Picking The Right Houston Electricity Company, Rate and Plan

What to Know Before Signing up With Just Anyone

We have compiled a list of some of the more popular residential Texas electricity companies and rate plans. If there is a known issue with one of the residential electricity companies we list that concern next to the provider. There are some providers that have blatantly obvious tricks we know of that shows one rate on their website but when receiving your first electricity bill the rate is much higher due to the TDSP charges not being clearly apparent. A note should be made that these Texas electricity providers are usually involved in leaving off the TDSP charge on their advertised rate. We are not sure exactly how many energy companies participate in this practice as well as they change their practices depending on how much heat they are receiving from PUCT complaints. You can read Consumer Energy complaints from some of these providers customers who can explain what exactly can occur when switching to a gimmicky energy company better than we can.

August 7 2009 Residential Houston Electricity Company Comparison, Cheapest to Most Expensive

Understanding Your Houston Residential Electricity Rate

Most electric providers in Texas will bundle the TDSP charges into the energy only rate giving you an all-in rate that can be compared against other Texas electricity companies like TXU Energy and Reliant Energy. We have listed both TXU and Reliant in our comparison chart in order to compare their electricity prices with other Texas electric providers. You will notice that the two largest energy providers in Texas have much higher electricity prices than some of the smaller but good electric companies. Right now Champion Energy and Startex Power are two reputable electricity providers in Texas offering very cheap fixed electricity rate offers. All fees and charges are disclosed with these two companies. With Startex if a customer uses less then 500 kWh hours a month there will be a $4.95 monthly service fee although most Texas electricity consumers use more then this so it shouldn’t be an issue for most customers. A monthly service fee is simply an additional charge many electricity providers have in addition to their electricity price. It is important that a provider disclose this fee upfront rather than hide it in the contract details. We have made these fees obvious in our rate chart so you can make a clear apples to apples comparison of electricity prices in Texas.

Historical Houston Electricity Rate Snapshot for August 7 2009

Since this Houston electricity comparison chart is an update for August 7 2009 it only represents a historical snapshot of what Texas electricity providers were charging on this date. An updated and daily refreshed electricity rate chart is also provided below with some of the cheapest Houston electricity companies. We hope this historical list of Houston energy providers in prices above will keep you informed of how prices move over the course of several months. If you have any questions or comments about one of these Houston electricity companies please feel free to leave a comment below. If you are interested in a no deposit Houston electricity choice please visit our no deposit electricity page.

Current Houston Electricity Rates, Companies, and Plans

Compare several electricity rates and companies in Texas where all fees and charges are disclosed and bundled into the rate. There is no guessing what your final electricity rate will be when using Electricity Bid’s comparison chart below. Type in your zip code and click “continue”

Comparing Texas Electricity Rates in a Clear Apples to Apples Comparison Chart

Read the article below about deceptive trade practices regarding advertising a low Texas residential electric rate that does not include all charges such as TDSP charges, pole charges, and pass through charges. After your done reading come back here to this residential electric rate comparison chart that shows all charges in a total bundled rate in a clear apples to apples comparison. You can be confident that the rate you sign up on will be a total bundled electric rate with no surprise charges.

What is at The Root of the Confusion Involving Unbundled Residential Electric Rates?

In Texas you have commercial electricity rates and you have residential electricity rates. These electric rates and charges are all together different animals. Don’t be confused by assuming one is the other and don’t let a retail electric provider convince you that your wrong about a confusion involving TDSP charges added onto your electric bill. Texas commercial electric rates are usually quoted to a energy consumer as an “unbundled rate”. This means that the quoted commercial electric rate does not have the TDSP charges (pole charges) added into the rate. The reason the charges are not quoted initially when receiving a commercial rate quote is because the electric company does not know what they are for that specific business. TDSP charges are figured based on actual or historical usage and differ from one company to the next.

