Commercial Energy Rates in Texas Hold at 7.06 Cents as the PUCT Weighs a 1,200 MW Comanche Peak Data Center, Week of Oct 19, 2026
Texas commercial energy rates held steady this week, with the TxCP Commercial Rate Index at 7.06 cents per kWh across 13,664 commercial electricity plans on October 19, 2026. The PUCT approved a 180 MW data center netted behind a Pecos County solar plant, and ERCOT's study of a 1,200 MW Amazon load at Comanche Peak now gives the commission until December 12 to rule.
Bottom line: The TxCP Commercial Rate Index (TCRI) from the texascommercialplans.com database held at 7.06 cents per kWh across 13,664 tracked Texas commercial electricity plans in the ERCOT deregulated market as of October 19, 2026, 0.02 cents below the 7.08 cents we reported on October 14. AEP Central's median rose 0.03 cents and three of the five TDU medians did not move. The bigger change was regulatory: the PUCT approved a 180 MW data center netted behind a Pecos County solar plant, and it must rule on a 1,200 MW Amazon load at Comanche Peak by December 12. Updated weekly.
Market Pulse
Across the 13,664 commercial electricity plans we track in the texascommercialplans.com database as of October 19, 2026, the TxCP Commercial Rate Index held at 7.06 cents per kWh, against 7.08 cents on October 14. AEP Central's median rose most, 0.03 cents to 6.57 cents, and remains the highest of the five TDU territories. CenterPoint edged up 0.01 cents to 6.50 cents, while Oncor, AEP North and TNMP were unchanged.
The catalog grew about 6 percent, from 12,925 plans, and a larger catalog can move an average through mix alone, so we read the dip as flat. Contract length still moves price more than location does.
What Moved This Week and Why It Matters
The most consequential development for Texas commercial buyers this week is how the PUCT is handling data centers that plug in behind existing power plants. On October 15 it approved a 180 MW load netted against a Pecos County solar farm, and ERCOT's study of a 1,200 MW Amazon load at the Comanche Peak nuclear plant now gives the commission until December 12 to rule. Neither case touches a small business bill directly, but both shape how much existing generation stays in the shared pool behind every fixed-price quote.
What Happened
On October 15 the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved the joint application of West Texas Solar Project II and Silver Basin Digital Infrastructure in Docket 59115, letting a 180 MW data center load sit behind the 204 MW Taygete II solar facility in Pecos County and share its settlement meter (PUCT final order). That closes the case we previewed on September 18. Two days earlier, ERCOT filed its study of Comanche Peak Power Company's application in Docket 59399, which would serve a 1,200 MW Amazon Data Services load from the 2,400 MW nuclear plant, and set out recommended operating conditions (ERCOT study). Both cases run under PURA Section 39.169, added by Senate Bill 6 in 2025 and put into practice by the PUCT's net metering rule, 16 TAC 25.205 (ERCOT market notice).
Impact on Texas Commercial Buyers
Contract. ERCOT's study estimates the Amazon pairing would lower planning reserve margins by 0.09 to 0.83 percentage points in every forecast season from Fall 2027 through Winter 2030/2031. Vistra has said deliveries under its 20-year, 1,200 MW Comanche Peak agreement begin in the fourth quarter of 2027 and ramp to full capacity by 2032 (Utility Dive). Those are the years a 24- or 36-month contract signed this month runs into, and in our catalog plans of 25 months and up carry a median 0.38 cents per kWh above the 13 to 24 month median.
Budget. The conditions put these loads first in line to drop off when the grid is tight. Within 30 minutes of an ERCOT instruction during an actual or anticipated transmission emergency or Energy Emergency Alert, the Silver Basin load must fully curtail, and the solar plant's owner must offer all available output for ERCOT dispatch. ERCOT also found no stranded or underutilized transmission assets in the Comanche Peak study, which matters because transmission costs reach commercial bills through TDU charges such as the TCRF.
