Texas electricity fees — plain english
Every fee on your Texas electricity bill, explained
TDU delivery charge, TDSP fee, base charge, energy charge — your bill is full of line items that sound like a foreign language. Here's what each one actually means, who sets it, and which ones you can and can't shop around.
The two charges on every bill
One you can shop for. One you can't.
Energy charge
What you pay your retail electric provider (REP) — Gexa, TXU, Reliant, and dozens of others — for the actual electricity. This is the part that varies by plan, has bill credits and promotional rates, and is the only piece worth comparison-shopping.
Delivery charge (TDU / TDSP)
What you pay the utility that owns the physical wires to your house — Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, or TNMP. Set by state regulators, identical across every REP in your area, and completely non-negotiable.
Who actually charges you
Texas's four delivery utilities
Oncor delivery charge
Serves: Dallas–Fort Worth and most of North, Central, and West Texas
The largest delivery territory in the state — if your REP options include names like TXU, Gexa, or Reliant for a DFW-area address, Oncor is almost always the wire owner behind them.
CenterPoint Energy delivery charge
Serves: Greater Houston and the Gulf Coast
Covers Houston, Baytown, Galveston, Sugar Land, and most of the surrounding metro.
AEP Texas delivery charge
Serves: Corpus Christi, the Coastal Bend, the Rio Grande Valley, and Laredo
Splits into AEP Texas Central and AEP Texas North on paper, but shows up as one "AEP Texas" territory on most plan listings.
TNMP delivery charge
Serves: Scattered pockets — parts of the South Plains near Lubbock, and small coastal and Panhandle areas
The smallest and most fragmented of the four — fewer REPs actively market here, so shop carefully.
Delivery rates are set by PUCT tariff filings and change periodically for everyone in a territory — they're not something any REP controls. Our Find Plans tool bakes your area's current delivery cost into every total we show, so you're never comparing a teaser energy rate against a real all-in one.
Other charges you might see
The rest of the bill
Base charge
A flat monthly fee some plans charge regardless of usage, on top of the per-kWh energy rate. Not all plans have one — it’s worth checking the EFL.
PUCT assessment & gross receipts tax
Small state-mandated fees that fund the Public Utility Commission and municipal franchise agreements. A few dollars a month, present on every Texas bill regardless of REP.
Minimum usage fee
A penalty (not a credit) some plans charge if you use less than a set threshold — the opposite of a bill credit. Read the EFL closely; this is often buried in fine print.
Bill credit (and the cliff behind it)
Many plans advertise a low rate that only applies if you hit an exact usage threshold — often 1,000 kWh. Fall one kWh short and you lose the entire credit for that cycle, sometimes swinging your bill by $75–$150. This is the exact problem HitMyCredit tracks automatically.
What you can actually control
Delivery charges are fixed. Missing your credit isn't.
You can't negotiate your TDU rate — but you can make sure you never miss a usage-based bill credit again. HitMyCredit tracks your daily kWh and alerts you before you fall short.
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