What the Statewide Average Actually Tells You
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes state-level residential electricity data on a monthly lag. Its most recent full-year figure for Texas residential customers is approximately $142 per month, based on average consumption of 1,176 kilowatt-hours (kWh) and an average rate of roughly 12.1 cents per kWh. Those are 2022 calendar-year figures. The 2023 preliminary data suggests the monthly average crept upward to around $148 to $152, driven by sustained demand in summer months and rate increases filed by several retail electric providers (REPs) after the wholesale market volatility of 2021 and 2022.
The statewide average is useful as a baseline. It is not useful for diagnosing your own bill. A 900-square-foot apartment in Lubbock and a 3,200-square-foot house in Houston both pull from the same average, which means the average tells neither resident much. The sections below decompose the number into the variables that actually matter: geography, home size, rate structure, and provider-specific billing practices.
How the Texas Electricity Market Works (and Why It Affects Your Bill)
About 85 percent of Texas residents live in the deregulated service territory managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). In deregulated areas, a customer chooses a retail electric provider independently of the wires company (called a Transmission and Distribution Utility, or TDU) that physically delivers electricity to the home.
That split matters for your bill. The TDU charges are pass-through costs that no REP controls. In 2023, Oncor’s residential delivery charge was approximately $3.42 per month plus $0.03897 per kWh delivered. CenterPoint Energy’s was roughly $4.39 per month plus $0.04513 per kWh. Those figures are set by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and appear on every bill regardless of which REP you chose. The REP’s energy charge sits on top.
At 1,000 kWh per month, an Oncor-territory customer pays about $42.37 in TDU charges before a single cent of energy cost is added. A CenterPoint customer pays about $49.52. That difference ($86 per year) exists before any REP comparison is relevant. Shoppers comparing electricity bills across cities without accounting for TDU territory are comparing mismatched numbers.
Average Electric Bill by Texas City
LightCompanies compiled TDU rate schedules and EIA consumption data to estimate the monthly electricity bill baseline by major Texas metro. These figures use median home consumption estimates, not statewide average consumption.
Houston (CenterPoint territory) Median consumption: approximately 1,250 kWh/month Estimated TDU charge: $60.90 Estimated energy charge at 12 cents/kWh: $150.00 Estimated monthly total: $211
Dallas-Fort Worth (Oncor territory) Median consumption: approximately 1,100 kWh/month Estimated TDU charge: $46.24 Estimated energy charge at 12 cents/kWh: $132.00 Estimated monthly total: $178
Austin (Austin Energy, municipally owned — not deregulated) Median consumption: approximately 950 kWh/month Austin Energy residential rate (2023): approximately 10.1 cents/kWh blended Estimated monthly total: $116
San Antonio (CPS Energy, municipally owned — not deregulated) Median consumption: approximately 1,000 kWh/month CPS Energy residential rate (2023): approximately 9.8 cents/kWh blended Estimated monthly total: $111
Lubbock (Xcel Energy / deregulated in part) Median consumption: approximately 980 kWh/month Estimated monthly total: $127
Houston’s higher bills reflect both above-average summer cooling loads and CenterPoint’s delivery charges, which rank among the highest of the four major Texas TDUs. Austin and San Antonio residents consistently pay less partly because their municipal utilities are not subject to the same competitive retail markup dynamics.
How Home Size Drives Consumption (and Therefore the Bill)
Electricity consumption scales roughly with conditioned square footage, insulation quality, and HVAC age. The relationship is not perfectly linear because a well-insulated 2,500-square-foot home can consume less than a poorly insulated 1,800-square-foot one. That said, square footage is still the fastest proxy for estimating expected usage.
LightCompanies uses the following rough benchmarks for Texas homes with central air conditioning:
- Under 1,000 sq ft: 600 to 850 kWh/month (annual average)
- 1,000 to 1,500 sq ft: 850 to 1,150 kWh/month
- 1,500 to 2,000 sq ft: 1,100 to 1,450 kWh/month
- 2,000 to 2,500 sq ft: 1,350 to 1,750 kWh/month
- Over 2,500 sq ft: 1,700 kWh/month and above
These ranges widen significantly in summer. A 1,800-square-foot home in Houston might average 1,200 kWh/month across twelve months but spike to 1,900 kWh in July and August when the HVAC runs continuously. That spike is the single largest driver of bill volatility for most Texas households, and it is why rate structure (fixed vs. variable, indexed vs. tiered) matters more in Texas than in most other states.
Reading Your Electricity Bill: The Components
A typical deregulated-market electricity bill in Texas has five to seven line items. Consumers who do not recognize each one frequently misattribute bill increases to the wrong source.
Energy charge. The REP’s base charge for kilowatt-hours consumed. This is the one competitive component of your bill. It appears either as a flat per-kWh rate (on a fixed-rate plan) or as a variable figure that changes month to month.
TDU delivery charge. Set by the wires company, passed through by the REP without markup (in most contracts). As noted above, this has a fixed monthly component and a per-kWh component.
