What Oncor Actually Is
Oncor Electric Delivery is a Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU). That title is worth unpacking. In the deregulated Texas electricity market, the retail layer (the company that sends your monthly bill) is legally separated from the infrastructure layer (the company that owns the poles, wires, and meters). Oncor owns the infrastructure layer across a large portion of North and West Texas.
Oncor does not choose your electricity plan. It does not set your energy rate per kilowatt-hour. It cannot be contacted to dispute a retail price. What Oncor does control is the physical delivery of power from the grid to your meter, the maintenance of lines that carry that power, and the per-kilowatt-hour and per-meter delivery fees that every licensed Retail Electric Provider (REP) in its territory must pass through to customers.
As of the most recent PUCT filings, Oncor serves roughly 10 million metered endpoints across a 91,000-square-mile service territory. That footprint includes the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, much of the Permian Basin, and smaller markets such as Monahans in Ward County. The scale matters for this analysis because Oncor’s delivery infrastructure and fee structure apply uniformly across that territory regardless of which REP a customer selects.
The Service Territory: Where Oncor Operates
Oncor’s footprint divides into two broad zones that show up differently in rate filings: the large urban corridor anchored by Dallas and Fort Worth, and the more sparsely populated West Texas area that includes Midland, Odessa, and smaller communities.
The Monahans, TX area is a useful reference point. Monahans (population roughly 8,000) sits in Ward County within Oncor’s West Texas distribution territory. Customers there see the same delivery charge structure as a Dallas suburban household, because PUCT-approved tariffs apply territory-wide. Geographic remoteness does not produce a different Oncor delivery rate, though it can affect response time during outages, a point covered below.
REPs licensed to operate in the Oncor territory include large incumbents such as Reliant and TXU Energy, as well as smaller competitive providers. A customer in Monahans choosing between plans on PowerToChoose.org is selecting a retail layer that sits on top of Oncor’s fixed delivery infrastructure.
How Oncor Delivery Charges Appear on Your Bill
Every bill in the Oncor territory carries two distinct Oncor line items regardless of which REP issued the bill.
Distribution Charge (volumetric): Billed per kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumed. Under Oncor’s current PUCT-approved Distribution Cost Recovery Factor (DCRF) and Transmission Cost Recovery Factor (TCRF) schedules, the combined pass-through rate sits near $0.0458 per kWh for residential customers. REPs are required to pass this through at cost; they cannot mark it up or absorb it.
Customer Charge (fixed): A flat monthly fee per meter, currently $3.42 per month for standard residential service. This charge applies every month regardless of usage volume.
To illustrate: a household using 1,000 kWh in a billing month pays $45.80 in volumetric delivery charges plus the $3.42 customer charge, for a total of $49.22 in Oncor delivery costs alone. That amount is independent of whatever energy rate the chosen REP charges. At 1,000 kWh and a retail energy rate of $0.09 per kWh, the energy portion of the bill is $90.00. The Oncor delivery portion ($49.22) therefore represents roughly 35 percent of the total pre-tax bill.
Compare that to CenterPoint Energy’s Houston territory, where the combined residential delivery rate runs closer to $0.0384 per kWh plus a $4.39 customer charge. At the same 1,000 kWh usage, CenterPoint delivery costs come to $42.79, about $6.43 less per month than Oncor. AEP Texas Central’s territory runs at approximately $0.0441 per kWh with a $5.50 customer charge, landing at $49.51 for the same usage, nearly identical to Oncor.
The practical implication: a shopper moving from the CenterPoint territory to the Oncor territory faces structurally higher delivery costs baked into every plan, independent of which REP they choose. No amount of plan comparison on the retail side eliminates that difference.
Rate Transparency: Reading the Electricity Facts Label
PUCT requires every retail plan in Texas to carry an Electricity Facts Label (EFL), a standardized disclosure document. The EFL lists the average price per kWh at three usage tiers (500 kWh, 1,000 kWh, 2,000 kWh). That blended average includes Oncor’s delivery charges.
This creates a comparison problem that trips up many shoppers. Two plans from different REPs may show an identical EFL price at 1,000 kWh. But if one plan quotes a lower energy rate and passes through Oncor delivery charges separately, while the other buries the delivery charge inside a higher flat energy rate, the consumer-facing price looks equivalent even though the structures differ.
LightCompanies rates plan transparency partly on whether a REP’s EFL clearly delineates the Oncor pass-through from the retail energy component. Plans that obscure the split make it harder for customers to understand what portion of their bill is fixed (and therefore unresponsive to conservation behavior) versus what portion responds to reduced usage.
