How Texas Electricity Rates Vary by ZIP Code
By the TexasPowerCost Editorial Team — independent Texas electricity analysis · Last reviewed October 18, 2026 · how we analyze plans
Last updated: October 18, 2026 · 7 min read
Your neighbor two streets over can sign up for the exact same electricity provider on the exact same day and pay a meaningfully different rate than you. It happens all the time in Texas. The reason isn't a glitch — it's structural. ZIP code drives which TDU serves your address, and TDU drives a big chunk of the bill. Here's how to use that knowledge to find the actual cheapest plan for your house.
The short answer
Texas electricity rates vary by ZIP because (1) ZIP determines your TDU, (2) each TDU has its own delivery charge, and (3) retail providers file different price books for each TDU territory. To find your real cheapest plan, always search by ZIP — never by city.
ZIP Codes and TDU Territory Boundaries
The four TDUs in deregulated Texas — Oncor, CenterPoint Energy, AEP Texas, and TNMP — divide the state into service areas that follow grid topology rather than city or county lines. A single ZIP can split between two TDUs. Large cities frequently span multiple TDUs. The lookup is one-to-one between a meter address and a TDU, but ZIP is a useful proxy for most of Texas.
TexasPowerCost.com resolves the ZIP-to-TDU mapping internally and pulls only the plans currently filed for that ZIP. This is why two ZIPs labeled "Houston" can return different plan lists — one may sit fully in CenterPoint territory while the other crosses into TNMP near Lake Houston.
How the Power to Choose API Treats ZIP Codes
The official Power to Choose API, run by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, accepts a 5-digit ZIP as the primary lookup. Each provider files its plans with a list of ZIPs the plan is available in. A REP can offer the same plan in only a subset of a TDU territory if it chooses. This explains why two adjacent ZIPs in the same TDU sometimes show slightly different plan inventories.
TexasPowerCost.com syncs from this API daily on a rotating schedule that covers every deregulated Texas ZIP roughly once per month per ZIP. ZIPs in the largest cities — Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin-area deregulated ZIPs — are refreshed more often.
Why Two Houston ZIPs Show Different Rates
A Texas example: 77002 vs 77084
ZIP 77002 (downtown Houston) and ZIP 77084 (West Houston near Katy) both sit in CenterPoint territory. But the plan inventory differs because some providers file West Houston as a separate territory in their price books. A bill-credit plan that only triggers above 1,500 kWh is widely available in 77084 where average usage is higher (bigger homes, more AC). It's rarer in 77002 where smaller condos and apartments dominate. The all-in cheapest plan for 77002 at 850 kWh is rarely the cheapest plan for 77084 at 1,400 kWh — even though both addresses are in the same city, same TDU, and same metro.
ZIP Codes That Cannot Shop
A meaningful share of Texas ZIPs aren't in the deregulated market. The most common reasons are service by a municipal utility (Austin Energy, CPS Energy in San Antonio, Brownsville PUB, Garland Power & Light, College Station Utilities, and others), service by an electric cooperative (Pedernales, Bluebonnet, Bandera, Bowie-Cass, and dozens of others), or service by a utility outside ERCOT (El Paso Electric, Xcel Energy in the Panhandle, Entergy Texas in parts of East Texas).
Watch out
If our ZIP search returns "no plans available" for your address, you're almost certainly in a non-deregulated area. Don't waste time looking for retail plans — they don't exist for you. Lowering your bill has to come from efficiency improvements or tariff-class selection inside your local utility's options.
The Cheapest-Plan Path for Your ZIP
A repeatable process catches the actual cheapest plan for any deregulated Texas ZIP. Three steps.
Step 1: Identify your real monthly usage range. Look at the last 12 months of bills. Note both the typical kWh number and the August peak. If you don't have the bills handy, download interval data from smartmetertexas.com — it's free and the data goes back 13 months.
Step 2: Search the ZIP on the TexasPowerCost.com homepage tool, ideally with both your average usage and your peak usage. See which plans win at each level.
Step 3: Scan the top 5 plans for any minimum-usage fee or steep tier above your peak. These are the structural traps that turn an apparent cheap plan into an expensive one in months when your usage drops.