TDSP charges for commercial businesses are not a fixed charge because they are based on the amount of electricity you use on any given month. The charges are past through by the monopoly utility that owns the poles and wires and so the provider isn’t even in control of what these charges will be but only passes them through on their electric bill to the consumer. A  fitness studio gym might spend on average about 7 cents per kWh for TDSP charges on top of their “energy only” rate. A large chemical or manufacturing plant might spend 1 – 2 cents per kWh on average for TDSP charges. Generally the larger the commercial or industrial business the smaller on average per kWh the TDSP charges will be.

How TDSP Charges Work for Residential Energy Prices

Now lets consider residential electric rates and TDSP charges. Most Texas electric providers will quote you an all in electric rate that includes the TDSP charges in the rate. You may wonder how a residential electric provider can quote the TDSP charges as a part of the electric rate if they vary from one customer to the next? The answer to this question is that most Texas electric companies will bundle the two charges together before ever knowing what the residential energy consumer uses because they know on average what the historical average is for most residential customers. Since most home owners average about 1,300 kWh a month a Texas electric company can fix the TDSP charges and go ahead and bundle those charges in their advertised residential electric rate. Now even though we say that most residential electric companies in Texas bundle these pole and wires charges in their advertised rate does not mean that all do. The fact that not all residential electric companies include the TDSP charges in their rate is the issue many Texas energy consumers are facing and it has defrauded them out of hundreds of dollars.

Why do Residential Electric Service Customers Sign up for Unbundled Energy Service Products?

By signing up for an unbundled electric rate you are kind of flying blind with no real knowledge of what the final rate will be. You are not to blame as you probably had no idea that there would be additional pole and wires charges added on to the rate. The confusion comes in when a Texas residential energy consumer compares electric rates from several electric companies and finds a rate that is much much cheaper than all the other companies they have looked at. The rate says that it is a fixed electric rate and the company seems to be a large company in several states so the customer feels reassured that they are signing up on a legit rate. So lets say that the customer finds a 1 year fixed electric rate at 7 cents a kWh. This sounds amazing right now and is several cents cheaper than all the other electric companies. They wait and get their first months Texas electric bill only to find that the actual rate they are paying is 13 cents a kWh. Somewhere along the way they must have missed something when signing up with the electric company so they call to find out what the problem is. The customer calls and the sales agent tells the customer that their rate is 7 cents a kWh but the “pass through charges” also known as TDSP or pole and wires charges are an additional 3 – 6 cents per kWh on top of the “energy only” rate you agreed to. The funny thing is you were never notified about these additional charges and so you argue towards that direction only to hear the provider say, “We are not the TDSP company and only pass through those charges from the pole and wires company that owns the wires. Our charges are the “energy only” charges which is the rate you agreed to.” So all of the sudden the blame goes to the pole and wires company which is Centerpoint Energy in the Houston area and Oncor Electric Delivery in the Dallas Area. The electric provider even encourages you to call the pole and wire company if you want to complain about the charges.

The Pizza Guy on the Phone Gets You Into a Never Ending Circular Argument

Do you see what the electric provider has done? They have shifted the blame over to the pole and wires company for their misleading advertised electric rate. So even though you were under the impression that your total bundled rate was 7 cents per kWh the electric company is blaming you for not understanding that there was an additional pole and wires charge. If you complain to Johnny Pizza Guy that you were not notified about the charge the Texas energy provider may even shift the blame over to the pole and wires company so they get you off the phone and continue signing up more suckers for their misleading electric rate. Do you really think Johnny who gets paid $9 an hour really cares about your plight over your higher electric rate? He probably doesn’t and needs to keep his calls under 15 minutes so that he keeps his job and the energy provider meets their call center metrics.

