If you are shopping electricity plans on Power to Choose and the prices look surprisingly close, that is because roughly a third of your bill is the same regardless of which plan you pick. That fixed third is the TDU delivery charge, set by your transmission and distribution utility and approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Your retail provider does not set it, does not keep it, and cannot lower it.
The TDU is the company that owns the poles, wires, substations, and the meter at your address. In Texas there are four: Oncor (Dallas-Fort Worth and most of north Texas), CenterPoint (Houston and the upper Gulf Coast), AEP (Corpus Christi, the Valley, and parts of west Texas), and TNMP (smaller pockets across the state). Your physical address determines which one delivers your power. You cannot pick or switch your TDU.
What the TDU charge actually pays for
The TDU delivery charge is a per-kWh fee plus a small monthly customer charge. As of May 2026, the per-kWh portion runs 3¢ to 5¢ depending on the TDU and the rate schedule, and the monthly customer charge runs $3 to $5. The charge funds three things.
First, the physical infrastructure: poles, wires, transformers, substations, and the smart meter at your address. The TDU built it, owns it, and maintains it.
Second, the operations: meter reading (now mostly automated through smart meters), outage response, line maintenance, vegetation management, and storm restoration. When a hurricane hits the Texas Gulf Coast and crews are restoring service, those crews are TDU crews, not retail provider crews.
Third, the regulatory recovery: capital projects approved by the PUCT, including grid hardening, resilience investments, and connections for new construction. These show up as line items inside the TDU rate when the PUCT approves a rate case.
The PUCT updates TDU rates on its own schedule, separately from anything your retail provider does. A rate case typically takes 6 to 12 months, includes public hearings, and produces a tariff that applies uniformly to every customer in the TDU's territory regardless of provider.
Why every plan in the same territory has the same TDU charge
The TDU delivery charge is a regulated pass-through. Your retail provider collects it on your bill, transmits it to the TDU, and keeps none of it. Because the rate is set by the PUCT and applies to every customer in the territory equally, no provider can offer you a lower TDU charge. They can only compete on the energy charge, the base fee, and any tiered structure they layer on top.
This is why the per-kWh rate on the Electricity Facts Label (EFL) is not the full story. An EFL for a 9.8¢ plan in Oncor territory and an EFL for a 9.8¢ plan in CenterPoint territory both quote the energy charge. The all-in cost differs because the TDU per-kWh adder is different in each territory. As of May 2026, Oncor's residential per-kWh delivery rate is about 4.0¢, CenterPoint's is about 4.6¢, AEP Central's is about 3.8¢, and TNMP's is about 5.2¢. Same advertised energy rate, different bill.
How the charge appears on your bill
Bills vary in formatting, but the TDU portion typically shows up as two or three line items. The "TDU delivery charge" or "delivery charges" line shows the per-kWh portion times your monthly usage. A "TDU customer charge" or "monthly meter charge" line shows the fixed monthly fee. Some providers fold both into a combined "delivery and TDU" line.
The EFL on every plan, by PUCT requirement, includes the TDU charge in the average price disclosure at 500 kWh, 1,000 kWh, and 2,000 kWh. That average price is the closest figure to what you will actually pay per kWh, including everything. Comparing the average price at 1,000 kWh across providers is a more honest comparison than comparing the headline energy rate.
Why your provider cannot lower it
Retail providers in Texas operate under a PUCT-issued certificate. The certificate authorizes them to bill customers for energy, set their own energy rates, and compete on plan terms. It does not authorize them to alter the TDU charge. If a provider claims to offer a lower TDU rate or to waive delivery charges, that claim is either misleading or describes a temporary credit the provider is funding from its own margin, not an actual change to the TDU tariff.
The only customers in Texas who do not pay a TDU delivery charge from one of the four investor-owned TDUs are customers in municipal or cooperative territories: Austin Energy, CPS Energy in San Antonio, El Paso Electric, Pedernales Electric Cooperative, and the rest of the co-ops and munis. Those customers buy power through their utility on a bundled rate. The deregulated market and the TDU pass-through structure do not apply to them.
What this means for plan shopping
Two things follow.
First, the only number that matters when comparing plans within the same TDU territory is the all-in average price at your actual monthly usage. Pull the EFL, read the average price at the kWh tier closest to your usage, and compare across providers. Headline rates are marketing.
Second, comparing plans across TDU territories (a Houston address against a Dallas address, for instance) is not meaningful. The TDU charge difference means a 9.8¢ Oncor plan and a 9.8¢ CenterPoint plan are different products. If you are moving between regions, expect your monthly bill to shift even if you stay with the same provider on the same plan structure.
The TDU charge is not optional, not negotiable, and not something a provider can lower for you. Understanding that one fact is the difference between shopping plans against each other and being shopped by the provider that has the cleverest marketing.