Texas Commercial Electricity Rates September 2026: Every Plan That Repriced Moved Lower

Market Pulse: Texas Commercial Electricity Rates September 2026

Across the 1,000 commercial plans in the texascommercialplans.com tracked dataset for the week of August 25 through August 31, 2026, every plan that changed price moved down. Five plans repriced out of the 25 that could be matched against the prior week's catalog, and not one of them moved higher. The tracked average across 29 Texas REPs sits at 7.85 cents per kWh, down from 8.17 cents a week earlier, with a median of 6.69 cents.

The gap between that average and that median is the more useful number. A small group of high-priced month-to-month products pulls the average up, so the plan a commercial buyer actually shortlists prices closer to 6.7 cents than to 7.9 cents. The signal worth acting on is the direction: zero increases, in a week when ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas were both tightening the rules around large new loads.

What's Moving the Market

• ERCOT paused large-load interconnection approvals pending a statewide audit. Industry updates report that approvals and advanced studies for large-load interconnections at or above 75 MW, including data centers and crypto-mining operations, are on hold while the state completes verification work targeted for December. If you are planning a facility expansion, energization timelines and the financing assumptions built on them are now the variable to watch, not the commodity rate. Sources: WilmerHale client alert and Houston Public Media.
• Texas is shifting more interconnection and transmission cost onto new large loads. Revised large-load rules would require new projects to pay direct interconnection costs up front and take on transmission charges as capacity becomes available. Cost allocation and tariff details are still being finalized through the rest of 2026, which is a reason to prefer contract terms that do not leave pass-through language open-ended. Source: Hillco Partners interim update.
• The PUCT approved two statewide transmission lines into West Texas. Added transmission capacity generally reduces congestion cost over time, but the build cycle runs years, so the near-term effect on commercial rates is limited. It matters most to buyers with West zone load exposure. Source: Texas Tribune.
• West zone congestion and heat-driven operating actions stayed active through late August. ERCOT market notices show continued operating actions tied to heat, wildfire-related transmission issues, and West zone congestion risk. For anyone on an indexed product that is real-time price exposure, and it is part of the case for locking. Source: ERCOT market notices, August 2026.

Pricing Trend Analysis

The most durable pattern in the data this week has nothing to do with the weekly move. It is the shape of the term curve. Short-term contracts of 1 to 12 months carry the highest average rate in the tracked set, around 9.1 cents per kWh across 435 plans. The 13 to 24 month band averages roughly 6.6 cents across 230 plans, and 25 to 36 month contracts average about 7.1 cents across 107 plans. The cheapest money in the Texas commercial electricity market right now is in the middle of the curve, not at either end, and that has now held for several consecutive weeks.

Repricing skewed decisively toward decreases. Of the 25 plans matched cleanly week over week, 5 moved and all 5 moved down, with 20 holding flat. That is the first week in the recent run with zero increases. Two of those cuts exceeded 50 percent, which usually reflects a product being repositioned rather than wholesale cost falling by half, so read the count as the signal and the magnitude as noise.

Across territories, the tracked averages separate by a little over a cent. Oncor sits at the low end near 7.3 cents across 284 plans and CenterPoint at the high end near 8.6 cents across 145 plans, with AEP Central, TNMP, and AEP North in between. Spread is the more actionable measure: TNMP shows the widest gap between its lowest and highest available rates, roughly 13.5 cents, followed by AEP Central. A wide spread means shopping that territory is worth more, because the penalty for taking the first quote is larger. All five TDU territories posted lower average readings than the prior week.

One caution on the weekly aggregate. Only 25 of 1,000 plans matched to a prior-week record, so territory-level week-over-week percentages reflect catalog composition as much as price movement. Levels and spreads are reliable this week. Territory-level weekly deltas are not, and we would rather say so than publish a 35 percent swing that is really a sampling artifact.

Our rate trend chart shows the 13 to 24 month band holding below the short-term band for a fourth consecutive week, with the two long-end segments converging toward each other. See the full pricing breakdown in our data download.

REP Spotlight: Rhythm

Rhythm carries 70 commercial plans in this week's tracked set, one of the larger books among the 29 Texas REPs we follow. Contract terms run from 12 to 36 months, so there is no month-to-month or short-term offering in the commercial catalog. Buyers looking for a bridge product of under a year will not find one here.

Coverage is statewide. Rhythm quotes into all five TDU territories, Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Central, AEP North, and TNMP, which puts it in the set of providers a multi-site operator can standardize on rather than splitting a portfolio across regional providers.

