Business Electricity Rates in Texas Hold at 7.08 Cents Across 12,925 Commercial Electricity Plans, Week of Oct 12, 2026

Bottom line: The TxCP Commercial Rate Index (TCRI) from the texascommercialplans.com database held at 7.08 cents per kWh across 12,925 tracked Texas commercial electricity plans in the ERCOT deregulated market as of October 14, 2026, 0.01 cents below the 7.09 cents we reported on October 5. No TDU median moved more than 0.03 cents. For a business weighing a contract that runs past 2027, the bigger change was regulatory: the PUCT's large-load interconnection rule, 16 TAC 25.194, took effect October 8. Updated weekly.

Market Pulse

Across the 12,925 commercial electricity plans we track in the texascommercialplans.com database as of October 14, 2026, the TxCP Commercial Rate Index held at 7.08 cents per kWh, against 7.09 cents on October 5. CenterPoint's median rose most, 0.03 cents to 6.49 cents, while AEP Central slipped 0.02 cents to 6.54 cents and still carries the highest median of the five TDU territories.

The catalog grew about 5 percent, from 12,326 plans, and a larger catalog can nudge an average through mix alone, so we read the index as flat. With energy prices this steady, the live decision for most buyers is how far forward to lock.

What Moved This Week and Why It Matters

The most consequential development for Texas commercial buyers this week is a new interconnection rule for very large loads. Since October 8, 2026, developers of data centers and other sites of 75 MW or more must pay a study fee and post security before ERCOT studies them. The rule never touches a small business bill directly, but it starts separating real demand from speculative demand in the years a long-term contract covers.

What Happened

The Public Utility Commission of Texas filed its adoption of 16 TAC 25.194 in Project 58481 on September 18, and the rule took effect October 8, per the October 2 Texas Register. It covers customers seeking a new or expanded interconnection with expected peak demand of at least 75 MW at one site. Each must pay a $100,000 study fee, post $50,000 per MW of security before it can be included in an ERCOT study, and disclose any on-site backup generation (rule text). The queue it filters is large: ERCOT told its board in September that 204 projects (66.4 GW) conditionally qualify as base load and 158 projects (127.9 GW) as studied load in its Batch Zero study, with 302.2 GW excluded (ERCOT Board Item 14).

Impact on Texas Commercial Buyers

Contract. Load growth is the biggest open question in any price that runs into 2028. ERCOT planners told stakeholders on September 22 that Batch Zero base and studied load "ranges from around 100 GW in 2028 to around 192 GW in 2032," and that generation now in the interconnection queue "will not be sufficient to meet the anticipated load" in that study under some conditions, such as no solar output (ERCOT planning presentation). In our catalog, long-term plans of 25 months and up carry a median of 6.57 cents per kWh, 0.38 cents above the 6.19-cent mid-term median.

Budget. The rule raises the cost of a request that never gets built. A 500 MW campus now posts $25 million of security before ERCOT studies it, and at the final agreement stage posts the greater of $50,000 per MW or its allocated system-upgrade costs. Transmission costs reach commercial bills through TDU charges such as the TCRF, which is why who carries upgrade risk matters to buyers far smaller than 75 MW.

Timing. ERCOT has paused energization of new large data center and crypto mining loads until its verification audit and community impact review are complete, and both reports are due at the PUCT by December 10, 2026 (ERCOT Board Item 14). A business renewing in early 2027 will quote after that report. One renewing this month quotes before it.

The 2028 Exposure Test: Four Questions Before You Sign Past 2027

Does the term reach 2028? A 25-month contract signed this month runs into November 2028, the first year of ERCOT's Batch Zero load range.
What does the extra year cost? Convert the gap between a 24-month and a 36-month quote to cents per kWh. Our long-term median runs 0.38 cents above mid-term this week.
Who holds the risk? A fixed price hands load-growth risk to the REP, which charges for it. An index or block-and-index product keeps more of it with you.
Which side of December 10 is your renewal on? ERCOT's verification report is the next hard data point on how much of the queue is real.

