Commercial Electricity Rates Texas 2026: TDU + Term Data

Commercial electricity rates in Texas today average 9.9 cents per kWh across 756 active competitive plans, with per-utility medians ranging from 7.795 cents per kWh in Oncor territory to 9.3 cents in TNMP, and per-term medians from about 6.8 cents on mid-length contracts to 11.9 cents on short-term contracts. These are aggregate ranges from the Texas Commercial Plans catalog, a live, daily-refreshed record of advertised commercial offers across all five Texas Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU) territories. They measure the advertised energy charge alone, so they are not a single point estimate and not the bundled statewide average that federal data reports.

The rest of this guide unpacks what those numbers actually mean, how commercial rates are structured, why a Houston business often sees a different price than a Dallas or Corpus Christi business on the same day, and what to watch when you shop.

What do commercial electricity rates in Texas look like right now?

As of the July 21, 2026 catalog snapshot, the deregulated Texas commercial market holds 756 active plans, up from 549 in early summer. The statewide arithmetic average energy rate across those plans is 9.891 cents per kWh, roughly a full cent per kWh below the mid-July reading. Wholesale forward prices and competition in longer terms are the usual candidates for a move of that size, though the catalog measures advertised offer prices only and cannot isolate a cause.

That statewide average masks a wide spread. The full range across the catalog runs from a low of 4.65 cents per kWh (a small number of high-usage, long-term plans that sit across multiple TDUs) up to 20.2 cents per kWh (short-term plans in TNMP). Most commercial plans cluster between 7.5 and 12 cents per kWh.

Two things to keep in mind about any single "average" you see quoted online:

Third-party comparison sites often quote a single number drawn from different sources with different methodologies. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports one figure, an average of revenue per kWh actually billed to Texas commercial customers, which read 8.26 cents per kWh for May 2026 in the release dated July 23, 2026. That table rolls forward with every monthly release, so check the vintage of any EIA number before comparing it to a live offer. The PUCT's own Power to Choose site publishes provider-listed offers rather than a state average. State-level averages sometimes blend residential and commercial. Provider-authored pages tend to lead with a promotional low.
A commercial plan's advertised rate is only part of the delivered bill. The rate you see in a comparison table typically covers the energy charge; the total bill also includes delivery charges (TDU-specific), regulatory riders, and, above certain sizes, demand charges.

How are commercial electricity rates in Texas structured?

A commercial electricity bill in the deregulated Texas market has three broad components:

Energy charge. This is the rate per kWh advertised on the plan. It is what the Retail Electric Provider (REP) charges for the electrons themselves and is the number most commonly compared across plans.
Delivery charge. Set by your Transmission and Distribution Utility (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Central, AEP North, or TNMP) under a tariff the Public Utility Commission of Texas approves. The PUCT's monthly TDU rate summary splits delivery into a customer charge, a metering charge, and a volumetric charge per kWh. Note that the table it publishes covers the residential class, so commercial rate classes have to be read from each utility's own tariff filing. The commission also does not set the final price a retail electric provider charges, which is why the delivery side of the bill lands the same whichever REP you pick, and it defines the demand charge that larger businesses pay as a charge based on the rate at which energy is delivered during the billing cycle rather than on total kWh consumed.
Regulatory riders and taxes. Small line items that pass through PUCT-approved system charges such as transmission and distribution surcharges, the energy efficiency cost recovery factor, the PUCT assessment, and state and local sales tax.

Some REPs quote an "all-in" rate that bundles the energy charge with an estimate of TDU delivery. Others quote a bare energy rate and pass through delivery separately. Offers to residential and small commercial customers carry a PUCT-standardized Electricity Facts Label, which summarizes the price and contract terms in a fixed format. Check it on both plans and confirm which convention each is using before you draw a conclusion about which is cheaper.

For most small and medium commercial customers, the energy charge is where competition happens; delivery charges are essentially a fixed cost of doing business in that TDU territory.

