Two Texas businesses can consume exactly the same 30,000 kilowatt-hours in a month and receive bills that differ by more than a thousand dollars. The energy usage is identical. The rate on the Electricity Facts Label is identical. What separates them is a single number most commercial buyers have never looked at: their peak 15-minute kilowatt demand.
That number, and the way utilities price it, is what this guide covers. Demand charges on Texas commercial electricity are the largest source of avoidable cost on most business bills, and they follow rules that generic broker articles either oversimplify or get wrong. This piece walks through exactly how peak kW drives your bill, with a full 100 kW worked example, a current side-by-side comparison across Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas Central, AEP Texas North, and TNMP, and a practical reduction playbook.
What is a demand charge on a commercial electricity bill?
A demand charge is a fee tied to your peak rate of electricity draw during a billing cycle, measured in kilowatts (kW), not kilowatt-hours (kWh).
The Public Utility Commission of Texas defines a demand charge in its substantive rules as a charge based on the rate at which electric energy is delivered to or by a system at a given instant, or averaged over a designated period, during the billing cycle. For Texas commercial customers on demand-metered rate schedules, that designated period is almost always a 15-minute interval.
kW vs kWh: the speedometer and the odometer
The cleanest way to separate energy from demand:
kWh (kilowatt-hours) is like the odometer. It measures how much electricity you consumed over time. Every kWh billed is one unit of energy that flowed through your meter.
kW (kilowatts) is like the speedometer. It measures how fast you were pulling power at a specific moment. A commercial meter records this in 15-minute averages, and your bill uses the highest such average from the month.
A car that drives 60 miles in an hour at a steady 60 mph and a car that drives 60 miles by sprinting to 120 mph and coasting both cover the same odometer distance. But the second car needs a bigger engine, better brakes, and heavier suspension. The utility grid is the same. It has to be sized to your peak draw, not your average.
Why utilities bill peak demand at all
Every wire, transformer, and substation between the generator and your building is sized for the maximum instantaneous demand it must serve. That capacity is expensive to build and expensive to maintain. Two businesses that use the same kilowatt-hours over a month impose very different capacity costs if one draws its energy in a smooth line and the other pulls it in a series of sharp spikes.
Demand charges are how Transmission and Distribution Service Providers (TDSPs, also called TDUs) recover the cost of maintaining enough capacity to serve your worst 15 minutes. For a full breakdown of every line that shows up on the delivery side of a commercial invoice, our guide to Texas TDU delivery charges walks through customer, metering, distribution, and rider components in order.
How demand charges are calculated in Texas
The basic formula is simple:
Demand charge = billing kW × applicable $/kW rate
Everything interesting happens inside those two numbers.
The 15-minute interval measurement
Your meter records interval data continuously. Every 15 minutes, it averages the power draw during that interval and stores the value. In a 30-day billing cycle, that's roughly 2,880 intervals per meter. Your peak demand for the month is the single highest 15-minute average across all of them.
An important consequence: brief transients, like the inrush current when a large motor starts, don't set your peak by themselves. Only the sustained load averaged across 15 minutes counts. This is why a well-managed facility can run large equipment without spiking its demand bill, and why a facility that operates sloppily can create expensive peaks without ever running above its normal load level.
What "billing kW" really means
The kW your bill uses to calculate your demand charge is not always the same as your highest recorded interval. Depending on the tariff and the rate schedule your account sits on, billing kW can be any of the following:
NCP (non-coincident peak) kW
The maximum 15-minute demand your account recorded during the billing month, regardless of when the ERCOT system peaked.
Ratcheted billing kW
A minimum floor set by a percentage (commonly 80%) of your highest peak from the preceding 11 months, applied against your current month's actual peak.
4CP kW
Your demand at the four specific 15-minute intervals when the ERCOT system as a whole hit its monthly peaks in June, July, August, and September. This only affects certain transmission-related charges on certain rate schedules.
kVA (kilovolt-amperes)
For some CenterPoint schedules, the billing determinant is kVA rather than kW, which factors in power factor.
The applicable tariff for your account controls which of these applies. This is the single biggest source of confusion in commercial energy content published by comparison sites. A generic "demand charge equals peak kW times rate" formula is a useful mental model, but the actual arithmetic on your bill can involve a different definition of "peak."