Timing. PURA Section 39.169(d) gives the commission 60 days after it receives ERCOT's study to rule, which by our count puts the Comanche Peak deadline at December 12, 2026. The commission listed Comanche Peak, and a third application from Willow Springs Wind Farm and Haskell DC Owner in Docket 59943, on its October 15 agenda but did not take either up (October 15 agenda). December 12 lands two days after ERCOT's December 10 Batch Zero verification report, so a business renewing in mid-December quotes with both on the record.
The Shared-Grid Test: Four Questions Before You Sign Into Late 2027
- Does your term reach the fourth quarter of 2027? That is when Vistra says Comanche Peak deliveries begin. A 13-month contract signed this month already gets there.
- What do the later years 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, about 6 percent.
- Can your load move? The Silver Basin order bars its data center from ERCOT and utility demand response programs. A commercial site that can cut load within 10 or 30 minutes can still offer it into ERCOT's Emergency Response Service.
- Which side of December 12 is your renewal on? The Comanche Peak ruling and ERCOT's December 10 report are the next two hard data points on how much new demand the grid is carrying.
What You Should Do This Week
- Check your contract end date and note whether it falls before or after December 12.
- Request 12-, 24- and 36-month quotes on the same day, so all three reflect the same market.
- Set the spreads against this week's medians: 5.98 cents short-term, 6.19 cents mid-term, 6.57 cents long-term. A much wider gap deserves an explanation.
- If your facility can curtail within 30 minutes, ask your REP or a qualified scheduling entity about ERCOT's winter ERS term before the October 30 site deadline.
Questions to ask your REP or broker:
- How much of the 36-month price covers resource adequacy risk in 2028 and later?
- Does my contract allow demand response participation, and who keeps the payment?
- Which charges in this quote can still change during the term?
Also moving
- EIA expects Henry Hub natural gas to average $3.16 per MMBtu in 2027. Its October 6 Short-Term Energy Outlook puts that 9 percent below 2026, with U.S. storage forecast 2 percent above the five-year average as the heating season starts. These are national figures, not ERCOT forecasts.
- ERCOT's winter ERS term is open. ERCOT posted the request for proposal for its December 2026 to March 2027 Emergency Response Service term on October 2, procuring 10-minute and 30-minute products (ERCOT ERS page). The deadlines, starting October 30, are in our October 9 briefing.
Pricing Trend Analysis
Texas commercial electricity pricing held flat across our tracked plans as of October 19, 2026: every TDU median sits within 0.03 cents of its October 14 level, and the five medians span 6.36 to 6.57 cents per kWh, a 0.21-cent band against 0.18 cents on October 14.
Oncor holds both the lowest median, at 6.36 cents, and the lowest average, at 6.95 cents. AEP Central carries the highest median and CenterPoint the highest average, at 7.13 cents.
| Date | Segment | Plans | Low | Median | Median on 2026-10-14 | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-19 | Oncor | 3,104 | $0.0351 | $0.0636 | $0.0636 | $0.2526 |
| 2026-10-19 | AEP North | 2,458 | $0.0430 | $0.0644 | $0.0644 | $0.2533 |
| 2026-10-19 | AEP Central | 2,809 | $0.0430 | $0.0657 | $0.0654 | $0.2574 |
| 2026-10-19 | CenterPoint | 2,683 | $0.0375 | $0.0650 | $0.0649 | $0.2390 |
| 2026-10-19 | TNMP | 2,610 | $0.0430 | $0.0645 | $0.0645 | $0.2612 |
| 2026-10-19 | Short-term (1 to 12 months) | 5,200 | $0.0351 | $0.0598 | $0.0597 | $0.2612 |
| 2026-10-19 | Mid-term (13 to 24 months) | 3,461 | $0.0430 | $0.0619 | $0.0619 | $0.1609 |
| 2026-10-19 | Long-term (25 months and up) | 1,815 | $0.0430 | $0.0657 | $0.0657 | $0.1390 |
The term rows cover the 10,476 plans with a stated contract length. Short-term plans keep both the lowest median (5.98 cents) and the highest average (7.57 cents), because a tail of offers priced as high as 26 cents pulls the average up. Mid-term plans average 6.41 cents and long-term plans 6.81. Stepping from short-term to mid-term costs 0.21 cents on medians, and locking beyond 24 months costs another 0.38 cents. Term moves the median almost three times as much as territory (0.59 cents against the 0.21-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: Rhythm
Rhythm sells electricity in Texas as Rhythm Ops, LLC, based in Houston, and holds PUCT certificate 10279 according to the PUCT REP directory. The provider lists 70 active commercial plans in our catalog this week.
