Residential electricity in Houston

Texas gave you the right to choose your electricity provider, then made choosing deliberately confusing. We compare what is actually available at your address and explain the terms that decide what you really pay.

Utility: CenterPoint Energy — delivers to every Houston home
Switch time: Usually one billing cycle
Interruption: None — nothing physical changes
Cost to you: Nothing

Houston households have had retail choice since 2002. In practice that means dozens of retail providers offering hundreds of plans at your address, priced in a way that makes direct comparison almost impossible without knowing where the traps are.

We are not a comparison website. We are a broker who works both sides of the Houston market — commercial and residential — and the residential side of the job is mostly translation: reading what a plan actually does at your household's usage level, rather than at the usage level the advertised price was calculated for.

The advertised price is not a price

Every Texas retail provider publishes an Electricity Facts Label showing an average price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh a month. Those three numbers are the only prices most shoppers ever see, and they are averages calculated at exactly those usage levels — not rates.

This matters because of how plans are built. A very common structure gives you a large bill credit when monthly usage crosses a threshold, usually 1,000 kWh. Cross it and the advertised average looks excellent. Land at 950 kWh in a mild month and you lose the credit entirely, which can make your effective price several times the number on the label. Houston's mild spring and autumn months are precisely when a household drops below the threshold.

The practical consequence: the right plan depends on your usage pattern across the year, not on which advertised number is lowest. A 3,000 sq ft home in Katy that runs 2,400 kWh in August and 700 kWh in March needs a different plan from an apartment that sits near 800 kWh all year.

Plan structures, in plain language

There are four things a Texas residential plan can be, and the differences are real:

Fixed rate. One energy rate for the whole term. Your bill still moves with usage and with delivery charges, but the supply rate does not. This is what most households should be on.
Variable rate. The provider can change your rate month to month with notice. This is where expired contracts land you by default, and it is almost never where you want to be — variable rates in Texas rise sharply exactly when demand is high.
Indexed. Your rate is tied by formula to a wholesale market index. It is a genuine product with a genuine use case, and it is not appropriate for a household that cannot absorb a bad month.
Time-of-use. Different prices at different hours — free nights, free weekends, cheap overnight. These can be excellent or terrible depending on when your household actually uses power. "Free nights" plans recover the cost in the daytime rate, so they suit a home that is genuinely empty during the day and not one where someone works from home.

What is on your bill that no plan can change

Your CenterPoint delivery charges are regulated, filed publicly with the Public Utility Commission, and identical for every Houston household on the residential tariff regardless of which provider you buy from. They are a real and substantial part of your bill, and no switch reduces them.

So when a provider advertises that it will cut your bill by some percentage, ask which part of the bill they mean. The honest framing is that you can change your supply rate; the rest is set by the utility and by the state.

What we do for a Houston household

Read what you are on now, including the end date and any early termination fee.
Work out your actual usage pattern across the year rather than a single month.
Compare plans available at your specific address against that pattern.
Point out the credit thresholds, tiered pricing and expiry traps in the plans you are considering.
Handle the enrolment with the provider you pick, and confirm the start date.
Tell you if your existing plan is already good, which happens more often than you would think.

Why a broker for a household at all

Honestly? Because the comparison sites are advertising platforms. Plans appear in the order that pays best, filters are designed to steer, and nothing on those sites reads your actual bill. We do the same job a good comparison site claims to do, except that a person looks at your usage and says what they would do.

If you also own a business in Houston, the same conversation covers both. That is unusual — most energy brokers work commercial accounts only and have no residential capability at all.

Call 832-573-8546 or send a recent bill. There is no cost and nothing is signed until you say so.

Houston residential electricity questions

Is switching electricity providers in Houston actually free?

Switching itself costs nothing — no connection fee, no equipment, no visit. What can cost you is leaving your current contract early, because many fixed plans carry an early termination fee. We check that before recommending anything, and if the fee outweighs the benefit we tell you to wait.

Will my lights go out during the switch?

No. Nothing physical changes. CenterPoint Energy still owns the meter and the wires and still delivers your power. The switch happens on your next scheduled meter read and the only thing you notice is a different company on the bill.

Why is the advertised rate never what I actually pay?

Because Texas advertised prices are quoted at specific usage levels — commonly 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh a month — and many plans include bill credits or tiered pricing that only trigger at those thresholds. Use 999 kWh on a plan built around a 1,000 kWh credit and your effective price can be far higher than the number that sold you the plan. This is the single most common reason Houston households feel misled.

How long does a switch take?

Typically one billing cycle. Same-day or next-day switches are possible in some cases, and moving into a new home can usually be set up for the day you need service.

Should I take a 12-month or 36-month plan?

It depends on whether you expect to move and on where the market sits. A longer term buys price certainty and gives up flexibility; if there is a real chance you move within the term, the early termination fee becomes part of the decision. There is no universally correct answer and anyone giving you one is not asking enough questions.

Do you charge me for helping?

No. We are paid by the retail provider you choose, as a fee built into the supply contract. We publish exactly how that works, including the conflict of interest it creates and what we do about it.

What if I rent?

If the meter is in your name and you get the bill, you can switch like any other customer. If your apartment bills electricity through the property as an allocation, the contract is the property’s and switching is not available to you — we will tell you that rather than sign you up for something you cannot use.

Stop guessing at your electricity plan

We look at what is available at your address, check what leaving your current plan costs, and tell you plainly whether it is worth moving.

Compare home plans Call 832-573-8546

No cost, no obligation. Monday–Friday, 8:00am–6:00pm CT.