The Short Answer
Your address determines your electric options in Texas, and the answer takes about two minutes to look up. Texas deregulated most of its electricity market in 2002, but “most” is doing real work in that sentence. Roughly 85 percent of Texans live in deregulated territory. The other 15 percent are served by vertically integrated municipal utilities or electric cooperatives that were never folded into the competitive market. If you are in the 85 percent, you can choose a retail electricity provider (REP). If you are in the 15 percent, you cannot.
The mechanism behind all of this is the Transmission and Distribution Service Provider, abbreviated TDSP. Understanding that term is the key to understanding your bill, your options, and every lookup tool you will encounter.
What a TDSP Actually Does
A TDSP owns and operates the physical infrastructure: the poles, wires, transformers, and meters that deliver electricity to your home or business. In deregulated Texas, the TDSP is legally separate from the company that sells you electricity. The TDSP charges a “delivery charge” or “wires charge” that appears on your monthly bill regardless of which retail provider you choose. That charge is regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and is identical for every REP operating in that territory.
There are five major TDSPs covering the deregulated ERCOT footprint:
- Oncor Electric Delivery covers the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, west Texas, and a broad corridor through North Texas.
- CenterPoint Energy covers the greater Houston area, including Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties.
- AEP Texas operates two sub-regions: AEP Texas Central (Corpus Christi, Rio Grande Valley, Laredo) and AEP Texas North (Abilene, Lubbock-adjacent areas).
- Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP) serves scattered pockets including parts of the Panhandle, El Paso suburbs, and the greater Galveston-Brazoria coastal area.
If your address falls in one of those four TDSP footprints, you are almost certainly in deregulated territory. “Almost certainly” is a deliberate qualifier: a small number of cities within those footprints operate their own municipal utilities and opted out of deregulation. Garland, Denton, and Lubbock are examples worth checking individually.
If your address is served by a municipal utility (Austin Energy, CPS Energy in San Antonio, Garland Power and Light) or by an electric cooperative (Pedernales Electric, Bluebonnet Electric, PEC), you do not have retail choice. You pay that entity’s rate schedule, full stop.
How to Look Up Your Specific Address
There are three reliable methods, listed from fastest to most authoritative.
Method 1: Power to Choose Address Lookup
Power to Choose (powertochoose.org) is the PUCT-administered comparison shopping site. It has a ZIP-code-level and address-level lookup built into the front page. Enter your address, and the site returns your TDSP and a list of available plans from licensed REPs. If Power to Choose returns no plans, your address is outside the competitive market.
This is the fastest first check. Its limitation: Power to Choose is plan-focused, so if you want raw infrastructure data, move to Method 2.
Method 2: PUCT’s Certified REP List by TDSP
The PUCT publishes a list of REPs certified to operate in each TDSP’s territory. Navigate to puc.texas.gov, search “certified retail electric providers,” and you can filter by TDSP. This does not give you an address-level answer, but it confirms which companies are authorized to compete for your business once you know your TDSP from Method 1.
Method 3: Call the TDSP Directly
If you are moving into a property and do not have a prior bill, calling the TDSP is the most authoritative route. Each TDSP maintains a customer service line for exactly this scenario, particularly for move-ins and new construction. They can confirm your address is in their territory and tell you the meter number associated with it. That meter number (ESI ID in Texas ERCOT terminology) is what REPs use to start service.
Your ESI ID (Electric Service Identifier) is a 17- to 22-digit number tied to your physical meter. Every REP you shop needs this number to enroll you. You can find it on a prior bill, through the TDSP directly, or through Power to Choose once you enter your address.
If You Are Outside Deregulated Territory
If your lookup confirms a municipal utility or co-op serves your address, your options narrow to:
- Understanding that utility’s rate schedule. Municipal utilities and co-ops publish rate schedules, though they are sometimes buried on the utility’s website. Requesting the applicable schedule in writing is a reasonable consumer move.
- Checking for renewable programs. Many co-ops and municipal utilities offer a voluntary green pricing program where you pay a small premium per kWh to support renewable generation. This is not the same as choosing a competitive green REP, but it exists.
- Community solar. A small number of co-ops have piloted community solar subscription programs. These are rare but worth asking about.