Worked example: A 100 kW Texas business
Let's walk through a realistic monthly bill for a mid-sized business on Oncor's Secondary Service Greater Than 10 kW tariff. This is the schedule most Dallas-Fort Worth commercial accounts sit on once their demand crosses the 10 kW threshold.
Assumptions
- Peak billing demand: 100 kW (recorded during one 15-minute interval)
- Total monthly energy consumption: 30,000 kWh
- Billing period: 30 days
- Retail energy supply rate: 8.5¢/kWh (contracted with the REP)
- REP monthly base charge: $15.00
Step 1: Energy supply cost
The retail electric provider (REP) bills the kilowatt-hours you consumed at your contracted rate:
30,000 kWh × $0.085 = $2,550.00
Plus the REP's monthly base charge: $15.00
Subtotal from the REP side: $2,565.00
Step 2: TDSP delivery charges
This is where demand charges live. Based on Oncor's Secondary Service Greater Than 10 kW tariff structure, the delivery side of the bill for this account has several components. Using aggregated figures effective April 30, 2026, compiled from TXU's published commercial rate schedule reference (which draws from PUCT-approved tariffs), the numbers work out approximately as follows:
- Fixed customer and metering charges: approximately $32.43 per month
- Aggregate demand-related delivery components (distribution system charge, TCRF, DCRF, and applicable riders combined): 100 kW × approximately $11.27/kW = $1,127.29
- Volumetric delivery components (EECRF and per-kWh riders): 30,000 kWh × approximately $0.000546 = $16.38
TDSP delivery subtotal: approximately $1,176.10
Verify current effective tariffs at puct.texas.gov or on the applicable TDSP tariff page before using these numbers for a procurement decision. Rates change with PUCT-approved filings, and your actual invoice will show these components broken out into individual line items rather than as an aggregate.
Step 3: Regulatory and other charges
The PUC assessment (approximately 1/6 of 1% of retail electric charges) adds around $6.24. State and local sales tax varies by jurisdiction, as does the gross receipts tax reimbursement. For clarity, this example shows the pre-tax subtotal.
The total
- REP energy supply (30,000 kWh × 8.5¢): $2,550.00
- REP base charge: $15.00
- TDSP demand-related (aggregate $11.27/kW × 100): $1,127.29
- TDSP volumetric delivery: $16.38
- TDSP fixed customer and metering: $32.43
- PUC assessment: $6.24
- Pre-tax total: $3,747.34
Effective rate: $3,747.34 ÷ 30,000 kWh = 12.49¢/kWh
The lesson from this example
The customer contracted at 8.5¢/kWh. The actual all-in cost worked out to 12.49¢/kWh, a 47% mark-up over the contracted energy rate. That gap is where demand charges and delivery riders live. The $1,127 demand-related component was driven by a single 15-minute interval where the meter recorded 100 kW.
Two variants of the same story:
If this business could have shaved 20 kW off that peak while consuming the same 30,000 kWh, its demand-related TDU cost would drop by roughly $225 per month, or $2,700 per year.
If a summer heat wave pushed the peak to 130 kW instead of 100 kW while consumption stayed the same, the demand-related TDU cost would rise by roughly $338 per month, and the ratchet clause could carry a portion of that penalty into the following 11 months.
Both of those swings happen without changing kilowatt-hours.
TDSP demand rates compared: Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Central, AEP North, TNMP
The five major Texas TDSP rate territories (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas Central, AEP Texas North, and TNMP) each publish their own PUCT-approved tariffs. Aggregate demand-related delivery costs for commercial customers on the Secondary Service Greater Than 10 kW schedules varied as follows, effective April 30, 2026, compiled from TXU's published commercial rate schedule reference:
Oncor Electric Delivery: $32.43 fixed monthly + 0.055¢ per-kWh delivery + $11.27/kW aggregate demand rate. A 100 kW account pays approximately $1,127 in demand-related delivery cost.
CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric: $13.41 fixed monthly + 0.093¢ per-kWh delivery + $10.10/kW aggregate demand rate. A 100 kW account pays approximately $1,010.
AEP Texas Central: $22.00 fixed monthly + 0.074¢ per-kWh delivery + $12.79/kW aggregate demand rate. A 100 kW account pays approximately $1,279.
AEP Texas North: $22.00 fixed monthly + 0.074¢ per-kWh delivery + $12.38/kW aggregate demand rate. A 100 kW account pays approximately $1,238.
Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP): $24.56 fixed monthly + 0.156¢ per-kWh delivery + $14.98/kW aggregate demand rate. A 100 kW account pays approximately $1,498.
Important qualifications:
- These are aggregated demand-related delivery components. They combine distribution system charges, Transmission Cost Recovery Factor (TCRF), Distribution Cost Recovery Factor (DCRF), Energy Efficiency Cost Recovery Factor (EECRF), and other applicable riders into a single per-kW figure. Your actual bill will show these broken out separately.
- The rate applies to accounts on the Secondary Service Greater Than 10 kW schedules for Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Central, and AEP North. TNMP uses a lower threshold, with demand billing starting at greater than 5 kW rather than 10 kW.
- CenterPoint's tariff uses kVA rather than kW as the billing determinant on several schedules, which factors in power factor. A facility with poor power factor can end up paying on a higher billing determinant than its kW alone would suggest.
- Rates change. TDSP tariffs are updated at least twice yearly, typically effective March 1 and September 1, and can also change mid-cycle through rider adjustments approved by the PUCT. Verify the current effective tariff before using these figures for a procurement decision.
- Primary service, transmission service, and lighting service customers sit on different schedules with different structures. This table applies only to the standard Secondary Service Greater Than 10 kW schedule.
For a full breakdown of every delivery component and how each utility structures its tariff, our overview of TDSPs serving Texas commercial customers covers each service territory and rate structure in detail. Individual utility pages for Oncor delivery rates, CenterPoint delivery rates, AEP Texas Central delivery rates, AEP Texas North delivery rates, and TNMP delivery rates go deeper on each tariff.
Why the rates differ
The variation from CenterPoint's $10.10/kW to TNMP's $14.98/kW isn't arbitrary. Each TDSP has its own PUCT-approved cost of service, its own load density, its own distribution asset base, and its own rider mechanisms. TNMP serves several non-contiguous service pockets across the state, which affects its per-customer cost recovery. Oncor covers the densest metro corridor in Dallas-Fort Worth. CenterPoint serves the concentrated Houston metro. AEP Central covers South Texas and the Gulf Coast, and AEP North covers Abilene and West Texas.
A Houston restaurant paying CenterPoint delivery rates and a McAllen restaurant paying AEP Central delivery rates operate on different tariffs even if they buy from the same REP at the same contracted energy rate.
Why REP demand ≠ TDSP demand ≠ ERCOT 4CP
This is where most commercial energy content goes wrong. There are actually three separate things called "demand" or "demand charge" that can appear on a Texas commercial bill, and they follow different rules.
1. TDSP demand charges (regulated pass-throughs)
These are the demand charges built into your TDSP's approved tariff, described in the section above. Every commercial account on a demand-metered schedule pays these. They are regulated by the PUCT and passed through by your REP without markup, though your REP may bundle them into a fixed rate rather than showing them as a separate line item. That's legal, but it reduces transparency.
2. REP demand charges (contractual)
Some retail electric providers structure their commercial contracts to charge a demand component on the supply side, separate from the TDSP demand charges. This appears in your REP contract, not in the PUCT tariff. It's negotiable. Some contracts have it, some don't. If your REP contract includes a supply-side demand charge, it will typically be shown as $/kW on your bill in addition to the TDSP demand line.
The distinction matters because supply-side demand charges are contract terms that can be redlined during procurement. TDSP demand charges cannot.
3. ERCOT 4CP demand allocation
The Four Coincident Peak (4CP) is an ERCOT-level transmission cost allocation mechanism, not an ordinary monthly demand charge. Under the current framework, ERCOT identifies the four single 15-minute intervals in June, July, August, and September when the total ERCOT system reached its highest demand for that month. A customer's demand during those four specific intervals (averaged) determines how transmission costs are allocated to that customer for the following year.
4CP only affects certain rate schedules and certain customer types. It flows through the TCRF rider on TDSP bills, not through the ordinary distribution demand charge. Most large commercial and industrial customers on schedules that use 4CP kW as a billing determinant are directly exposed. Most small and medium commercial customers pay transmission-related costs volumetrically or through a fixed allocation, without direct 4CP exposure.
Do not conflate these three. A common (and expensive) mistake is treating 4CP as if it were the way all Texas commercial demand charges work. It isn't. 4CP is one specific mechanism affecting one specific slice of the bill. Your monthly TDSP demand charge is calculated on your own 15-minute peak, whether or not it aligns with the ERCOT system peak.
