Texas Commercial Electricity Rates, July 28 to August 3, 2026: All Five TDU Territories Moved Lower

Market Pulse

Across the 1,000 active commercial plan listings from 29 Texas REPs tracked in the texascommercialplans.com database for the week of July 28 through August 3, 2026, all five ERCOT TDU territories posted a lower average rate than the prior week. Among the 94 plans that could be matched one to one against last week, rates fell 5.5 percent on average, with decreases outnumbering increases close to two to one. Texas commercial electricity rates in August 2026 now average 8.82 cents per kWh with a median of 7.25 cents.

Two forces pushed the same way. Real repricing happened: 47 plans changed price, 30 of them down. Separately, the catalog expanded from 736 listings to 1,000, and the new supply leans toward longer terms that price below short-dated products. The second effect is larger, which is why the term curve is the story rather than the headline average.

What's Moving the Market

• Tesla signed a 140 MW solar PPA with Zelestra for the Lumen Farm project in northeast Texas. Tesla takes the entire output, expected online in 2029. Corporate offtake keeps pulling low-cost renewable output out of the merchant pool before it reaches retail supply, tightening what REPs have available to hedge commercial contracts. (Electrek, Zelestra)
• ERCOT now forecasts statewide demand roughly doubling to about 175 GW within six years, driven mainly by data center interconnection requests and population growth. The practical read: the risk premium in multi-year commercial contracts is unlikely to compress structurally, so waiting for a better curve is a weak strategy. (Texas Tribune)
• ERCOT's all-time peak of 91,308 MW on July 22 remains live for 2026 transmission cost allocation. July is a 4CP month, so that half hour is a candidate for the coincident peak set that prices commercial transmission charges in 2027. Confirm your curtailment triggers before the August peak window. (ERCOT market dashboards)
• Independent benchmarks converged on our median this week. EnergyBot reports a Texas business average near 7.26 cents per kWh, effectively on top of our 7.25 cent median. When independent datasets agree that closely, the median is the number to negotiate against, not the average. (EnergyBot)
• Utility industrial price indices are still being quoted as if they were retail offers. They track a different population from competitive REP quotes, and TDU delivery charges are set separately through the PUCT. If a broker benchmarks your quote against an index, ask which one. (YCharts, AEP Texas)

Pricing Trend Analysis: Texas Commercial Electricity Rates in August 2026

The term curve is still inverted against short contracts, but the shape of it changed this week. Plans in the 1 to 12 month band average 10.23 cents per kWh across 489 tracked listings. The 13 to 24 month band averages 7.39 cents across 215 listings. The 25 to 36 month band averages 7.27 cents across 112 listings. A business signing short is paying roughly 41 percent more per kWh than one signing long.

The more useful development is what happened between the two longer tiers. A week ago the 13 to 24 month band sat about 5 percent above the 25 to 36 month band. This week that gap has closed to 1.6 percent. Practically, the market is no longer charging much of a premium for keeping a renewal date inside two years. Nearly all of the available discount is now captured by simply crossing the 12 month line.

Supply is badly distributed against that curve. Short-term products account for 489 of the 816 listings inside the 1 to 36 month range, so the most expensive tier is also the deepest. Another 184 listings carry terms beyond 36 months, mostly newly captured long-dated products.

By territory, Oncor holds the lowest average at 8.25 cents per kWh across 260 plans, followed by AEP Central at 8.61 cents, TNMP at 8.85 cents, and AEP North at 9.18 cents. CenterPoint sits highest at 9.65 cents, about 16.9 percent above Oncor. TNMP showed the widest spread between its cheapest and most expensive offers, so comparison shopping pays off most there. Oncor holds the single lowest offer in the market at 4.49 cents.

One caveat stated plainly. The catalog grew about 36 percent in seven days, from 736 active listings to 1,000, and the collector recorded 1,272 gross new listings against only 99 removals. A gross additions figure larger than the live catalog means listings were created and withdrawn inside the same window, so the marketwide average is not a clean like-for-like comparison against last week and we are not publishing it as one. The matched-plan view (94 plans, negative 5.5 percent) and the territory view are the defensible signals. This week's largest single-plan declines were concentrated in short-term green products from one provider, which is a repositioning rather than a marketwide move.

Our rate trend chart shows the 13 to 24 and 25 to 36 month bands converging over the past three weeks while the short-term band holds its premium, the opposite of the divergence we tracked through July. See the full pricing breakdown in our data download.

REP Spotlight: Infuse Energy

Infuse Energy is a Houston-based retail electric provider carrying one of the deepest catalogs of any tracked REP this week: 168 active commercial plans, with terms spanning 1 to 24 months.