You Take the Bait and Call the TDSP Company Which Gets You No Where

So you call the pole and wires company and they are no help at all as they don’t even deal with the retail side of the market. They handle disconnects, turn on’s, move in’s, new construction and such. These TDSP companies do not sell electricity and so when you call complaining that you were charged a very high TDSP charge they direct you back to the retail electric company that did not properly notify you of the charge. So you call the retail electric provider that sold you the misleading residential electric rate and the argument starts all over again. You complain that you were told the rate would be 7 cents per kWh but the bill states the rate is 13 cents per kWh. They explain that “their rate” is 7 cents per kWh but the “TDSP Charges” are 6 cents per kWh and come from a different company. You explain that you just called the TDSP company and they told you to call back your retail electric provider to complain. The electric provider blames the pole and wires company for requesting you call them back and explains again that they only pass through the TDSP charges but have no control over what those charges will be.

Only a Handful of Electric Companies in Texas Advertise an Unbundled Residential Electric Rate

So what is really going on here? There are only a handful of Texas electric companies that do this practice of misleading the customer into an electricity rate that seems several cents cheaper than it really is. If we were to name some of these energy companies in this article we could potentially get into some legal trouble as we have made some rather troubling statements that may not be within the necessary realm of legal accuracy. For the time we will refrain from naming names of exactly which electic companies in Texas participate in offering a rate that only appears low but is really much higher. Instead we encourage any customer that has been defrauded to post a comment with your exact experience in order to warn other consumers to stay away from the electricity providers who practice this slimeball advertising tactic.

Challenge the Electric Company With a Sound Argument About Pole and Wires Charges

If you engage in an argument with a Texas electricity provider that operates in this manner you will go round and round in a circular argument about how their rate is accurate and is the “energy only” rate and that the TDSP charge is something they are not responsible for. You might want to ask this provider, “why do most Texas electric companies go ahead and bundle the TDSP charge into their advertised fixed residential electric rate so that Texas energy consumers know exactly what they will be charged?” Who knows what the pizza guy will tell you on the other side of the phone from here but you get my point. They really won’t have a good answer for you. If you want to compare residential electricity rates that have all fees and charges, TDSP, and pole and wires charges disclosed without the hidden fees and unquoted pass through charges then please use the comparison chart at the top of this page. We have all fees and charges included in the electric rates in the chart and the companies in the comparison chart are reputable quality energy companies to do business with. By comparing Texas electric rates in an apples to apples comparison with multiple other energy providers you can make a clear informed decision and truly go with the cheapest electric provider in Texas. Again we promise you will not experience the surprises that you may have had with a disreputable electric company that did not disclose your TDSP charges in their advertised energy price.

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Read More Related to This Issue

Liberty Power

The TDSP Smart meter surcharge is being felt by Texas residential electric customers as the Oncor utility area has rolled out the meter fee on all residential electric service customers in the Oncor Electric Delivery utility area. The below TXU Energy customer filed a complaint with the Public Utility Commission about the meter fee but is a little confused about TXU Energy’s role in the fee.

TXU Energy back in 2008 actually tried to work to have the PUCT reconsider the meter fee or atleast how the PUCT and ERCOT charged the customer for it. At the time TXU was objecting, the issue raised was how the public would perceive the additional charge. The meter fee would have a large impact on their core business. Most of TXU Energy’s customers are in the Oncor Utility area. A majority of Oncor Electric Delivery’s customers are located in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Most of TXU Energy’s customers are also in the Dallas and Fort Worth Texas areas. The TXU Energy customer quoted below did raise a valid point about TXU Energy’s electric rate being quite high. There are actually much cheaper Texas electric rates out there than what TXU electric company is currently charging and you can check these out on the top left of this page or click below on our Dallas electricity rate comparison link:

Dallas Electricity rate comparison

What many energy consumers are just not aware of is the fact that the advanced meter fee is not a product child of TXU Electric Company. This meter fee also known as a smart meter fee is also not the product brain child of Oncor Electric Delivery even though Oncor will be rolling it out. Oncor is not TXU and TXU is not Oncor. Oncor Electric Delivery maintains and services the pole and wires as well as reads the meters for all retail electric providers and electric service customers and several years prior to deregulation went under the name TU ELectric as did TXU Energy. Oncor and TXU are seperate companies that cannot favor one another although they are owned by the same holding company, Energy Futures Holdings. Recently as of 2009 Oncor was mandated to pass these smart meter TDSP charges onto the retail electric providers like TXU and Reliant Energy. TXU and Reliant are not responsible for these charges but they get blamed for them because they have a large customer base in the areas that have been hit by this meter fee. Oncor Electric Delivery is also known as the Dallas and Fort Worth area TDSP company. TDSP stands for transmission and distribution service provider.