What You Should Do This Week

Check your contract end date and note whether it falls before or after December 10.
Request 24-month and 36-month quotes on the same day, so both reflect the same market.
Set the spread against this week's 0.38-cent gap between our long-term and mid-term medians. A much wider spread deserves an explanation.
If you renew before December, ask whether a shorter term or a partial fix lets you price the rest of your volume after ERCOT's report.

Questions to ask your REP or broker:

How much of the 36-month price is a risk premium for 2028 and later?
Can I fix part of my volume now and price the rest after December 10?
Which charges in this quote can still change during the term?

Also moving

The PUCT can decide the Silver Basin behind-the-meter case on October 15. Docket 59115 is item 10 on the commission's October 15 open meeting agenda, listed for possible final order ahead of the October 19 deadline. It bears on how transmission costs are shared when a data center sits behind a generator's meter, as covered in our September 18 briefing.
AEP Texas now bills final rider rates. Final DCRF and TCRF rates from Docket 58315 apply to AEP Texas bills rendered on and after September 29, across the AEP Central and AEP North territories. For Secondary Service of 10 kW or less, the DCRF is $0.005594 per kWh and the TCRF $0.009298 per kWh (AEP Texas market notice). Both are delivery charges, separate from the energy rate a REP sets.
EIA sees commercial demand growing 2.8 percent in 2027. Its October 6 Short-Term Energy Outlook notes the commercial sector includes data centers, and expects wholesale prices across the 11 U.S. hubs it tracks to ease from $52 to $49 per MWh next year. Both are national figures, not ERCOT forecasts.
Batteries now undercut new gas peakers on cost. Wood Mackenzie told Utility Dive on October 8 that four-hour storage entering U.S. service in 2026 is 65 to 75 percent cheaper than new open-cycle gas peakers. Cheaper storage is one counterweight to the load growth above, though the analysis does not price Texas retail power.

Pricing Trend Analysis

Texas commercial electricity pricing held flat across our tracked plans as of October 14, 2026: every TDU median sits within 0.03 cents of its October 5 level, and the five medians span 6.36 to 6.54 cents per kWh, a 0.18-cent band against 0.21 cents on October 5.

By territory, Oncor holds both the lowest median, at 6.36 cents, and the lowest average, at 6.97 cents. AEP Central carries the highest median at 6.54 cents, and CenterPoint the highest average at 7.14 cents. TNMP was unchanged at 6.45 cents.

Date	Segment	Plans	Low	Median	Median on 2026-10-05	High
2026-10-14	Oncor	2,949	$0.0351	$0.0636	$0.0635	$0.2526
2026-10-14	AEP North	2,318	$0.0430	$0.0644	$0.0643	$0.2533
2026-10-14	AEP Central	2,671	$0.0430	$0.0654	$0.0656	$0.2574
2026-10-14	CenterPoint	2,520	$0.0375	$0.0649	$0.0646	$0.2390
2026-10-14	TNMP	2,467	$0.0430	$0.0645	$0.0645	$0.2612
2026-10-14	Short-term (1 to 12 months)	4,922	$0.0351	$0.0597	$0.0599	$0.2612
2026-10-14	Mid-term (13 to 24 months)	3,274	$0.0430	$0.0619	$0.0617	$0.1609
2026-10-14	Long-term (25 months and up)	1,724	$0.0430	$0.0657	$0.0656	$0.1390

The term rows cover the 9,920 plans with a stated contract length. Short-term plans keep both the lowest median (5.97 cents) and the highest average (7.62 cents), because a tail of short-term offers priced as high as 26 cents pulls the average up. Mid-term plans have a median of 6.19 cents and an average of 6.41, and long-term plans a median of 6.57 and an average of 6.80. Stepping from short-term to mid-term costs 0.22 cents on medians, and locking beyond 24 months costs another 0.38 cents, about 6 percent over the mid-term median. Term now moves the median more than three times as much as territory (0.60 cents from short-term to long-term, against the 0.18-cent TDU band), a pattern we unpack in our TDU versus contract term guide. See the full pricing breakdown in our data download.