Coverage is complete. Infuse lists commercial products in all five TDU territories (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Central, AEP North, and TNMP), so they will appear in essentially any Texas commercial quote set regardless of where the meter sits. They offer both fixed and variable structures, so check the product type before comparing a quote against a fixed-rate benchmark.

Green energy is a real part of the book: 74 of their 168 commercial plans, roughly 44 percent, carry a renewable component. Their average sits above the marketwide average this week, consistent with a catalog weighted toward shorter terms and green products, both of which price at a premium. They do not currently list anything past 24 months, so buyers seeking a 36 month term will need to look elsewhere. Get this REP's full plan data in our data download.

Buyer Intelligence

The decision this week is about where on the curve you sit, not whether to wait. With the 13 to 24 month tier now within 1.6 percent of the 25 to 36 month tier, the argument for locking a full three years has weakened. A 24 month term captures nearly the same price while putting your renewal date inside the window where ERCOT's storage and solar buildout should start affecting peak-risk pricing. If your facility plans are not settled through 2029, that is the more defensible position.

The cost of staying short is the number worth putting in front of a CFO. Short-term plans run about 2.96 cents per kWh above the long-term tier. On a 500,000 kWh annual load, that is roughly $14,800 a year for a renewal date inside twelve months. Sixty percent of our tracked listings sit in that expensive short-term band, so the default option a broker surfaces first is frequently the worst-priced one. Ask specifically for 13 to 24 month quotes.

What are current Texas commercial electricity rates?

As of the week of July 28 to August 3, 2026, Texas commercial electricity plans in our tracked set average 8.82 cents per kWh with a median of 7.25 cents, across 1,000 active plan listings from 29 Texas REPs. Offers range from 4.49 to 19.8 cents per kWh depending on term, territory, and rate structure. Use the median rather than the average, which is pulled upward by short-term and variable products.

Should Texas commercial buyers lock in rates now or wait?

Lock in, and target 13 to 24 months rather than the shortest term available. Matched-plan pricing fell 5.5 percent this week and every TDU territory moved lower, but ERCOT's forecast of demand doubling to roughly 175 GW within six years argues against sustained relief on longer-dated contracts. Buyers with contracts expiring in the next 60 to 90 days should quote now, since the 13 to 24 month band is priced within 2 percent of the cheapest tier available.

Data Snapshot

• Tracked REPs this week: 29
• Active commercial plan listings: 1,000 (up from 736 the prior week)
• Marketwide average rate: 8.82 cents per kWh (median 7.25 cents)
• Rate range across all plans: 4.49 to 19.8 cents per kWh
• Plans with rate changes: 47 of 94 matched plans (17 higher, 30 lower, 47 unchanged)
• Average matched-plan rate change: negative 5.5 percent
• Gross new listings recorded: 1,272 (includes listings created and withdrawn within the week)
• Listings removed this week: 99
• Average contract term: 20.2 months
• TDU territories tracked: 5 (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Central, AEP North, TNMP)

Full rate data, plan comparisons, and historical trends are in our data download. Prior weeks are archived in Weekly Market Insights, including last week's report, and daily catalog movement is covered in Daily Market News.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Texas TDU territory has the lowest average commercial electricity rate in August 2026?

Oncor carries the lowest average at 8.25 cents per kWh across the 260 commercial plans tracked in its footprint. AEP Central follows at 8.61 cents, TNMP at 8.85 cents, and AEP North at 9.18 cents. CenterPoint is the most expensive at 9.65 cents, roughly 16.9 percent above Oncor. All five territories posted a lower average than the prior week. Grid conditions for each are published on the ERCOT market dashboards.

Is a 24-month or 36-month commercial electricity contract better value in Texas right now?

The two tiers are almost identical this week. Plans of 13 to 24 months average 7.39 cents per kWh across 215 listings, and plans of 25 to 36 months average 7.27 cents across 112 listings, a gap of only 1.6 percent. Nearly all of the discount is captured by crossing the 12 month line, so a 24 month term buys most of the savings while keeping renewal flexibility. For national context, the EIA commercial electricity price tables track state-level averages monthly.

Why did Texas commercial electricity rates fall across every TDU territory this week?

Two forces pushed in the same direction. Repricing accounted for part of it: of the 94 plans matched one to one against the prior week, 30 moved lower and 17 moved higher, an average change of negative 5.5 percent. The larger effect was compositional, since the catalog expanded from 736 listings to 1,000 and the new supply skewed toward longer terms that price below short-term products. Only the matched-plan figure is a clean measure of repricing.

Data source: texascommercialplans.com proprietary plan database, week of July 28 to August 3, 2026. Aggregate figures only. Verify all rates directly with the retail electric provider before signing.