Its lineup in our data covers all five ERCOT deregulated TDU territories, with contract terms from 12 to 36 months. Directionally, its plans sit below the market average across the plans we track. Rhythm says every plan it sells is powered by 100 percent renewable energy (Rhythm renewable energy page). Its PowerShift Business plan fixes both a daytime and an evening rate for a 12, 24 or 36 month term, with the lower rate set for business hours.
That 12 to 36 month range lets a buyer price one provider on both sides of the late-2027 line in our Shared-Grid Test. Get this provider's full plan data in our data download.
Buyer Intelligence
Texas small business shoppers face a flat energy market this week, so the useful question is how far forward to lock rather than when to buy. The Houston to Dallas median gap widened to 2.2 percent (CenterPoint 6.50 cents against Oncor 6.36 cents), still small next to the 0.59-cent term spread.
Does a data center netted behind a power plant raise a small business electricity bill?
Not directly. The Silver Basin and Comanche Peak arrangements cover loads of 180 MW and 1,200 MW, and the conditions require those loads to curtail within 30 minutes when ERCOT calls. Any effect on a small business arrives through the reserve margins behind long-term quotes, which ERCOT says the Comanche Peak pairing would trim by 0.09 to 0.83 percentage points from Fall 2027.
Should a Texas business renew its commercial electricity contract before December?
Only if the quote prices the later years fairly. This week the median long-term plan costs 0.38 cents per kWh more than the mid-term median, about 6 percent. A business whose current contract allows it can sign a 12 to 24 month term now, or wait for ERCOT's December 10 report and the Comanche Peak decision due by December 12.
Data Snapshot
Our October 19, 2026 snapshot spans 29 retail electric providers and 13,664 active commercial plans across all five ERCOT deregulated TDU territories, with the TxCP Commercial Rate Index at 7.06 cents per kWh and every TDU median within 0.03 cents of its October 14 level.
- Tracked REPs: 29 retail electric providers with active commercial plans.
- Active commercial plans: 13,664, up from 12,925 on October 14.
- Market average rate (TCRI): 7.06 cents per kWh, versus 7.08 cents on October 14.
- Plans with a price change: 1,445 of the 8,017 plans we matched to our prior snapshot, 891 higher and 554 lower.
- Average contract term: 24.0 months across tracked plans.
- Lowest TDU median: Oncor at 6.36 cents per kWh. Highest: AEP Central at 6.57 cents per kWh.
- Term medians: 5.98 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.
Full rate data, plan comparisons, and historical trends are available in our data download. For last week's baseline, see our October 14 weekly report, and for the December 10 audit, our Batch Zero verification briefing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average Texas commercial electricity rate in late October 2026?
The TxCP Commercial Rate Index sits at 7.06 cents per kWh across 13,664 tracked commercial plans as of October 19, 2026, compared with 7.08 cents on October 14. Medians by TDU territory range from 6.36 cents in Oncor to 6.57 cents in AEP Central.
What is a net metering arrangement for a Texas data center?
Under PURA Section 39.169, added by Senate Bill 6 in 2025, a net metering arrangement pairs a new load of 75 MW or more with an existing generation resource so the load nets against the plant's output. ERCOT studies each one, and the PUCT must approve, deny or condition it within 60 days of receiving that study.
How much does contract length change a Texas commercial electricity rate?
As of October 19, 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, 5.98 cents, but the highest average, 7.57 cents.