Want the full spreadsheet? Every tracked commercial plan, every REP, every TDU territory, refreshed twice a day and delivered as a CSV for $10. Browse current rates or download today's snapshot.

REP Spotlight: Constellation Energy

Constellation sells commercial electricity in Texas through Constellation NewEnergy, Inc., which holds PUCT certificate 10014 according to the PUCT REP directory. Its parent, Constellation Energy Corporation, completed its acquisition of Calpine in January 2026. The provider lists 95 active commercial plans in our catalog this week.

Its lineup in our data covers all five ERCOT deregulated TDU territories, with contract terms from 1 to 60 months. Directionally, its plans sit above the market average across the plans we track. Its commercial supply page lists fixed price, index price, flexible index and index-plus-block products, with carbon-free supply or renewable energy certificates available as add-ons.

Tying back to the lead story, its flexible index product fixes a percentage of usage and settles the rest at an index, the kind of partial fix the third question in our 2028 Exposure Test points to. Get this provider's full plan data in our data download.

Buyer Intelligence

Texas small business shoppers comparing quotes this week face a flat energy market, so the useful question is how far forward to lock rather than when to buy. On medians, the Houston to Dallas gap widened to 2.0 percent (CenterPoint 6.49 cents against Oncor 6.36 cents), from 1.7 percent on October 5, still small next to the term spread.

Should a Texas business sign a commercial electricity contract that runs past 2027?

Only after pricing the extra years. This week the median plan of 25 months and up costs 0.38 cents per kWh more than the 13 to 24 month median, about 6 percent. A business renewing before ERCOT's December 10 report can weigh a mid-term contract now against paying that premium for certainty into 2028.

Does the new Texas large-load rule change a small business electricity bill?

Not directly. 16 TAC 25.194 covers new or expanded loads of 75 MW or more at one site, far above any small business account. Any effect arrives indirectly, through the wholesale outlook behind long-term quotes and the transmission costs that flow into TDU charges.

Data Snapshot

Our October 14, 2026 snapshot spans 29 retail electric providers and 12,925 active commercial plans across all five ERCOT deregulated TDU territories, with the TxCP Commercial Rate Index at 7.08 cents per kWh and every TDU median within 0.03 cents of its October 5 level.

Tracked REPs: 29 retail electric providers with active commercial plans.
Active commercial plans: 12,925, up from 12,326 on October 5.
Market average rate (TCRI): 7.08 cents per kWh, versus 7.09 cents on October 5.
Average contract term: 24.0 months across tracked plans.
Lowest TDU median: Oncor at 6.36 cents per kWh. Highest: AEP Central at 6.54 cents per kWh.
Term medians: 5.97 cents short-term, 6.19 cents mid-term, 6.57 cents long-term.
Long-term premium over mid-term: 0.38 cents per kWh on medians.
Houston to Dallas median gap: 2.0 percent.

Full rate data, plan comparisons, and historical trends are available in our data download. For last week's baseline, see our October 5 weekly report, and for the December 10 audit behind this week's lead, our Batch Zero verification briefing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average Texas commercial electricity rate in mid-October 2026?

The TxCP Commercial Rate Index sits at 7.08 cents per kWh across 12,925 tracked commercial plans as of October 14, 2026, compared with 7.09 cents on October 5. Medians by TDU territory range from 6.36 cents in Oncor to 6.54 cents in AEP Central.

What does the new Texas large-load interconnection rule require?

16 TAC 25.194, in effect since October 8, 2026, covers new or expanded interconnections of 75 MW or more at one site. It requires a $100,000 study fee, $50,000 per MW of financial security before ERCOT studies the load, and disclosure of any on-site backup generation.

How much more does a long-term commercial electricity contract cost in Texas?

As of October 14, 2026, plans of 25 months and up carry a median of 6.57 cents per kWh, 0.38 cents above the 6.19-cent median for 13 to 24 month plans. Short-term plans of 1 to 12 months have the lowest median, 5.97 cents, but the highest average, 7.62 cents.