To Whom it May Concern
I am writing this letter to protest the “Monthly TDSP Meter Surcharge” of $2.21 that appeared on my TXU Energy bill (Invoice #054200111455) for May 2009. I believe the charge is for the new type of digital meter that when installed allows the utility company to read the usage amount each month automatically, a huge benefit for the utility company, but not for the customer. The customer can also use the digital meter to determine how much electricity each appliance in his home is using. Big Whoop…I don’t care. This type of meter has not been installed at my apartment complex; however, I am being charged for it. Since when, is it allowed to charge for a utility’s capital expenditures before the benefit has been received by the customer? In the future, are the electric utilities going to be allowed to charge the customer for each individual pole replaced?

According to news reports, Texans pay the highest electric utility rates in the nation. My bill states that I pay13.95 cents per kWh excluding taxes. That’s way too much. It appears that the PUC simply rubber-stamps any rate increase or new “made up” category that utilities such as TXU requests. In the recent past, utilities such as cable companies were not allowed to provide “additional” services, such as high speed internet, to only the affluent sections of a city (this is called “cherry picking”). All sections of the city would receive the new services, and customers would only be charged for new services when new services were available to the customer. I do not have access to the new digital meter technology and therefore, I should not have to pay for it. In addition, the rate charged by a utility should include all capital expenditures it makes to deliver its product.

The “Monthly TDSP Meter Surcharge” is unjust and I refuse to pay it. The PUC is supposed to represent the public, not the electric, telephone, and cable monopolies. Just because Energy Future Holdings paid too much to acquire TXU is not a justification for the PUC to grant special rate increase for bogus surcharges that have never been charged in the past.

What course of action should the PUC take? Eliminate the TDSP Meter Surcharge and reduce the electric utility rates paid by customers, especially residential customers. These charges are unjust and excessive.
Sincerely,
Charles
Dallas Texas 75220

Oh No! More Surcharges on Your Commercial Electric Bill

The Texas government has recently added a new surcharge to your commercial businesses electric bill. If you operate a commercial or industrial business in the state of Texas and are paying for electricity then you qualify for the additional surcharge on your electric bill regardless of the elecric company you have chosen to sell you electricity. Starting on 12/29/2008 for the Oncor Electric Delivery area (Dallas, Fort Worth) which is most of North Texas and starting 2/2/09 for the the CenterPoint Energy utility area (Houston, Harris and Fort Bend Counties) your electricity bill will now have a surcharge added under the TDSP line item. The new surcharge is called “Transmission and Distribution Service Provider (TDSP) Meter Surcharge” and is based on your businesses kW demand.

How to Lower the new KW Surcharge

To keep this surcharge down you will want to limit the amount of large machines running at the same time in your commercial facility. The KW demand increases the more machines, appliances, printers, lights, etc you have on at the same time regardless of how long they are on. kWH is the amount of electricity you use in total but does not apply to this surcharge which is based totally on demand usage. This electricity surcharge is officially a PUCT-approved pass-through fee. There are electric providers out there that will extrapolate some of the fees from the “energy only” charge and place it in the TDSP line item to make their electric rate look better. This is not one of those charges or schemes. No matter the Texas electric company you may be using you will begin to see this new surcharge on your electric bill.

Possible Opportunity For Some Energy Companies to Scam

If you think that your “Transmission and Distribution Service Provider (TDSP) Meter Surcharge” is excessively high or that the provider may not be charging you correctly for this charge then please feel free to give us a call. One of our energy consultants would be glad to do a bill audit and verify if what you are paying is an accurate charge or an attempt by an electric provider to increase the electricity rate they charge you.

