Texas · Competitive supply market
Commercial electricity in Texas
Most Texas commercial accounts inside ERCOT competitive territory choose their retail electric provider while the transmission and distribution utility continues to deliver power and handle outages under regulated tariffs. Municipal utilities such as Austin Energy and CPS Energy, many cooperatives, and non-ERCOT areas including El Paso Electric are not open to choice.
What Texas businesses pay for electricity
Average commercial electricity price in Texas
8.57¢ per kWh
12 months to August 2026 · EIA, preliminary
- vs US average (13.87¢)−38%below the national figure
- vs previous 12 months+0.0%from 8.57¢
- Final 2025 (EIA-861)8.56¢3rd lowest of 51 markets
- Average commercial customer9,509 kWha month, about 814 at the 2025 average
- Since 2020+13%US +26% over the same years
Show the numbers
| Period | Texas | United States |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 9.19¢ | 10.19¢ |
| 2011 | 8.83¢ | 10.24¢ |
| 2012 | 8.16¢ | 10.09¢ |
| 2013 | 8.02¢ | 10.26¢ |
| 2014 | 8.16¢ | 10.74¢ |
| 2015 | 8.15¢ | 10.64¢ |
| 2016 | 8.26¢ | 10.43¢ |
| 2017 | 8.26¢ | 10.66¢ |
| 2018 | 8.16¢ | 10.67¢ |
| 2019 | 8.06¢ | 10.68¢ |
| 2020 | 7.60¢ | 10.59¢ |
| 2021 | 8.72¢ | 11.22¢ |
| 2022 | 9.05¢ | 12.41¢ |
| 2023 | 8.82¢ | 12.59¢ |
| 2024 | 8.55¢ | 12.75¢ |
| 2025 | 8.56¢ | 13.37¢ |
| 12 months to Aug 2026 (preliminary) | 8.57¢ | 13.87¢ |
This is the average revenue per kWh from every commercial customer in Texas, from a corner shop to a hospital: energy, delivery, demand and other charges billed, divided by kWh sold. The average customer uses more than a typical small business, because a few very large customers pull the mean up. It is dated context for reading a bill — not a quote, not an available offer, and not what any one business pays.
What a typical building pays in Texas
The same federal survey of commercial buildings behind the cost estimator, run for a typical-sized building of eight common kinds and priced at Texas's average commercial price for the 12 months to August 2026. Typical size is the median floor area of the surveyed buildings of that kind, and the middle half is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile of them.
| Building | Typical size | Typical bill | Middle half | Survey basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office building | 5,000 sq ft | $490 | $300 to $740 | 509 in the South |
| Medical, dental or outpatient clinic | 5,500 sq ft | $650 | $370 to $850 | 83 in the South |
| Retail store or showroom | 6,500 sq ft | $480 | $330 to $710 | 146 in the South |
| Grocery or convenience store | 2,400 sq ft | $920 | $640 to $1,400 | 91 nationwide |
| Sit-down restaurant or cafeteria | 3,850 sq ft | $1,100 | $640 to $1,600 | 132 nationwide |
| Warehouse or distribution centre | 6,700 sq ft | $210 | $89 to $430 | 274 in the South |
| Hotel, motel or inn | 12,000 sq ft | $1,500 | $570 to $1,900 | 130 in the South |
| Gym, fitness or recreation facility | 8,300 sq ft | $550 | $420 to $1,000 | 148 nationwide |
A screening estimate, not a quote. The price is an average across every commercial customer in Texas, scaled for building size, and the buildings are whole buildings from EIA's 2018 survey, so a suite inside a larger building, or one with unusual hours or equipment, can differ a lot. Estimate your own building in Texas, or check a real bill.
What utilities billed commercial customers in Texas
For each utility, EIA records how many commercial customers it had in 2025 and the average revenue per kWh it billed them. The 10 largest of 74 Texas utilities with 500 or more commercial customers are shown.
| Utility | Type | Commercial customers | Bundled price per kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of San Antonio | Municipal | 97,661 | 10.09¢ |
| Southwestern Public Service Co | Investor-owned | 58,996 | 9.67¢ |
| Entergy Texas Inc. | Investor-owned | 56,739 | 9.86¢ |
| Austin Energy | Municipal | 55,306 | 10.96¢ |
| Pedernales Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 53,505 | 10.41¢ |
| El Paso Electric Co | Investor-owned | 40,207 | 9.17¢ |
| Southwestern Electric Power Co | Investor-owned | 31,026 | 10.32¢ |
| Denton County Elec Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 23,030 | 13.57¢ |
| Tri-County Electric Coop, Inc (TX) | Cooperative | 20,402 | 13.47¢ |
| Bluebonnet Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 19,810 | 9.43¢ |
Together the 10 shown serve about 30% of Texas’s 1,530,891 commercial customers, and all 74 serve about 51%. EIA’s 2025 table has no commercial sales rows for Oncor Electric Delivery, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, AEP Texas Central, AEP Texas North or Texas-New Mexico Power, so they are not in this table; their own pages say what each tariff charges. All Texas commercial customers together averaged 8.56¢ per kWh in 2025.