How do commercial rates vary by TDU territory?

Not all Texas TDU areas price the same. The five TDUs that file monthly rate summaries with the PUCT, AEP Central, AEP North, CenterPoint, Oncor, and TNMP, produce meaningfully different rate distributions in the current catalog:

Oncor (Dallas, Fort Worth, East Texas): 190 active plans; median 7.795 cents per kWh, average 9.475 cents. Currently the cheapest median in the state.
AEP Central (Corpus Christi, Rio Grande Valley, Laredo): 139 active plans; median 7.82 cents per kWh, average 9.879 cents.
AEP North (Abilene, San Angelo, rural West Texas): 135 active plans; median 7.9 cents per kWh, average 9.984 cents.
CenterPoint (Greater Houston): 151 active plans; median 8.0 cents per kWh, average 9.819 cents.
TNMP (scattered across Gulf Coast, North Texas, West Texas): 141 active plans; median 9.3 cents per kWh, average 10.446 cents. Currently the highest median in the state.

Two takeaways:

The four cheapest TDUs (Oncor, AEP Central, AEP North, CenterPoint) sit inside a tight 20 basis-point band on median (7.8 to 8.0 cents per kWh). That is a notable compression versus earlier this year, when CenterPoint had a clearer lead over Oncor and AEP.
TNMP posts the highest median (9.3 cents) and holds the market's highest single quoted rate (20.2 cents on a short-term plan). Smaller catalog depth in some TNMP sub-areas and a higher TDU delivery cost structure both push TNMP energy rates up.

A commercial business's TDU is determined by service address, not by choice, so this variation is essentially a geography-driven cost floor.

How do commercial rates vary by contract term?

Contract length changes the price. In the current catalog, term-length statistics look like this:

Short-term plans (roughly 3 to 12 months): 469 plans; median 11.9 cents per kWh, average 11.085 cents.
Mid-term plans (roughly 13 to 24 months): 120 plans; median 6.84 cents per kWh, average 8.001 cents.
Long-term plans (roughly 25 to 60 months): 68 plans; median 7.1 cents per kWh, average 7.704 cents.

The pattern is durable and, if anything, more pronounced than earlier this year: short-term commercial plans in Texas carry a substantial premium versus mid- and long-term contracts. Two forces drive that:

Wholesale hedging economics. ERCOT runs an energy-only market with real-time, day-ahead, and ancillary service markets, so a tight summer shows up in the energy price itself rather than in a separate capacity payment. A REP that guarantees a fixed energy price for 24 or 36 months can hedge that block forward. A REP quoting only 3 to 12 months sits closer to the peaks visible in ERCOT settlement point prices, and it prices that exposure in.
Sales math. Short-term commercial plans are often positioned as "bridge" products for buyers whose contracts are expiring inside a high-priced summer window and who cannot lock into a longer term without moving off an existing contract.

For most stable commercial loads with a 12-month-or-longer planning horizon, mid-term contracts currently represent the most favorable cents-per-kWh math in the market, with long-term contracts a close second.

What drives the spread between the cheapest and most expensive plans?

Even inside a single TDU on a single day, plans span from single-digit cents per kWh to nearly 20 cents. Four factors explain most of that spread:

Usage tier. Many commercial plans price down at higher monthly kWh consumption. A 5,000 kWh per month plan and a 50,000 kWh per month plan on the same product may have very different effective rates.
Contract term (see above).
Product type. Fixed-price all-inclusive plans price differently than index (wholesale pass-through) plans and time-of-use plans. A wholesale-passthrough plan often looks "cheaper" on paper but exposes the customer to real-time price spikes.
Renewable content. 100 percent renewable commercial plans occasionally carry a small premium versus a comparable non-green plan.

How do commercial rates in Texas compare to residential and to the national average?

Commercial rates in the deregulated Texas market are almost always lower than residential rates in the same TDU territory, and lower than the U.S. commercial average.