There is no path to shopping a competitive REP if you are outside ERCOT’s deregulated footprint. That boundary is statutory, not something a provider can work around.
Why the Same ZIP Code Can Have Two Different Answers
ZIP codes are postal boundaries, not utility boundaries. Two neighbors on the same street can sit in different TDSP territories, and this is more common in exurban and rural areas where co-op territory interleaves with TDSP territory. A ZIP code search will get you close; an address search gets you accurate. The difference matters because switching to the wrong REP or calling the wrong TDSP will cost you time.
An illustrative example: ZIP code 78660 (Pflugerville, Texas) is partially served by Oncor and partially by Pedernales Electric Cooperative. A resident on the western edge of that ZIP might have full retail choice; a resident two miles east might be locked into PEC’s rate schedule. Power to Choose’s address-level lookup resolves this. A ZIP-only search does not.
Reading Your Current Bill to Find Your TDSP
If you already have electric service and a bill in hand, your TDSP is disclosed on that bill. In a competitive REP bill, the “delivery charges” or “transmission and distribution charges” section will name the TDSP explicitly. It will also show the TDSP’s customer service number, which you can call for outages, downed lines, or meter issues regardless of which REP you are with. The REP handles billing and customer service; the TDSP handles physical infrastructure.
On a typical Texas deregulated bill, you will see two categories of charges:
- Energy charges: Set by your REP. This is the competitive portion.
- Delivery charges: Set by your TDSP, regulated by PUCT, identical across all REPs in that territory.
Delivery charges on an average 1,000 kWh residential month run approximately $30 to $55 depending on TDSP, based on the current PUCT-approved rate schedules. Those charges are non-negotiable. The only lever you control is the energy charge portion, which is why comparing REP rates on an equivalent usage basis matters.
What Happens When You Move
When you move within the deregulated market, your REP contract follows you only if your new address is in the same TDSP territory and you actively transfer service. REPs are not obligated to transfer your existing contract terms to a new address. Some will; most will treat it as a new enrollment.
If you move to a new address in a different TDSP territory, your existing contract does not follow. You will need to shop and enroll fresh. Check whether your current contract has an early termination fee before moving, because moving does not automatically waive that fee. Contract terms vary by REP, and the early termination fee disclosure is a required element of the Electricity Facts Label (EFL) that accompanies every offer.
If you move outside the deregulated market entirely, your REP contract ends. The early termination fee applicability in a move-outside-ERCOT scenario is a reasonable question to ask the REP’s customer service team before signing a contract, particularly if a relocation is possible within the contract term.
How This Connects to Choosing a Provider
Knowing your TDSP is the prerequisite step before any provider comparison is meaningful. Once you confirm your address is in deregulated territory and identify your TDSP, you can:
- Pull the current offers on Power to Choose filtered to your actual usage (1,000 kWh and 2,000 kWh are the standardized tiers used for EFL pricing disclosure).
- Read the EFL for any plan that looks competitive. The EFL shows the total price per kWh at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh usage levels.
- Cross-reference complaint data. The PUCT publishes a quarterly complaint report by REP. PUCT only publishes quarterly snapshots, so the most recent quarter is the best available data, not a rolling average. LightCompanies tracks those snapshots and incorporates them into provider profiles.
The TDSP itself is not subject to competitive comparison because you cannot choose it. What you can do is understand its charge structure so that when you compare REP offers, you are comparing the variable portion accurately.
Summary Checklist
- Enter your full address (not just ZIP) at powertochoose.org.
- If plans appear, you are in deregulated ERCOT territory. Note the TDSP name returned.
- If no plans appear, identify whether you are served by a municipal utility or electric co-op.
- Locate your ESI ID on a prior bill or through your TDSP. You will need it to enroll.
- When comparing REP offers, compare at the same usage tier (1,000 kWh is the standard benchmark) and confirm that the EFL price includes delivery charges or excludes them consistently across the offers you are reviewing.
- Check your current contract’s early termination fee before switching or moving.
The address lookup takes two minutes. Getting that step right eliminates confusion in every subsequent decision about who handles your electricity, who to call during an outage, and which competitive offers actually apply to where you live.