Smart move
If you're hovering between two plans, pick the one whose math is most stable across your usage range — not the one that wins by 50 cents at exactly 1,000 kWh. A 0.5¢/kWh "win" disappears in a single bad-bill-credit month. A plan that prices reasonably across 700 to 2,000 kWh saves you across the whole year.
ZIP-Level Pages on TexasPowerCost.com
Every deregulated Texas ZIP has its own dedicated page on the site, at the URL pattern /zip/{ZIP} — for example, /zip/77002 for downtown Houston. The page lists every currently available plan, shows the TDU, and includes a "Last updated" timestamp so you can verify the data is fresh.
The ZIP search box on the homepage is the fastest way in. Bookmarks of /zip/77002 or your own ZIP let you check rates monthly without retyping anything.
The Texas-Specific Bottom Line
Three facts shape any ZIP-level rate comparison. ZIP determines TDU, and TDU determines a fixed component of every plan's all-in rate. Retail providers file different price books per territory, so the cheapest plan in one Houston ZIP is rarely the cheapest in another. And a meaningful share of Texas ZIPs aren't in the deregulated market at all. Searching by ZIP — not by city — is the only way to land on the real cheapest plan for your address.
Search your ZIP, see your real options
Every plan filed for your specific 5-digit ZIP, ranked by what it actually costs at your real usage.
Find My ZIP\'s Plans →Common Questions Texans Ask
Why do electricity rates vary by ZIP code in Texas?
Three reasons. First, your TDU is determined by your address, and each TDU has a different delivery charge. Second, retail providers file different rate cards for each TDU territory, so the same provider can quote a different price in a Dallas ZIP than in a Houston ZIP. Third, plan availability varies — some providers only file plans in selected territories or specific ZIP subsets.
How can two ZIP codes in the same city have different rates?
A single Texas city can span more than one TDU sub-territory or even more than one TDU entirely. For example, parts of Round Rock are in Oncor territory and parts are in Pedernales Electric Cooperative territory that's not deregulated. Available plan inventory and delivery charges differ between two ZIPs that share a city name.
How do I find the cheapest electricity for my exact ZIP code?
Enter your 5-digit ZIP in the TexasPowerCost.com search tool. The system queries every plan currently filed for that specific ZIP from the official PUCT Power to Choose API, ranks them by your real monthly bill — calculated by interpolating across the three EFL price points to match your actual usage — and returns the cheapest plan for your address.
Are some Texas ZIP codes not deregulated?
Yes — quite a few. ZIPs served by Austin Energy, CPS Energy in San Antonio, El Paso Electric, Brownsville PUB, Garland Power & Light, College Station Utilities, and most rural electric cooperatives are not in the deregulated market. Customers there cannot shop and pay whatever the utility or cooperative sets.
Why does the same provider show different prices in different ZIPs?
Two reasons. The underlying TDU delivery charge differs between territories. And providers often file separate price books per TDU territory to reflect different cost structures and competitive dynamics. The headline EFL rate often bundles the TDU charge into the energy charge, so the same plan name can quote a different per-kWh rate in two different ZIPs.
How often do ZIP-level rates change?
Plans are added, removed, or repriced continuously. Most major providers refresh their rate books at least monthly. TexasPowerCost.com syncs from the official Power to Choose API daily on a rotating ZIP schedule. The "Last updated" timestamp on every ZIP page shows the actual freshness for that specific dataset.
Can I see what providers are available before entering personal info?
Yes — the ZIP search on TexasPowerCost.com requires nothing but a ZIP code and home size (or kWh). No name, no email, no address, no account creation. You see every available plan immediately, and you only share personal information if you click through to a provider's enrollment page.
Your Next Move
The ZIP search tool on the homepage is the fastest path to the cheapest plan for your address. To understand the city-by-city averages your ZIP sits inside, see cheapest electricity in Texas — city by city. For the TDU charge layer driving much of the variation, read Texas TDU delivery charges, fully explained. To estimate your bill at any usage level, use the True Cost Calculator.