Feel Free to Call Electricity Bid

Call us at: 1-800-971-4020

Click Here and Compare January 2008 Houston Residential Rates

Houston residential electric rates have steadily come down this month and when comparing to the summer of 2008 they are several cents cheaper. This last summer we had one of the worst electricity rate spikes in the history of Texas. Because residential electricity rates in Texas have come down so much since this summer we recommend signing up for atleast 1 year. A 1 year fixed electric rate insures that your Houston electricity rate is locked in for the duration of the term.

Houston Electric Service More Expensive then Dallas Rates

In Houston rates are a little higher then they are in the Dallas Texas area and other deregulated electric service cities in the state. Houston’s congestion and line loss issues on their poles and wires contributes to a higher electric rate in comparison to other cities regardless of the electric provider in Houston you go with.

TDSP, Pole and Wires Charges, and Comparing Electricity Rates

When comparing residential electricity rates in Houston do not be confused when looking at commercial energy prices. Commercial energy prices usually just show the “energy only” portion of the rate. When you look at a rate comparison chart showing several commercial energy providers the rates will look much better then they do when looking through residential electric service rates. The reason for the difference in price is that the Texas residential electric rate is an all in rate that includes the pole and wires charges and the “energy only” charges. The commercial rate isn’t any cheaper it just doesn’t have the pole charges included.

Are Commercial Electric Rates Intentionally Deceptive?

Commercial energy providers in Houston are not trying to be deceptive when the rate that is quoted does not have the pole and wires charges included in the energy rate. The reason for this difference is because the electricity provider does not know what the pole and wires charges will be immediately for a Texas business. A Texas chemical plant may pay a penny on top of the “energy rate” while a Curves fitness studio may pay 9 cents kWh for their pole charges. The pole charges are not known until an accurate estimate is completed based on several specs of the facility or the historical electricity usage is pulled from the electric utility in Houston.

All-In Energy Prices

The below Houston residential electric prices include the pole charges and energy only charges. These electric rates are all in rates that include all charges. You may browse through and pick the company, term and electric rate that meets your specific residential electric service needs.

Compare Houston Residential Electric Rates Below

January 2008 Update

Residential Electric Customers Complaining about Additional Fees Crammed In

I have started to receive some calls the last few days from a few residential electric customers complaining that a certain retail Texas electric provider and recent start up in Texas has been cramming in additional charges in their fixed rate. The customers were told by the provider that they still have a fixed rate but the TDSP charges were raised on their rate plan. The electric company past the issue on to the non-negotiable TDSP charges as they are past through on an electric bill. The issue is that residential customers who lock in on a fixed electric rate are also locking in the TDSP (Transmission and Distribution Charges) charges. The TDSP charges cannot be changed as they are regulated by the Texas government so Texas residential energy customers can have some price protection for a certain term.

Commercial Rates are Different then Residential Rates

Texas commercial electric rates are different in that the TDSP charges differ from one business to the next. For instance, a Smoothie Factory store may pay 8 cents kWh on average for TDSP’s on top of their Energy Provider Generation Charge but a manufacturing facility may only pay 1 cent kWh. So commercial companies are protected on the Energy Provider Generation Charge but not on the TDSP charges. The issue at hand here is that some providers are trying to make it sound like the same thing applies for residential electric customers. Residential electric customers in Texas that sign up on a fixed electric rate should have both their TDSP charges and Energy Provider Charges locked in to one fixed rate that will not change the entire term of the contract.