Bundled is the price paid by commercial customers who buy their energy and delivery from the utility, so it is an all-in price. Delivery-only is what the utility billed customers who buy their energy from a competitive supplier, so it is the delivery charge alone and cannot be compared with a bundled price. Each figure averages every commercial customer of that utility and service type, from a corner shop to a campus, so a utility with larger customers averages a lower price per kWh. It is dated context, not a quote and not an offer, and the utility that serves an address is named on its bill.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, 2025 final data. Utilities across the country · every utility as a CSV.
Most Texas commercial accounts inside ERCOT competitive territory choose their retail electric provider while the transmission and distribution utility continues to deliver power and handle outages under regulated tariffs. The local utility continues to own delivery, metering and outage response under regulated tariffs that no supplier can change.
Source: Public Utility Commission of Texas market structure; this site's market registry · 2026-10-31
Competitive supply market. ERCOT competitive areas only. Municipal utilities, cooperatives that have not opted in, and non-ERCOT territories are NOT competitive.
What a Texas commercial account can actually do
Eligible commercial accounts in Texas can award a supply contract to a licensed supplier. The local utility continues to deliver the power, own the meter and restore outages, and continues to charge for that under a regulated tariff that no supplier can change.
That means two separate pieces of work, and the second is the one most buyers never get done:
- The supply decision. Run a real, time-boxed competition among qualified suppliers on identical verified facts, then hold the contract to what was awarded.
- The regulated half. Rate schedule fit, demand charges, ratchet exposure, power factor and billing accuracy. No supplier earns anything here, which is precisely why no supplier raises it.
Utility territories in Texas
Eligibility is determined by the utility territory serving the specific service address, not by the state and not by the ZIP code. One city can cross more than one territory.
| Utility | Role | Account keyed on | Territory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oncor Electric Delivery | TDU | ESI ID | Dallas–Fort Worth and much of north, central and west Texas. |
| CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric | TDU | ESI ID | Houston metropolitan area and the surrounding Gulf Coast. |
| AEP Texas Central | TDU | ESI ID | Coastal and south Texas, including the Corpus Christi and Rio Grande Valley areas. |
| AEP Texas North | TDU | ESI ID | West central Texas, including the Abilene and San Angelo areas. |
| Texas-New Mexico Power | TDU | ESI ID | Non-contiguous pockets across Texas, including parts of the Gulf Coast, west Texas and north Texas. |
Not open to supply choice. Accounts in these Texas territories cannot award a supply contract, whatever the rest of the state does. This is exactly the distinction a state-level answer gets wrong.
| Utility | Type | Account keyed on | Territory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Energy | Municipal utility | Account number | City of Austin and limited surrounding areas. |
| CPS Energy | Municipal utility | Account number | San Antonio and surrounding Bexar County areas. |
| El Paso Electric | Investor-owned utility | Account number | El Paso and far west Texas, outside ERCOT. |
Where Texas sits
Every US market on one view, coloured by what an account can actually do there. Texas is highlighted, and every other tile is a link.
- 14 you can choose — businesses can pick their supplier
- 6 some can choose — by size, cap or program
- 31 utility only — other charges can still be fixed
Number on each tile: average commercial electricity price in cents per kWh, 12 months to August 2026 (EIA, preliminary).
Worth knowing in Texas specifically
Beyond the ordinary demand charge on your own peak, the grid serving Texas allocates a further cost through a small number of hours per year. It is a delivery-side mechanism, so no supplier is involved and no supply contract affects it.
The timing matters: the work that reduces next year's charge has to happen during the window that sets it, not during the year you are paying it.
Before we can answer anything specific
We verify from the account, not from the address alone:
- The utility territory actually serving the service address
- ESI ID and customer class
- Current supply arrangement, including any aggregation and its termination status
- Contract expiry date and whether the decision window is open
- 12 months of consumption and, where metered, peak demand
Supplier comparison is not open in Texas yet. The free bill check shows how much of your bill a supplier could even touch and what is worth a look today, which is the same first step whichever way you go.