The EIA puts the U.S. average commercial electricity price at 13.54 cents per kWh for May 2026, in the release dated July 23, 2026, against 8.26 cents per kWh for Texas commercial customers and 16.44 cents per kWh for Texas residential customers in the same table. On that like-for-like basis, Texas commercial power runs roughly 39 percent below the national commercial average and roughly 50 percent below the Texas residential average.

One caution on the numbers above. The 9.891 cent catalog average used elsewhere in this guide measures something different from the EIA series and the two should not be subtracted from each other. EIA builds its state price from Form EIA-826, which collects revenue and sales from the competitive providers and, separately, from the utilities that deliver for them, so the reported price reflects the whole bill rather than an advertised energy charge. It also covers every Texas commercial customer, including the many served by municipal utilities and cooperatives that are not open to competition. The catalog average is an unweighted arithmetic average of the advertised energy charge on competitive offers in the five deregulated TDU territories, with delivery excluded and no weighting for how many businesses actually buy each plan. A telling check: the delivery-inclusive EIA figure of 8.26 cents sits below the energy-only catalog average of 9.891 cents, which on its face means the two series are not measuring the same thing.

Two structural differences sit behind the commercial versus residential gap:

Higher and more predictable load. Commercial customers consume more electricity, on a steadier pattern, than a typical home, which is generally cheaper for a REP to serve. Neither the catalog nor the EIA series isolates that effect, so treat it as the standard explanation rather than a measured one.
Contracting rules. The PUCT sets the small commercial line at 50 kW of peak demand, the level at or above which a customer may waive the standard retail customer protections and contract on negotiated terms. That rule defines who is permitted to negotiate. It does not establish how many businesses actually do, and the commission adopted it in February 2009.

Frequently asked questions

What is the current average commercial electricity rate in Texas?

Based on a live catalog of 756 competitive commercial plans on July 21, 2026, the statewide arithmetic average energy rate is 9.891 cents per kWh. The median is closer to 9 to 10 cents. Individual plan rates in the catalog range from 4.65 cents to 20.2 cents per kWh depending on term, usage, and TDU.

Which TDU territory has the cheapest commercial electricity rates in Texas?

Oncor (the Dallas and East Texas TDU) currently has the lowest median commercial energy rate at 7.795 cents per kWh across 190 active plans. AEP Central (7.82 cents), AEP North (7.9 cents), and CenterPoint (8.0 cents) sit within a tight 20 basis-point band just above Oncor. TNMP is the highest median at 9.3 cents.

Is a short-term or long-term commercial contract cheaper in Texas?

Mid-term contracts (roughly 13 to 24 months) are currently the cheapest bucket, with a median of 6.84 cents per kWh. Long-term contracts (25 to 60 months) are close behind at a 7.1 cent median. Short-term contracts (under 12 months) are the most expensive at 11.9 cents.

What is a "good" price per kWh for a Texas commercial customer?

That depends on TDU territory, usage, and term, but for a typical small or medium commercial customer signing a 24-month plan today, anything below 7 cents per kWh on the energy charge is competitive in Oncor, AEP Central, and AEP North, and anything below 8 cents is competitive in CenterPoint and TNMP.

Are TDU delivery charges included in the rates on comparison sites?

Sometimes. All-inclusive rate quotes bundle energy plus estimated delivery. Bare energy rate quotes do not. Always confirm which convention a comparison site is using before comparing two plans directly.

Data notes

All rate figures in this guide are derived from a daily-refreshed catalog of commercial plans offered in the deregulated Texas market. The snapshot used here covers 756 active plans across CenterPoint, Oncor, TNMP, AEP Central, and AEP North on July 21, 2026. Statistics are aggregate: per-TDU counts, minimums, maximums, medians, and arithmetic averages of the advertised energy rate on each plan. Individual plan rates and REP identities are not disclosed. Rate figures update as the catalog changes.