For context at the 1,000 kWh tier in the Oncor territory: TXU Energy’s standard 12-month fixed plans have historically priced the all-in average around $0.128 to $0.134 per kWh. Reliant’s comparable fixed plans have run $0.125 to $0.131 per kWh. Smaller competitive REPs operating in the same territory have offered plans as low as $0.109 per kWh all-in at 1,000 kWh, though those plans frequently carry usage-threshold credits that make sub-1,000 kWh consumption significantly more expensive. PUCT only publishes plan pricing snapshots quarterly, and rates shift seasonally, so treat those figures as directional rather than current.
Oncor Power Outage: Response Structure and What It Means for Customers
When power goes out in the Oncor territory, the correct contact is Oncor, not the retail electric provider. This distinction confuses a significant number of customers. The REP has no visibility into distribution-level faults and no ability to dispatch repair crews.
Oncor’s outage reporting is handled through its dedicated line (1-888-313-4747) and through its online outage map at oncor.com. The outage map publishes estimated restoration times based on fault type and crew dispatch status.
Oncor’s published reliability statistics use two standard industry metrics. SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) measures average outage minutes per customer per year. CAIDI (Customer Average Interruption Duration Index) measures average restoration time per outage event. Oncor’s most recently available annual report to PUCT showed a SAIDI in the range of 90 to 110 minutes for its urban service areas and considerably higher figures for rural West Texas corridors, where longer line spans and lower customer density extend repair times.
For reference, CenterPoint Energy’s Houston territory reported a SAIDI closer to 130 to 150 minutes in the same period, driven partly by hurricane and tropical storm exposure. AEP Texas reported figures broadly comparable to Oncor’s urban numbers. None of those comparisons account for major weather events like the February 2021 winter storm, which was a generation and ERCOT dispatch failure rather than a distribution infrastructure failure, though distribution damage compounded restoration timelines.
The Monahans, TX and broader West Texas rural territory warrants a specific note. Crew response times in low-density areas can extend to six or more hours for non-emergency single-customer outages. Customers in that geography should treat outage response benchmarks derived from DFW data as inapplicable to their situation.
Oncor Customer Service Number and What It Covers
The most frequently searched contact point is the Oncor customer service number: 1-888-313-4747. This line handles outage reports, meter service requests, line inspection requests, and billing disputes specifically related to Oncor’s delivery charges.
What this number does not handle: retail billing disputes, rate complaints, contract cancellations, or REP-to-REP transfer questions. Those go to the retail provider. PUCT’s consumer complaint line (1-888-782-8477) is the appropriate escalation path when a REP dispute reaches an impasse.
Oncor does not hold a PUCT complaint record in the same way REPs do, because it is not a competitive business. Its performance is reviewed through PUCT’s periodic TDU rate case processes rather than through consumer complaint rankings. The most recent Oncor rate case (Docket No. 53601, approved 2023) resulted in an increase to delivery charges of approximately $5 per month for a 1,000 kWh residential customer. That increase is reflected in the figures cited earlier in this article.
What This Means When Selecting a REP
Because Oncor’s delivery charges are fixed and non-negotiable regardless of REP, plan comparison in the Oncor territory should focus exclusively on the retail energy component. Here is a methodical way to isolate it.
Take the all-in EFL price at 1,000 kWh. Subtract the Oncor volumetric charge ($0.0458 per kWh), the customer charge annualized per kWh ($3.42 divided by 1,000 equals $0.00342 per kWh), and any state or local taxes the EFL discloses separately. The remainder is the effective retail energy rate. Compare that remainder across plans, not the blended EFL price.
At 1,000 kWh, Oncor’s delivery component alone is $0.04922 per kWh (delivery plus customer charge prorated). A plan advertised at $0.109 per kWh all-in implies a retail energy rate of roughly $0.060 per kWh before taxes. A plan at $0.134 per kWh all-in implies a retail energy rate of roughly $0.085 per kWh. That $0.025 per kWh difference compounds to $25 per month or $300 per year at consistent 1,000 kWh usage.
Separating Oncor’s fixed cost from the retail variable is the single most useful analytical step a consumer in the Oncor territory can take before signing a contract.
Summary: Key Data Points for Oncor Territory Shoppers
Oncor is the TDU for roughly 10 million meters across North and West Texas, including the DFW Metroplex and the Monahans, TX area. Its residential delivery charges run approximately $0.0458 per kWh volumetric plus a $3.42 fixed monthly customer charge, totaling $49.22 at 1,000 kWh usage. That amount represents roughly 35 percent of a typical residential bill and is identical regardless of REP selection.
Oncor outage response follows two channels: the 1-888-313-4747 hotline and the oncor.com outage map. Urban SAIDI performance runs roughly 90 to 110 minutes per year; rural West Texas corridors perform materially worse on that metric.
For plan comparison purposes, strip the Oncor delivery component from the EFL all-in price before ranking competitive plans against each other. The delivery cost is the same across every option. Only the retail energy margin differs.