The ratchet clause
The ratchet clause is where a bad summer 15 minutes can haunt you all year.
Oncor's Secondary Service Greater Than 10 kW tariff sets billing kW as the higher of:
- The customer's current-month NCP kW, or
- 80% of the highest NCP kW recorded during the preceding 11 months.
A worked example of the ratchet
Suppose a Dallas office building sets a summer peak of 150 kW in August because its chillers ran hard during a heat wave. In January, when the building is mostly empty, the actual peak drops to 60 kW.
- Actual January peak: 60 kW
- 80% of the August peak: 150 × 0.80 = 120 kW
- Billing kW for January = 120 kW (the higher of the two)
At an aggregate Oncor rate of roughly $11.27/kW, the ratcheted billing kW costs the building:
- 120 kW × $11.27 = $1,352 per month in demand-related delivery
- Versus what it would have paid on actual demand: 60 kW × $11.27 = $676
Ratchet penalty: $676 per month, or up to $8,112 per year across all 12 months following the peak.
This is why one bad August afternoon can cost a Texas business for 11 straight months. The ratchet is one of the most expensive and least understood mechanisms in Texas commercial electricity, and the reason ERCOT summer peak management pays back so quickly for facilities that take it seriously.
Not every commercial rate schedule uses an 80% ratchet. The percentage, the lookback period, and the applicability depend on your specific TDSP and rate class. But some form of demand ratchet is common enough that any commercial buyer should verify whether their account is exposed to one before signing a new contract.
Why is my Texas business demand charge so high?
If you're asking this question, one of the following is almost always the reason.
Simultaneous equipment startup
The most common cause. A facility that turns on HVAC, refrigeration, compressors, and production equipment all at 7:00 AM sharp will create a sharp peak that only lasts 15 to 30 minutes but sets billing kW for the entire month. Staggering startups across 20 to 30 minutes can flatten this peak dramatically.
Summer HVAC coincidence
During Texas summer afternoons, HVAC systems run flat out, and any additional load (production equipment, lighting, refrigeration, EV chargers) stacks on top. Peaks between 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM in June through September are the most expensive intervals of the year, and they tend to trigger both monthly demand charges and 4CP exposure at the same time.
Low load factor
A restaurant or church that operates intensely for a few hours and sits nearly empty the rest of the time has a low load factor: a high peak relative to its average consumption. Even at moderate total kWh, its billing kW is disproportionately large. Manufacturing plants running two full shifts tend to have higher load factors and lower per-kWh effective costs for the same reason.
A one-time operational event
A single test run of backup generators, a maintenance shutdown that required simultaneous restart, or an unusually heavy production day can each set a peak that then ratchets forward for 11 months. Reviewing interval data after any unusual operational event is worth doing before that peak becomes a floor.
Meter or billing error
Occasionally the peak on your bill doesn't reflect what actually happened at your meter. Estimated reads, multiplier errors, and mis-tagged intervals all happen. Pulling the 15-minute interval data from Smart Meter Texas and matching it against your bill catches this. Our bill analyzer tool for Texas commercial electricity flags suspected peak-demand errors and unusual rider adjustments.
How to find your peak kW using interval data
Every Texas commercial account with a demand meter has 15-minute interval data available through Smart Meter Texas at smartmetertexas.com. You (or your energy consultant, with your authorization) can pull:
- 15-minute kW readings for any date and time
- Monthly maximum demand records
- Historical peak information going back 12 to 24 months
To identify which interval set your peak:
- Log into Smart Meter Texas with your ESI ID and account information.
- Download the 15-minute interval usage report for the billing month in question.
- Sort the intervals by kW in descending order.
- The top interval is your peak. Note the date and time.
- Cross-reference with your operations log for that date to identify what was running.
If you don't know your ESI ID, our ESI ID lookup for Texas commercial addresses finds it from your service address. Knowing the exact 15-minute interval that set your peak is the single most useful piece of information for any demand reduction program.
How to reduce commercial demand charges in Texas
The interventions below are ordered roughly from lowest cost and lowest risk to highest.
Stagger equipment startups
The cheapest intervention. If your operation currently turns on multiple large loads at the same time (HVAC, compressors, production equipment, lighting), stagger these across 15 to 30 minutes. This alone can shave 15% to 25% off peak demand in facilities that haven't previously optimized startup sequencing.
