specific usage level — usually exactly 1,000 kWh per month. Use 900 kWh or 1,100 kWh and your average price can be very different, sometimes dramatically so. The EFL is the document that shows you how.
The three-price table
Near the top of every EFL you'll find a small table showing the average price per kWh at three standardized usage levels:
- 500 kWh — a small apartment
- 1,000 kWh — a modest house or large apartment
- 2,000 kWh — a large house, or heavy summer air conditioning
These three numbers exist so plans can be compared apples-to-apples, and they're the numbers our comparison tables are built from. A flat, honest plan shows three similar prices. A gimmicky plan might show 24¢ / 11¢ / 14¢ — a red flag that the plan is engineered to look cheap at exactly 1,000 kWh and expensive everywhere else.
What creates those swings: the fine print that matters
Base charges. A fixed monthly fee — say $9.95 — charged regardless of usage. Base charges hit small users hardest: $9.95 spread over 500 kWh adds 2¢/kWh to your true average price, but spread over 2,000 kWh it adds only half a cent.
Bill credits. The big one: "$100 credit when you use at least 1,000 kWh." Credits create a cliff — use 999 kWh and you miss the credit entirely, potentially paying $100 more than your neighbor who used one kilowatt-hour more. We wrote a whole guide on the bill-credit trap.
Delivery (TDU) charges. Your local wires utility — Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP, TNMP, or Lubbock Power & Light — charges for delivering power, and those charges pass through on every plan. Some EFLs bundle them into the advertised price; others list them separately. When comparing two EFLs, make sure both include delivery, or neither does.
Minimum usage fees. Some plans charge a fee if you use less than, say, 800 kWh in a month — another way small users pay more than the headline suggests.
The other facts worth 30 seconds
- Contract term and rate type — how long the price lasts, and whether it's fixed, variable, or indexed. Our fixed vs. variable guide explains the difference.
- Early termination fee — often $150–$395 for leaving a fixed plan early. Texas law waives this fee if you move and provide proof of your new address.
- Renewable content — the percentage of the plan's power matched by renewable energy credits.
- Prepaid or time-of-use flags — plan structures that work very differently from standard billing.
How to actually use an EFL
Find your real monthly usage on a recent bill — the kWh number, not the dollar amount. Then look at whichever EFL price point is closest to it, and estimate your bill: average price × your kWh. If your usage swings between seasons (most Texas homes double their usage in summer), check the price at both your winter and summer levels. A plan that's cheapest at 1,000 kWh but brutal at 500 kWh is a bad fit for a home that idles at 600 kWh nine months a year.
That per-usage math is exactly what this site automates: every plan table on PickMyPower ranks plans by estimated bill at the usage you set, computed from the EFL's own disclosed prices — and every row links to the official EFL document so you can verify before you enroll.