Every plan in the book is fixed rate and carries a renewable energy designation: no variable products, no indexed hybrids, no conventional tier alongside a green tier. Rate positioning sits above the tracked market average, the trade-off you would expect for a fully renewable, fully fixed catalog. If renewable content is in your procurement policy, that premium is the cost of compliance rather than a negotiating failure. If it is not, the same term lengths are available elsewhere at market pricing. Get this REP's full plan data in our data download.

Buyer Intelligence

The practical read this week is that the supply side is calm and the policy side is not. Five downward repricings and zero increases across the matched sample says retail providers are not currently pricing in urgency. At the same time, the large-load interconnection pause, the pending cost-allocation rules, and continued West zone congestion all point toward more transmission and delivery cost landing on Texas load over the next several quarters. Commodity is soft. The non-commodity side of your bill is where the risk is accumulating.

That argues for two things. First, if your contract expires inside the next two quarters, this is a reasonable window to quote: the term structure is favorable in the middle of the curve and nothing in the data suggests waiting is being rewarded. Second, read the pass-through language before the rate. A quote that looks two or three percent better but leaves transmission and delivery charges fully passable can cost more over a 24 month term if the pending cost-allocation changes land as drafted. Ask for pass-through terms in writing alongside the energy price.

Should Texas commercial buyers lock in rates now or wait?

Buyers with contracts expiring in the next 60 to 90 days should quote now rather than wait. Every one of the five Texas commercial plans that repriced in the week of August 25 to 31, 2026 moved lower, with zero increases across the matched sample, so there is no evidence of a rising market to hold out against. The greater risk in the current environment is regulatory cost allocation on the transmission side, not the energy price, and locking a fixed term does nothing to protect you from that unless the pass-through language is negotiated at the same time.

What contract length is cheapest for Texas commercial electricity right now?

The 13 to 24 month band is the cheapest in the tracked dataset, averaging roughly 6.6 cents per kWh against about 9.1 cents for contracts of 12 months or less and about 7.1 cents for 25 to 36 month terms. Short-term commercial electricity in Texas currently carries a premium of roughly 2.5 cents per kWh over the two-year band, which is a meaningful penalty for flexibility. Unless your occupancy or load is genuinely uncertain, the two-year term is where the pricing sits this week.

Data Snapshot

• Tracked REPs this week: 29
• Active commercial plans: 1,000
• Plan records re-verified in this week's crawl: 1,078 (full catalog refresh, not net new plans)
• Plans removed this week: 2 (both short-term variable products)
• Plans with rate changes: 5 of 25 matched against the prior week
• Rate increases this week: 0
• Tracked average rate: 7.85 cents per kWh (median 6.69 cents)
• Average contract term: 22.5 months
• Week covered: August 25 through August 31, 2026

Full rate data, plan comparisons, and historical trends are available in our data download. You can also browse current plans on the plan browser, review the prior weekly report and the August 18 report, or follow shorter items in Daily Market News. Every edition is archived in Weekly Market Insights.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Texas commercial electricity rates in September 2026?

Texas commercial electricity rates average 7.85 cents per kWh across the 1,000 commercial plans tracked from 29 Texas REPs for the week of August 25 to 31, 2026, with a median of 6.69 cents per kWh. The full spread of available rates runs from roughly 4.4 cents to 18.5 cents per kWh depending on term, territory, and rate structure. The median is the better benchmark for a typical commercial quote, because a small number of high-priced month-to-month products pull the average upward.

Which TDU territory has the widest commercial electricity rate spread?

TNMP shows the widest spread between its lowest and highest available commercial rates this week, roughly 13.5 cents per kWh across 231 tracked plans, followed by AEP Central. Oncor carries the lowest territory average at about 7.3 cents per kWh across 284 plans, and CenterPoint the highest at about 8.6 cents across 145 plans. A wider spread means comparison shopping within that territory is worth more, because the difference between the first quote and the best quote is larger.

How does the ERCOT data center pause affect commercial electricity buyers?

The pause on large-load interconnection approvals at or above 75 MW mainly affects project timelines rather than current commercial electricity rates. Existing commercial customers will not see a rate change from it directly, but the accompanying rules shifting interconnection and transmission cost onto new large loads are still being finalized through 2026 and could reach ratepayers through transmission and delivery charges. Buyers signing contracts now should confirm how transmission and delivery cost changes are passed through before signing.