The math your electric company hopes you skip
The rate they advertise is not the rate you pay.
Texas retailers quote a price at exactly 1,000 kilowatt hours a month. Your house does not use exactly 1,000 kilowatt hours a month. In between sit bill credits with thresholds, minimum-usage fees, base charges and your utility’s delivery charges — and that is where the difference between two plans that both advertise “8.9¢” turns into hundreds of dollars.
We read the fine print of every certified plan, month by month, at your usage. Then we show you the arithmetic. Have a street address? Price this house against a meter profile instead of a statewide average.
- plans priced
- 899
- retailers
- 42
- last checked
- 2h ago
Every price verified against the retailer’s published numbers · every estimate labeled
Worked example · a real plan on the market today
Sorted by advertised rate, Flash Value 12 looks like the 5th cheapest plan in Dallas. Priced properly, it is the 132nd of 144.
Express Energy advertises 7.4¢ per kilowatt hour. At 1,000 kWh a month spread across a Texas year, this plan works out to 16.4¢ — $796.01 a year more than the plan that genuinely is cheapest.
| Energy charge · 780 kWh × 13.314¢ | $103.85 |
|---|---|
| Oncor delivery · 780 kWh × 6.8673¢ | $53.56 |
| Oncor delivery · monthly fee | $4.06 |
| No $125 credit · needs 999 kWh, you use 780 | not earned |
| What you would actually pay | $161.47 |
fact label read August 7, 2026
Advertised against real
advertised7.4¢really16.4¢
Every month on this plan
| Month | Estimated bill | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | $161.47 | missed the credit |
| Feb | $145.33 | missed the credit |
| Mar | $141.29 | missed the credit |
| Apr | $145.33 | missed the credit |
| May | $181.66 | missed the credit |
| Jun | $133.34 | |
| Jul | $201.96 | |
| Aug | $201.96 | |
| Sep | $141.42 | |
| Oct | $189.73 | missed the credit |
| Nov | $153.40 | missed the credit |
| Dec | $173.58 | missed the credit |
Why it costs more than it looks
- Loses its $125 bill credit in months under 999 kWh (your Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Oct, Nov, Dec).
How we count
Four things nobody else adds up for you
1
Your usage, month by month
A Texas house uses roughly twice as much electricity in August as in March. We spread your average across a summer-peaking curve, look up a profile for this house, use your twelve real numbers, or your meter file if you have it.
2
The fact label, not the headline
Every plan publishes an Electricity Facts Label. We parse the base charge, each energy tier, every bill credit and its conditions, and any minimum-usage fee — then check our reading reproduces the retailer's own published prices before we trust it.
3
Your utility's delivery charges
Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP and the rest charge a fixed monthly amount plus a rate per kilowatt hour, and it lands on your bill no matter which retailer you pick. Half the plans on the market quote a rate that excludes it.
4
Twelve months, added up
A credit that needs 1,000 kWh pays out in August and vanishes in March. We apply each credit only in the months you would actually earn it, then total the year. That total is the only thing we rank by.
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