Base charge / customer charge. A flat monthly fee charged by the REP independent of usage. Ranges from $0 to $9.95 per month across current Texas plans. Plans with no base charge sometimes compensate with a higher per-kWh rate.
Oncor or CenterPoint transmission and distribution fees. Sometimes broken out separately from the delivery charge. These cover the cost of maintaining the high-voltage transmission grid.
Renewable energy / green fee. Applies only to plans with a purchased renewable energy certificate (REC) component. Typically $0 to $5 per month for standard green plans, higher for 100-percent renewable plans with premium RECs.
Taxes and surcharges. State and local taxes, the PUCT assessment, and occasionally a regulatory recovery fee. In most Texas metros, taxes and surcharges add 2 to 4 percent to the pre-tax total.
Usage-based bill credits. Some REPs offer credits at specific consumption thresholds (for example, a $35 credit when usage exceeds 1,000 kWh). These credits make the effective per-kWh rate non-linear and can be misleading on the Electricity Facts Label (EFL) if the customer’s actual usage does not hit the threshold. Always calculate effective rate at your actual usage tier, not at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh simultaneously.
What a Competitive Rate Actually Looks Like
The PUCT requires every REP to publish an Electricity Facts Label disclosing the average price per kWh at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh monthly usage. That disclosure is the starting point, not the ending point, of any rate comparison.
In the Oncor territory during the first quarter of 2024, LightCompanies tracked 12-month fixed-rate plans from the three largest REPs at the 1,000 kWh usage tier:
- Reliant Energy: approximately 13.4 cents/kWh (effective, including base charge)
- TXU Energy: approximately 13.1 cents/kWh (effective, including base charge)
- Gexa Energy: approximately 11.8 cents/kWh (effective, with $0 base charge plan)
At 1,000 kWh per month, Gexa’s rate produces a $16 monthly savings versus TXU and an $18 monthly savings versus Reliant. Over a 12-month contract, that gap reaches $192 to $216. These are not trivial numbers. PUCT only publishes quarterly snapshots of market rates. The figures above reflect Q1 2024 data and will shift as providers file new rate schedules.
The comparison set changes at different usage tiers. At 500 kWh per month, plans with low per-kWh rates but high base charges become less competitive. At 2,000 kWh per month, plans with tiered credits become more attractive. There is no single competitive rate. There is only the rate that is competitive at your usage level.
Why Bills Spike (and When to Investigate)
A sudden increase in the electricity bill usually traces to one of four causes, in rough order of frequency:
Seasonal consumption increase. Texas summer cooling loads are not evenly distributed. June through September accounts for a disproportionate share of annual consumption. A bill that jumps from $130 in April to $210 in July is not anomalous for a 1,500-square-foot home with a standard HVAC system.
Rate plan transition. Fixed-rate contracts expire. If a customer does not re-contract, most REPs automatically move the account to a month-to-month variable rate, which in Texas often runs 15 to 25 percent higher than the expired fixed rate. PUCT complaint data shows billing-related complaints spike in months following contract expirations, which suggests many customers do not notice the transition.
TDU rate change. Oncor and CenterPoint file periodic rate cases with the PUCT. Approved increases pass through to customers automatically. A TDU rate increase of $0.003 per kWh translates to a $3 monthly increase at 1,000 kWh, which is small but real.
Billing error or meter issue. Less common but not rare. The PUCT received 4,847 informal complaints against REPs in calendar year 2022, with billing accuracy being the single largest complaint category at approximately 38 percent of the total. If a bill appears to double without a seasonal or rate-plan explanation, requesting a meter re-read from the TDU (not the REP) is the correct first step.
How to Calculate What You Should Be Paying
This is the practical exercise that matters most. Pull the last 12 months of usage from your REP’s account portal or from Smart Meter Texas (smartmetertexas.com), which provides interval-level usage data for any Oncor or CenterPoint meter. Then do the following arithmetic:
- Sum the 12 months of kWh consumption.
- Divide by 12 to get your monthly average.
- Identify your current plan’s effective rate at that consumption level from the EFL.
- Multiply: monthly kWh times effective rate per kWh.
- Add TDU charges and taxes (these are on your current bill as separate line items).
- That sum is your expected monthly bill at current rates.
If your actual bill differs from this calculation by more than a few dollars, the discrepancy is worth investigating before attributing it to seasonal variation.
Once the baseline is established, comparing that effective rate to current market offerings at the same usage tier is the fastest way to identify whether switching providers would reduce costs. A difference of less than 0.5 cents per kWh rarely justifies the administrative friction of switching. A difference of 1.5 cents or more at 1,000 kWh per month represents $180 per year, which most households would consider material.
Where This Page Connects to the Rest of the Site
This page serves as the hub for LightCompanies’ billing and usage coverage. Related analysis includes provider-specific billing reliability assessments, a breakdown of TDU delivery charge schedules by territory, an explanation of the Electricity Facts Label and how to read one correctly, and a methodology note on how LightCompanies scores REPs on rate transparency. Each linked piece carries its own data sourcing disclosures. The goal is to give a Texas electricity customer enough grounding to evaluate a provider profile, or a rate offer, without relying on a single summary metric.