Texas electricity · free lookup
Who delivers electricity to your Texas ZIP code?
By Jake Breaux, solar industry expert · Updated
The short version
Enter your ZIP below. It shows which utility's wires serve you (CenterPoint, Oncor, AEP Texas or TNMP in the competitive areas), whether you can choose a retail provider at all, and where your area's prices stand today. The answer comes from Power to Choose, the PUCT's own plan site.
ZIP code lookup
Only the ZIP is sent, to this site, which asks Power to Choose, the state's plan site.
Who delivers electricity to my address in Texas?
In the parts of Texas with retail choice, two companies are involved. A delivery utility owns the poles, wires and meter in your area, and you cannot pick it: CenterPoint around Houston, Oncor across Dallas-Fort Worth and much of the state, AEP Texas in the south and west, and TNMP in scattered areas. The retail provider is the company you choose on Power to Choose and pay each month. The lookup above tells you the delivery utility for your ZIP.
Does my delivery utility change if I switch plans?
No. Switching retail providers changes who bills you and at what price, not whose wires carry the power. The delivery charges on your bill still come from the same utility, and every plan listed on Power to Choose already includes them in its price.
Which parts of Texas have no retail choice?
City-owned utilities and electric cooperatives decide for themselves whether to open to competition, and where yours has not, there is no choice. State law also still holds four utilities out of competition: Entergy Gulf States, Southwestern Public Service, El Paso Electric and AEP SWEPCO. If you live in one of those areas, you buy power from that utility directly and there are no plans on Power to Choose for your ZIP.
Why does my ZIP code show two utilities?
Delivery areas follow wires, not ZIP code lines. In League City, Friendswood, Texas City, Dickinson, Alvin, Pearland and Galveston, some addresses are served by CenterPoint and some by TNMP. Lewisville and Wichita Falls split between Oncor and TNMP. Your street address decides which one, and prices can differ between them, so check the utility named on your bill.
What does this have to do with solar?
A solar subscription in Texas is sold through retail choice, so it only exists where choice does. It is offered in CenterPoint, Oncor, AEP Texas and TNMP territory. If the lookup says your ZIP has no choice, nobody can sell you one, and anyone at your door claiming otherwise is worth a second look. If it says you are covered, read how the subscription works in Texas before yourun the estimator.
Sources
We sell subscription solar, so don't take our word for the contract mechanics. These are the primary sources: check them.
- Municipally-Owned Electric Utilities and Electric Cooperatives FAQs, Public Utility Commission of Texas
The PUCT on who has retail choice: city-owned utilities and co-ops choose whether to compete, and state law delays competition for Entergy Gulf States, Southwestern Public Service, El Paso Electric and AEP SWEPCO.
- Power to Choose, Public Utility Commission of Texas
The state plan site this lookup asks. A ZIP with no plans listed has no retail choice.
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