Bill credits and minimum-usage traps in Texas

Texas retail plans disclose an average price at three usage levels: 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kilowatt-hours. The middle number is the one that shows up in a lot of advertisements. The 500-kilowatt-hour number is where a bill credit or a minimum-usage fee shows itself. This guide uses the Power to Choose export retrieved on October 10, 2026. That file has 1,857 rows. Plans change often. A price quoted here is the price in that export.

What the three prices are

Each price is dollars per kilowatt-hour, already an average at that usage. A row that says 0.124 at 500 kilowatt-hours, 0.121 at 1,000, and 0.119 at 2,000 declines gently as usage rises, which is what a fixed charge looks like when it is spread over more kilowatt-hours. A row that says 0.185 at 500, 0.057 at 1,000, and 0.118 at 2,000 falls off a ledge. The 1,000-kilowatt-hour price is far below both neighbors. That shape is the cliff.

The plan checker flags a row when the export marks minimum-usage fees or credits, when the fees and credits field is filled in, or when the 500-kilowatt-hour price is more than 15 percent above the 1,000-kilowatt-hour price. In the October 10 export, 176 rows carry the cliff flag, 154 carry the minimum-usage flag, and 114 have a 500-kilowatt-hour price more than 1.4 times the 1,000-kilowatt-hour price. The categories overlap. English and Spanish rows are both in the 1,857. Filtering to English cuts the list roughly in half, and the pattern remains.

One disclosed example

AP Gas & Electric (TX) LLC listed a product named Simple Saver 3 on AEP Texas Central in that export. The disclosed prices were $0.185 per kilowatt-hour at 500 kilowatt-hours, $0.057 at 1,000, and $0.118 at 2,000. The row is flagged for a minimum-usage condition and for the cliff. At the 1,000-kilowatt-hour disclosure, 1,000 times $0.057 is $57.00. At the 500-kilowatt-hour disclosure, 500 times $0.185 is $92.50. Using half the energy costs more dollars, on the prices the provider disclosed for those two standard levels.

The same product name appears on other TDUs in the same export, at different prices. On Oncor, two Simple Saver 3 rows, differing slightly, disclose about $0.191 or $0.192 at 500 kilowatt-hours and $0.062 at 1,000. On CenterPoint the export shows $0.192 and $0.062. On AEP Texas North, $0.190 and $0.062. On Texas-New Mexico Power, $0.213 and $0.080. On Lubbock Power & Light, $0.223 and $0.098. The 1,000-kilowatt-hour price is the advertisement. The 500-kilowatt-hour price is the month you take a trip, the month the weather is mild, or the apartment that uses well under 1,000 kilowatt-hours.

The estimator keeps the three disclosed points. If you type 750 kilowatt-hours, the nearest standard level is 1,000, and the tool multiplies 750 by the 1,000-kilowatt-hour price and says that is what it did. For Simple Saver 3 on AEP Texas Central, 750 times $0.057 is $42.75. That applies the disclosed 1,000-kilowatt-hour average to 750. The facts label may impose the credit only when usage lands in a band, so the label is the offer and the $42.75 figure is the comparison. Read the label linked from the row.

Why 1,000 is a popular target

A fixed monthly credit that requires usage at or above 1,000 kilowatt-hours drops the average price at that level and disappears below it. The 2,000-kilowatt-hour price then rises back toward the uncredited energy price, because a fixed credit spread over 2,000 kilowatt-hours is half as many cents as the same credit spread over 1,000. Simple Saver 3 on AEP Texas Central shows that shape: 18.5¢, then 5.7¢, then 11.8¢. A household that uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours every month is the customer the disclosure highlights. EIA's 2025 Texas residential average, from the Average Bill file, is 1,110.3 kilowatt-hours a month, 15.40¢, and $170.95. The state average says many Texas households are near the 1,000-kilowatt-hour neighborhood across the year. A winter month in a gas-heated house, or a vacant month, can fall under the threshold that keeps the credit.

The state average of 15.40¢ is the state's 2025 average, not a plan you can sign. Reliant Energy Retail Services, the largest retail row in the 2025 Texas file by customers, averaged 18.38¢ and $190.67 a month across 1,545,510 customers. That is 2025 revenue divided by 2025 sales. A 5.7¢ disclosure at 1,000 kilowatt-hours is a single product in an October 2026 export. The labels keep those two numbers in their own sentences.

How to read a row

Scan the 500 column before you celebrate the 1,000 column. If the bill-credit flag is on, open the facts label. Check the TDU. An Oncor plan and a TNMP plan are different wires. The October 1, 2026 delivery charges alone are $64.36 on Oncor at 1,000 kilowatt-hours and $85.27 on TNMP, and those delivery charges are already inside the Power to Choose averages. Check the term and the cancellation fee printed in the export. Check whether you are looking at the English row or the Spanish row. They are separate listings. The prices can match, and the language filter keeps one offer from being counted twice.

Then look at your own last twelve bills, rather than assuming 1,000. If three of the months are under 500 kilowatt-hours, the 500-kilowatt-hour column is the relevant disclosure for those months. The calculator prices a kilowatt-hour amount at the nearest of 500, 1,000, and 2,000. That is a comparison. The electricity facts label is the offer.

The export is a snapshot

The export is a snapshot from October 10, 2026. A product can be withdrawn the same day. This guide names Simple Saver 3 because it was in the export, with the prices above, and because the shape is easy to audit: 18.5¢, 5.7¢, 11.8¢ on AEP Texas Central. If a later export drops that product, the three-column disclosure is still the point. The 1,000-kilowatt-hour price is one of three numbers. The other two are on the same row for a reason.

Dollars, not just cents

Multiply the disclosed price by the usage it belongs to. A low cents figure on a large usage can still be the cheaper month, and a high cents figure on a small usage can be the expensive one. Simple Saver 3 on AEP Texas Central, in the October 10 file: 500 times $0.185 is $92.50; 1,000 times $0.057 is $57.00; 2,000 times $0.118 is $236.00. The 2,000-kilowatt-hour month costs more dollars than the 1,000-kilowatt-hour month, as it should, and the step from 500 to 1,000 cuts the bill by $35.50 while doubling usage. That $35.50 is the shape of the credit in the disclosed averages. The facts label is where the credit's threshold, and the fee that appears under it, are written out.

A gentle fixed-charge plan does the opposite. The first row in the export, SFE Energy Texas "SFE SecureBright 23" on AEP Texas Central, discloses $0.124, $0.121, and $0.119. Five hundred kilowatt-hours at $0.124 is $62.00. One thousand at $0.121 is $121.00. The bill rises as usage rises. The cliff flag is off. Both shapes can be fixed-rate products in the export's rate-type field. "Fixed" describes the product type. The three columns show whether the 500 and 1,000 prices are close.