If your Texas electricity bill shows 'TNMP' or 'Texas-New Mexico Power' in the delivery section, you live in one of the state's smaller but significant utility territories, and understanding how that shapes your bill can save you real money.
Texas-New Mexico Power is a transmission and distribution utility, or TDU, regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). Its job is to own and maintain the power lines and meters that physically bring electricity to your home. It does not sell electricity. The company you chose when you enrolled for service is your retail electric provider (REP), and that company buys power on the open market and sells it to you. These are two separate relationships, two separate line items on your bill, and two separate phone numbers when something goes wrong.
What Geographic Areas Does TNMP Cover?
TNMP serves approximately 260,000 residential and commercial customers across portions of Texas, primarily in the Panhandle, West Texas, the Gulf Coast, and parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex fringe. The territory does not form one continuous block. It is a patchwork of communities that were historically served by the utility before deregulation restructured the Texas market in 2002.
Representative communities in the TNMP footprint include Lewisville, Channelview, Texas City, Clute, Freeport, Lubbock (portions), and several smaller West Texas towns. This list is not exhaustive, and service boundaries do not always follow city limits. A neighbor one street over may be served by a different TDU entirely.
How to Check Whether Your Address Is in the TNMP Service Area
The fastest way to confirm your TDU is to look at a recent electricity bill. The delivery charges section will name the TDU explicitly. If you see 'Texas-New Mexico Power' or the abbreviation 'TNMP,' that is your utility.
If you do not have a bill handy, PUCT maintains the Power to Choose website (powertochoose.org), the state's official retail plan comparison tool. Entering your ZIP code on that site will display plans available at your address, and the TDU name appears alongside those results. A third option is to call TNMP directly at 888-866-7456 and provide your service address. Their customer service team can confirm territory assignment.
Knowing your TDU before shopping for a retail plan matters because delivery charges are fixed by your TDU, not your REP. No retail provider can negotiate those charges away. Switching providers changes only the energy supply portion of your bill.
What Are TNMP Delivery Charges, and What Do They Cover?
Delivery charges are what TNMP is allowed to collect to build, operate, and maintain the poles, wires, transformers, and meters that carry electricity from the high-voltage transmission grid to your home. PUCT sets these rates through a formal rulemaking process, so TNMP cannot raise them unilaterally.
On a typical TNMP residential bill, delivery charges appear as a combination of fixed monthly charges and per-kilowatt-hour volumetric charges. As of the most recent TNMP tariff on file with PUCT, the base customer charge is roughly $6 to $7 per month, and the delivery energy charge adds approximately 3 to 4 cents per kWh consumed. Transmission and distribution system charges plus various PUCT-mandated fees layer on top of that. The total all-in delivery cost for an average household using 1,000 kWh per month typically falls in the range of $40 to $55 inside the TNMP territory, though it varies by rate class and any active riders. Always check the current TNMP tariff at puc.texas.gov for the precise figures in effect at the time of your billing period.
Because delivery charges are fixed by tariff, a retail plan advertised at a low cents-per-kWh rate does not eliminate them. That plan rate covers only the energy supply and any retail markup. The TDU delivery charges sit on top, which is why comparing plans at a stated usage level (1,000 kWh is the Texas standard disclosure point) gives a more complete picture than comparing headline rates alone.
TNMP vs. Your Retail Electric Provider: Who Does What
This distinction confuses many customers, so a direct comparison is useful.
TNMP owns the physical infrastructure. It reads your meter, responds to downed lines, restores power after storms, and bills the TDU portion of your electricity costs (usually passed through your REP's bill). It is regulated by PUCT and has no profit motive tied to how much electricity you buy.
Your retail electric provider markets plans, buys electricity on ERCOT's wholesale market, and sets the energy rate you pay. It handles enrollment, billing (for the supply portion), contract terms, and early termination fees. It has a direct business relationship with you and competes for your account.
If your lights go out, TNMP is the correct call, not your REP. REPs do not own lines and cannot dispatch repair crews. If your bill looks wrong, your REP is the correct call for the energy charges, while TNMP handles disputes over the delivery portion.
One practical consequence: even if you switch REPs tomorrow, your TNMP delivery charges remain identical. The only thing a REP switch changes is the energy supply rate and any associated fees or contract terms.
The TNMP Outage Number and How to Use It
TNMP's 24-hour outage reporting line is 888-866-7456. This number handles both general customer service during business hours and outage reports at any hour. When calling to report an outage, have your service address ready. TNMP also accepts outage reports through its website at tnmp.com, where an outage map shows known incidents and restoration estimates.
Reporting your outage separately, even if a neighbor has already called, helps TNMP dispatch crews accurately. Each reported address adds geographic data that helps prioritize restoration for the largest number of customers. Do not call your REP to report an outage. They will direct you back to TNMP.
How TNMP Territory Affects Your Plan Shopping
Because delivery charges vary by TDU, the all-in cost of any given retail plan differs depending on which utility serves your address. A plan that is the cheapest option in an Oncor zone may rank differently in a TNMP zone once delivery charges are added. This is why shopping tools that display rates by ZIP code, and that include TDU charges in the comparison, produce more accurate results than those showing only the supply rate.
As of August 12, 2026, plans listed on Choose My Power showed a median all-in rate of 15.1 cents per kWh at 1,000 kWh usage across all Texas TDU territories. The cheapest listed plan on that date came in at 5.6 cents per kWh all-in at 1,000 kWh (Just Energy, Smart Choice 12, in the lowest-cost utility area). That gap between the median and the floor illustrates why the specific plan and specific TDU zone together determine what a household pays. TNMP residents shopping plans should filter by their ZIP code and compare fully loaded rates, not just the supply rate headline.
One additional detail worth checking: 18 of the 126 plans listed on Choose My Power as of that same date carried a bill-credit cliff structure, where a bill at 500 kWh ran more than $25 above the bill at 1,000 kWh. This pricing structure is a retail plan feature, not a TNMP policy, but it affects TNMP customers equally. Households with modest or variable usage should read the Electricity Facts Label (EFL) for any plan they consider to confirm whether a bill-credit cliff applies.
When Switching Providers in the TNMP Territory Makes Sense
Switching makes sense when a household is out of contract, on a month-to-month holdover rate, or approaching the end of a term. It does not make sense mid-contract unless the early termination fee is smaller than the projected savings over the remaining term. Running that math before enrolling in a new plan prevents a switch from costing more than staying put.
The TNMP territory is fully deregulated and open to competition. All retail providers licensed by PUCT can serve addresses in that footprint. Shopping broadly, reading the EFL, and confirming the all-in rate at actual household usage levels are the steps that consistently produce the best outcome.