Example: A print shop that started every press at 6:00 AM simultaneously moved to starting one press every 5 minutes over a 25-minute window. Peak demand dropped from 180 kW to 145 kW. Monthly TDSP demand savings on Oncor: roughly $395.
Shift flexible loads to off-peak hours
Loads that aren't time-sensitive (battery charging for material handling equipment, water heating, some process loads, EV charging) can be moved out of your peak window. If your peak occurs weekday afternoons, running these loads overnight or on weekends removes them from the demand calculation entirely.
Optimize HVAC
Pre-cooling buildings early in the morning when outside temperatures are lower reduces the afternoon HVAC load. Raising thermostat setpoints by 2 to 3 degrees during your peak demand window (typically 3:00 to 6:00 PM in summer) reduces compressor draw. Variable frequency drives (VFDs) on chiller and pump motors flatten start-up spikes.
Install demand controls
A demand control system monitors your real-time load and automatically sheds non-critical equipment when demand approaches a threshold. These systems typically pay back in 12 to 24 months for facilities with peaks above 200 kW.
Battery peak shaving
Commercial battery storage systems charge during off-peak hours and discharge during your peak demand window, reducing the net demand your meter sees. Battery economics improved substantially through 2024 to 2026 as installed costs came down. For manufacturing facilities and cold storage operations with high, predictable peaks, batteries can now pay back in 4 to 6 years depending on demand charges and any utility incentives.
Enroll in demand response programs
Several REPs and third-party program operators offer commercial demand response programs where you're paid to reduce load during grid emergencies. This is distinct from voluntary demand reduction (which lowers your own billing kW) and can stack with it. Payment structures vary. For facilities with load flexibility, this is a revenue opportunity that offsets some of the fixed costs of demand control infrastructure.
Demand charges by industry
Manufacturing
Texas manufacturing facilities typically have the strongest combination of high demand and load flexibility. Motors, compressors, ovens, and process equipment create predictable peaks that can be managed through scheduling and staggered startups. Facilities running two or three shifts have higher load factors and lower effective rates. Our guide to Texas manufacturing electricity procurement covers shift scheduling, demand management, and contract structures that protect margin against peak-driven cost increases.
Data centers and 24/7 operations
Continuous-operation facilities like data centers, telecom hubs, and hosting operations have high load factors (usually 80% or above) but relatively little demand flexibility. Their peaks come from cooling systems that must run whenever server load runs, which is always. For these facilities, demand management focuses on precision cooling optimization, battery peak shaving during 4CP intervals, and negotiating REP contracts that don't stack additional supply-side demand charges on top of TDSP demand.
Warehousing and cold storage
Cold storage operations have consistent base loads (refrigeration must run continuously) with predictable demand spikes when compressors cycle. Sequencing compressor cycles to avoid simultaneous restart is the highest-leverage intervention. Our overview of warehouse and cold storage electricity procurement in Texas covers 4CP exposure, refrigeration cycling, and the contract terms that protect against demand-driven cost variability.
Restaurants and hospitality
Restaurants have low load factors (30% to 45%) because they operate intensely during meal periods and sit mostly empty otherwise. Their peaks come from HVAC, kitchen equipment, and refrigeration hitting simultaneously during summer lunch and dinner services. Kitchen equipment scheduling and rooftop unit optimization are the main levers. Sector-specific guidance is covered in our energy strategy by industry hub for Texas commercial buyers.
Retail
Retail electricity profiles vary widely by format. Big-box stores with large refrigeration and lighting loads tend to peak during summer weekday afternoons. Smaller retail stores have flatter profiles. Load factor typically runs 35% to 50%.
For all industries, the starting point is the same: pull your 15-minute interval data, identify which intervals set your peak, and match that against your operational schedule. From there, the specific intervention is a function of your equipment and process constraints.
Frequently asked questions
What is a demand charge on my commercial electricity bill?
A demand charge is a fee based on the highest 15-minute average rate at which your business drew power during a billing cycle, measured in kilowatts (kW). It's separate from your energy charge, which is based on total kilowatt-hours consumed. Demand charges typically appear on TDSP delivery lines for commercial accounts on demand-metered rate schedules, generally those with peaks above 10 kW (or 5 kW in TNMP territory).
How are demand charges calculated in Texas?
