Retail electric providers in Texas.

What a retail electric provider actually is

In the deregulated part of Texas, two different companies touch your electricity. The transmission and distribution utility (TDU) owns the poles, wires and meter: Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, TNMP, or Lubbock Power & Light. You do not choose it, you cannot switch it, and it is who restores your power when the line comes down.

The retail electric provider (REP) is the company you do choose. It buys power on the wholesale market, sells it to you at a rate it sets, and sends the bill. Switching providers changes who bills you and what you pay per kilowatt-hour. It does not change the wires, the meter, or who shows up after a storm. Nothing physical happens at your house when you switch.

What a provider controls, and what it just passes through

Your bill has two halves. The provider sets the energy charge and any base charge or bill credit attached to the plan, and that half is what shopping actually changes. The delivery charges are the TDU's, set under rates the Public Utility Commission approves, and they are the same no matter whose name is on the bill. A provider advertising a low rate has not lowered your delivery charges, because it cannot.

Who is allowed to sell you power

A REP has to be certified by the Public Utility Commission of Texas before it can sell electricity, and each one is issued a certificate number. The Commission publishes a directory of certified providers, so a company you have not heard of can be checked against it in about a minute. An unfamiliar name is not a red flag on its own. Several of the better-priced providers in Texas are small.

Whether you get to choose at all

The Commission's test is simple: if you are inside the ERCOT region and are not served by an electric cooperative or a municipally owned utility, you can pick your provider. If you are on Austin Energy, CPS Energy in San Antonio, or a co-op, you cannot. There is no provider to compare, and no switch to make. Most Texas homes do qualify, but "most" is not "all", and the answer depends on your address rather than your city.