Don’t Be Fooled

If an electric company in Texas tries to tell you that the reason your residential fixed electric rate has gone up so much is because of TDSP charge increases you need to quickly write a detailed complaint and send it in along with the electric bill in question via fax to the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

You can fax your issue to the PUCT at fax number: 512-936-7003

Public Utility Commission of Texas Talks Straight

The PUCT today explained why deregulation may not be working as planned in some areas of the state of Texas. There is not a whole lot of data prior to Texas deregulating the electric rates in 2002 but what information we do have has remained inconclusive at this point. Right after deregulation we saw several large electric monopolies become deregulated. “Deregulated” just means that the state of Texas has unbundled the pole and wires charges from the “retail energy rate”. The reason they unbundled the rate is because the pole and wires company is an altogether different operation from the energy trading desk that buys energy in the form of natural gas and other commodities and resells it as electricity to commercial and residential customers. Once the rate was unbundled any new Texas electric company that wanted to could open up business and sell the retail energy to customers while the same pole and wires company you have always used passes through the pole charges onto the electric bill with no markup. If you have picked an alternate electric provider since deregulation you can actually still see the pole and wires company number on the bill in case of an electric outage. The number on the bill helps to confirm to Texas energy customers that they still deal with the company they always have when it comes to the electric service infrastructure and transmission.

An Example Of A Deregulated Electric Utility

TXU Electric Company was deregulated back in 2002 and as you may or may not know they kept their same name when they became an independent Texas electric provider. That means that their pole and wires company was called TXU and their retail energy company was called TXU even though they legally could not be affiliated with the pole and wire division. They were basically two altogether separate companies because legally there could be coercion if they were still affiliated. Imagine if you switched to a different retail electric provider and “TXU” the pole and wires company decided they would get you back by raising your TDSP charges on your bill which covers the pole, wires and meter maintenance? This would be a good way to keep people from leaving TXU since pole and wires charges can sometimes make up 50% or more of your Texas electric bill.

TXU Electric Delivery Had To Rebrand

What ended up happening because of continuous fear and confusion, because the name was so similar to the old monopoly, was a complete rebrand of the pole and wires part of the company. TXU Electric Delivery had to rename themselves “Oncor Electric Delivery” in order for people to distinguish between TXU (The Retail Electric Provider) and TXU (The Pole and Wires Company or TDSP Company, now called Oncor). Even after reading this lengthy explanation many people will still have no idea that TXU just sells the electricity (a paper transaction bought and sold on commodity markets and hedged) and no longer maintains the poles, lines and meters. Even as of today you will still see TXU Electric Delivery as a brand name for Oncor Electric Delivery even though they are no longer called that. Oncor even owns the name “TXU Electric Delivery” although imagine if Microsoft found a company using their brand name even if not in the same line of work? Microsoft would sue their pants off and the company would immediately need to cease and desist all use of their brand name. This is not the case with Oncor as they use Oncor and TXU interchangeably which helps in the confusion process and brings in multiple electricity customers back to TXU Energy Retail Electricity. It would appear that Oncor using TXU as a part of their brand name is an effort to help TXU Energy Retail gather new and existing customers even though they are no longer the same company. Many people call TXU Energy to have their electricity turned on thinking they are calling the poles and wires company. TXU Energy signs the new customers up left and right because of this confusion process and there does not appear to be any end in site. The rate is usually not very competitive in comparison to other retail electric providers in Texas and neither does it need be considering that these customers are signing up on a brand they believe to be their only choice in “turning on new electric service”.

Example of An Alternate Texas Residential Electric Provider To Compare With TXU: Startex Power is currently the cheapest provider: learn more and Champion Energy comes in second place.

Oncor Maintains The Poles, Wires and Meters

So what have we learned? Oncor reads your meter and maintains the electric infrastructure in North Texas. They are the ones who pass through your TDSP charges on a 1 to 1 basis on your retail electric bill. The reason they are called pass through charges is because most retail electric providers like, TXU Energy, Gexa, Startex, Spark, Champion, Bounce Energy and multiple others do not markup the TDSP charges from Oncor but pass them through on a 1 to 1 basis. There are a few Texas electric providers who do in fact markup the TDSP charges while offering a competitive retail electric rate. What ends up happening is you believe that Oncor has past through those charges with no additional markup on your bill, which is the only company who can since they own the electric infrastructure in North Texas. You receive a competitive retail electric rate with no indication, except in fine print in the energy contract, that the TDSP charges have been marked up by the retail electric provider (not Oncor). This allows a few retail electric providers to come away with extra profit margin until the PUCT of Texas makes this an illegal deceptive trade practice. Until the PUCT does something about it some electric providers will continue to do this until bad publicity catches up with them.

