Texas TDU delivery charges explained

In most of Texas, the company that owns the wires is not the company that sells the energy. The wires company is the transmission and distribution utility, the TDU. The seller is a retail electric provider. The Public Utility Commission of Texas collects a monthly rate report from the TDUs. This guide uses the reports effective October 1, 2026, read on October 10, 2026, and the 2025 EIA-861 delivery rows released October 7, 2026. The delivery charge is one section of the bill. The Power to Choose price already includes it.

Why these utilities are in the delivery file

The large Texas TDUs report residential delivery statistics in EIA's Delivery Companies file. Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC, utility number 44372, reports 3,545,814 residential delivery customers in 2025, 5.64¢ per kilowatt-hour, an average bill of $62.35, and 1,105.8 kilowatt-hours a month. CenterPoint Energy, utility number 8901, reports 2,529,039 customers, 5.41¢, $60.74, and the territory file lists 12 counties under that delivery row. Those EIA figures are annual averages. The October 2026 tariff is the charge in force on the report date.

Oncor, October 1, 2026

Oncor's report prices residential delivery as a customer charge of $1.48, a metering charge of $2.58, and a volumetric charge of $0.060295 per kilowatt-hour. The fixed piece is $4.06. The report prints average residential delivery bills of $34.21 at 500 kilowatt-hours, $64.36 at 1,000, and $124.65 at 2,000. Sum the unrounded cents and round once: 500 kilowatt-hours is $4.06 plus $30.1475, which rounds to $34.21. One thousand kilowatt-hours is $4.06 plus $60.295, which rounds to $64.36. Two thousand is $4.06 plus $120.59, which is $124.65. The formula matches the three printed bills.

A cover letter associated with the October filing mentions a temporary October 4, 2026 update to the transmission and distribution cost recovery factors in Docket 59249. The example bills in the monthly report still use the October 1 volumetric charge of $0.060295, and that is the charge used here, because that is the charge the printed bills use.

At Oncor's 2025 average use of 1,105.8 kilowatt-hours, the October 1 schedule produces $4.06 plus $66.67, about $70.73, before the retail energy charge and sales tax. The 2025 average delivery bill is $62.35. The year and the October schedule are different prices, and the average bill also reflects the usage mix of 2025 rather than a single 1,105.8-kilowatt-hour customer on the October rate. Both numbers are labeled on the Oncor page.

CenterPoint Houston

CenterPoint's October 1, 2026 report uses a customer charge of $2.11, a metering charge of $2.79, and a volumetric charge of $0.065333 per kilowatt-hour. Fixed charges are $4.90. The printed bills are $37.57, $70.23, and $135.57 at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kilowatt-hours. One thousand kilowatt-hours is $4.90 plus $65.333, which rounds to $70.23. The component list CenterPoint publishes for Houston electric service sums to the same $0.065333 volumetric rate. The 2025 EIA delivery average is 5.41¢ and $60.74 a month. The October volumetric rate is 6.5333¢ before the fixed charge is spread across usage. At 1,000 kilowatt-hours the all-in delivery price on the tariff is $70.23 divided by 1,000, or 7.023¢. That is the fixed charge plus the volumetric charge, and it is the delivery section of the bill.

AEP Texas Central and North

AEP Texas files one report with two divisions. Effective October 1, 2026, both divisions show a customer charge of $1.27 and a metering charge of $1.97, so the fixed amount is $3.24. The report rounds the volumetric charge to $0.057 for Central and $0.056 for North. The printed average bills are more precise than those two rounded unit prices. Central's bills are $31.83, $60.42, and $117.59. North's are $31.26, $59.27, and $115.30.

The Central rate that reproduces the 500 and 1,000 kilowatt-hour bills is 5.718¢. At 2,000 kilowatt-hours, $3.24 plus 5.718¢ produces $117.60, one cent above the printed $117.59. The calculator shows $117.60 and the note records the penny. The extra digits come from the published bills. The PDF itself prints the volumetric charge rounded to $0.057. North's bills match 5.603¢ at all three usage levels, including $59.27 at 1,000 kilowatt-hours. Central and North are different EIA utilities, 3278 and 20404, and the calculator keeps them separate.

Texas-New Mexico Power

The TNMP report as of October 1, 2026, prices residential delivery at a customer charge of $1.70, a metering charge of $5.86, and $0.077710 per kilowatt-hour. The fixed amount is $7.56. The printed bills are $46.42, $85.27, and $162.98. One thousand kilowatt-hours is $7.56 plus $77.71, which is $85.27. TNMP's fixed charge is the largest of these five October schedules, and its volumetric charge is the highest. A retail price comparison that ignores the TDU will treat a TNMP-territory plan and an Oncor-territory plan as if the wires cost the same. They do not. The Power to Choose row is already tied to a TDU. Compare plans on the same TDU.

How delivery meets the retail price

A Power to Choose average price at 1,000 kilowatt-hours is dollars per kilowatt-hour for energy plus delivery plus the disclosed charges at that usage level. Adding the Oncor $64.36 on top of a 12¢ plan counts delivery twice. The plan checker multiplies the disclosed price by the kilowatt-hours you enter. The bill calculator, if you select Oncor, prices delivery and labels it as delivery.

Retail electric providers appear in EIA-861 as their own rows. Reliant Energy Retail Services reports 1,545,510 residential customers in Texas in 2025, 18.38¢ per kilowatt-hour, and a $190.67 average bill. That row is the provider's reported residential revenue over sales. It is a different figure from Oncor's 5.64¢, and it is the year EIA closed, not a current offer. Offers in the October 10, 2026 Power to Choose file are the disclosed prices from that export, and they change. The 2025 Reliant average is the closed year.

Sales tax sits outside every delivery total in this guide. The reports leave it off. A city franchise fee that is inside a TDU rider is inside the volumetric charge the report already totals. The notes on each utility page list the lines that were added.

Austin is a municipal bill

Austin Energy is a municipal utility, EIA utility 1015, with 522,446 bundled residential customers in the 2025 file. It is outside the five delivery reports above. The city tariff for bills rendered on or after October 1, 2026, prices residential service inside the city limits at a $17.35 customer charge and four energy blocks that already include the power supply adjustment, regulatory charge, and community benefit charges. The block rates used here are 11.680¢ through 300 kilowatt-hours, 12.203¢ from 301 through 900, 14.709¢ from 901 through 2,000, and 18.236¢ above that. One thousand kilowatt-hours is 300 at the first rate, 600 at the second, and 100 at the third, plus $17.35, which rounds to $140.32. Outside the city limits the lighting charge drops off, a different community benefit line applies, and the blocks are 11.408¢, 11.433¢, 12.905¢, and 14.870¢. Sales tax and the solar riders are separate. A Power to Choose plan applies in competitive TDU territory. Austin Energy bills its own bundled service.

The five October 1 delivery schedules, restated at 1,000 kilowatt-hours so they can be scanned together, are Oncor $64.36, CenterPoint $70.23, AEP Texas North $59.27, AEP Texas Central $60.42, and TNMP $85.27. The gap from North to TNMP is $26.00 at that usage, before any retail energy charge. That gap is why the plan row names the TDU.