The basic formula is billing kW multiplied by the applicable per-kW rate on your TDSP's tariff. Billing kW may be your monthly non-coincident peak (NCP), a ratcheted value based on your prior 11 months of peaks, or a coincident value tied to ERCOT system peaks, depending on your rate schedule. The applicable rate depends on your TDSP, your service class, and the current PUCT-approved tariff.
Why is my Texas business demand charge so high?
The most common causes are simultaneous startup of multiple large loads (HVAC, refrigeration, production equipment) creating a sharp 15-minute peak, summer HVAC load stacking on top of other equipment during hot afternoons, a low load factor (high peak relative to average usage), or a demand ratchet from a prior month's peak carrying forward. Reviewing your 15-minute interval data identifies which cause applies.
How long does a demand spike penalize my electric bill in Texas?
If your rate schedule includes a demand ratchet clause, a peak can affect your billing kW for up to 11 months. For example, an Oncor Secondary Service Greater Than 10 kW account with an 80% ratchet will have billing kW set to at least 80% of its highest peak in the trailing 11 months. If you set a 150 kW peak in August, your billing kW cannot drop below 120 kW until August of the following year.
What is the difference between kW and kWh on a commercial bill?
kW (kilowatts) measures the rate at which you draw electricity at a given moment or averaged over a 15-minute interval. kWh (kilowatt-hours) measures the total quantity of electricity consumed over time. Your bill charges kWh under the energy line and kW under the demand line. Two businesses can consume the same kWh and pay very different demand charges if their peak kW levels differ.
Does my small business have to pay TDSP demand charges?
Only if your account is on a demand-metered rate schedule. For Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Central, and AEP North, this generally means accounts with peaks above 10 kW. For TNMP, the threshold is 5 kW. Small commercial accounts below the threshold pay a volumetric rate structure without a separate demand charge.
What months are the ERCOT 4CP windows active?
ERCOT calculates 4CP based on the four monthly peak 15-minute intervals in June, July, August, and September. These intervals are almost always weekday afternoons between roughly 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM, though the exact interval isn't known until after ERCOT settles the data. 4CP affects the following year's transmission cost allocation for customers on rate schedules that use 4CP kW as a billing determinant.
Can switching electricity providers reduce my TDSP demand charge?
Switching REPs does not change your regulated TDSP demand charge. TDSP rates are set by PUCT-approved tariffs and passed through without markup regardless of which REP you use. However, a new REP contract can affect supply-side demand terms, minimum-usage penalties, and how demand and delivery charges are presented on your bill. Comparing REP proposals on total effective ¢/kWh rather than headline supply rate is the way to see the actual difference.
How do I lower my commercial demand charges?
The most effective interventions, in rough order of cost and complexity, are: stagger equipment startups to avoid simultaneous peaks, shift flexible loads to off-peak hours, optimize HVAC through pre-cooling and setpoint management, install demand controls to shed non-critical loads automatically, and (for higher-demand facilities) consider battery peak shaving. Interval data analysis is the starting point for all of these.
Are TDSP demand charges the same for every provider?
Yes, the tariff is identical regardless of which REP you buy from. TDSPs charge every REP the same PUCT-approved delivery rate. But how those charges appear on your bill differs. Some REPs pass them through as a separate line, others bundle them into a single fixed ¢/kWh rate. The regulated tariff is the same either way. Only the invoice presentation and the REP's own contract terms differ.
Where to go from here
If you want to understand the demand side of your Texas commercial electricity spend, three next steps:
- Pull your interval data. Log into Smart Meter Texas and download 12 months of 15-minute readings. Identify which intervals set your peaks and match them to your operational calendar.
- Verify your tariff. Confirm which TDSP rate schedule your account is on and check the current effective rates against your bill. Our TDSP overview for Texas commercial customers covers each utility's structure.
- Compare REP offers on total delivered cost, not headline supply rate. The full effective ¢/kWh, including all TDSP demand charges, riders, and taxes, is what determines your actual monthly bill. Our commercial electricity comparison for Texas businesses runs supplier-neutral RFPs and benchmarks quotes against the live ERCOT forward curve.
Electric Decisions runs RFPs across more than 46 retail electric providers in Texas, benchmarks quotes against the live ERCOT forward curve, and reviews contract terms in plain English. Every quote we source discloses margin transparently and specifies exactly how the TDSP demand pass-through is handled. If you'd like to see how procurement works when the person quoting you isn't also the person you're buying from, the documented 5-step energy procurement process for Texas commercial buyers is the place to start.