No Historical Data On TXU Energy Electric Rates Prior To 2002

There is not a lot of data showing what the last previous 2 years prior to deregulation showed for what electric rates were at for TXU Energy. This information would be useful in understanding what the Texas retail electric rates have done before and after with TXU since deregulation began in 2002. What we would need is the electric usage data file going back before 2002 for a particular company or residence. This can be obtained from Oncor Electric Delivery in the Dallas and East Texas area and from Centerpoint Energy in the Houston area. We would then need some corresponding electric bills prior to deregulation. Any electric bills before 2002 will prove helpful. We can then compile the data and give some estimates of what electric rates have done before and after Texas deregulation in regards to TXU Energy. We would also take into account what natural gas prices have done since deregulation began. There was a time right after deregulation when natural gas spiked up to some historical highs which caused electric rates to drastically rise. This rate spike made it look like deregulation was having the opposite effect that the state of Texas was expecting.

If you have old electric bills and usage data please feel free to fax it to 1-903-484-9222 and we can use it in our analysis. We appreciate your help in this matter.

Texas Deregulation Debate, What Is the Current Controversy?

The debate right now is whether or not Texas deregulation actually caused electric rates to go up instead of down. Many people believe that NOT breaking up the monopolies would have been a better choice. Their reasons have to do with several factors.

Factor 1

One reason has to do with the natural gas spike back in the beginning of 2002. Natural gas has a 90% correlation with electric rates in Texas. Because natural gas spiked so did Texas electric rates and this was at the same time Texas unveiled deregulation. Timing was very bad in this case in giving the Texas public the perception that deregulation works to reduce electric rates.

Factor 2

The second popular reason is that city municipalities and coops near deregulated towns often pay a few cents kWh less for their electricity then the deregulated city next door. These city owned municipalities and coops give the public the perception that deregulation has done nothing but raise rates. The factor that people are not recognizing is that the prior monopoly retail electric providers like TXU, First Choice Power, Entergy, WTU, Reliant, and CPL may have had abnormally higher electric rates then some of the smaller city owned coops and municipalities. The only way to know for sure if this is the case is to provide historical electric usage data and historical electric bills prior to 2002 from one of these retail electric monopolies also known as Texas Affiliate electric providers. You can send us your historical bills and usage data and we would be glad to investigate.

Fax : 903-484-9222

Factor 3

Another point to consider in regards to factor 2 is that not all city owned municipalities and coops have cheaper electric rates then the deregulated Texas electric providers. Take for instance the city of Garland Texas. The city of Garland has many times had higher electric rates in comparison to competitive Texas electric companies like Champion Energy or Startex Power. There are several other municipalities that have historically had much cheaper electric rates then the competitive Texas electric providers in the deregulated counties of the state. One such provider is in the cities of Longview and Marshall Texas. SWEPCO also known as AEP is not deregulated in these areas and is a few cents cheaper then cities just outside of it like Tyler Texas. The only explanation as to why they are able to provide a cheaper electric rate would be related to less advertising dollars spent at competing against multiple other electric companies. Texas has made the record books at being the most competitive electricity market in the world and AEP SWEPCO has avoided the issue of needing to compete with other providers by having absolutely no competition in this area of Texas. They also have the added pressure of needing to keep the rate low so that the city does not decide one day to deregulate the area because of being overcharged by their monopoly electric company. Longview must also contend with the fact that by deregulating the area they could bring in new businesses and jobs to the city which gives them more tax dollars. In the end a Texas city or county may decide to deregulate because the electric rates would be cheaper, they could add tax revenue and new jobs, and the possibility that Texas Energy lobbyists have swayed them.

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