Updated November 2024: we have 96 electric rates, plans, and offers from 17 Houston energy providers.
Best Electricity Rates in Houston
Currently, the best electric rate in Houston is 7.43 cents per kWh. This rate is offered to businesses through our site by the retail energy provider NRG.
- Lowest commercial rate: 7.43 cents per kWh
- Lowest residential rate: 13.2 cents per kWh
This chart shows the average electric rate in Houston, Texas for residential customers over the past 5 years.
Residential electricity rates — the rate homes (houses, apartments, condos, trailers, etc) pay for electricity — are considerably higher than electric rates for businesses and commercial/industrial facilities.
Houston Electricity Plans
Here are some of the best Houston electric plans and offers for homes:
| Provider | Plan Name | Term | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Federal | Residential Fixed | 10 months | 12.79¢ / kWh |
| APG&E | True Classic 10 | 10 months | 12.6¢ / kWh |
| Ranchero Power | Smart & Fixed | 10 months | 12.7¢ / kWh |
| Abundance Energy | Straight Forward 10 | 10 months | 13¢ / kWh |
| Budget Power | No Gimmicks 24 | 24 months | 13.1¢ / kWh |
For a full list of residential plans in Houston, and to see real-time commercial electricity rates in Houston, enter your zip code.
Houston Service Areas
We offer electricity rates and plans for homes and businesses in and all around Houston including downtown Houston, Heights, Galleria, River Oaks, Midtown, and the so-called Energy Corridor. These areas are covered by Houston zip codes like 77002, 77008, 77056, 77057, 77077, 77079, 77084, and 77043.
We also serve cities and towns in the Houston metro area like Katy, Texas. A couple of popular zip code searches from Katy are 77449 and 77494.
In total, Houston has roughly 200 zip codes and we serve all of them.
Houston Electricity Providers
Here’s a list of some of the energy providers that service the Houston area:
- APG&E
- CleanSky Energy
- Direct Energy
- Engie Resources
- Freepoint Energy Solutions
- Frontier Utilities
- Gexa Energy
- Just Energy
- Hudson Energy
- IronHorse Power Services
- NRG Energy
- Pulse Power
Houston Utilities
Houston’s primary utility is CenterPoint Energy — CenterPoint serves electricity to nearly 2.6 million customers in the Houston area.
Houston Energy Deregulation
In 2002, Texas passed Senate Bill 7, which gave residents in cities like Houston the option to choose their electricity supplier. While customers continued to receive the delivery of their energy via their utility, the new law forced the market to open to competition.
New suppliers, or Retail Electric Providers (REPs) started to offer more flexible rates, plans and alternatives, which helped to lower the rising cost of energy. Transmission and Distribution Utilities remained responsible for reading meters, responding to emergencies and interruptions in service as well as maintenance.
Houston’s Energy Industry
This city is at the epicenter of the United States energy industry. Since the discovery of oil in the early 1900’s, Houston has built an impressive energy infrastructure for both national and international market demand.
Approximately 3,600 companies in the energy industry are located within an area of Houston known as “The Energy Corridor.” Houston contains 20 million square feet of office buildings and employs a significant population. Many well known companies have their corporate headquarters here including, ExxonMobil, Shell Oil Company, and WorleyParsons.
Here are some quick facts about Houston:
Population: 1,953,631
Number of Households: 717,945
Median Household Income: $61,465
Average Texas Household Income: $55,653
Average U.S. Household Income: $55,775
Cost of Living in Houston: 102.30 (U.S. Average is 100)