Rebecca Bridges

If you’ve searched for electricity plans in Texas, you’ve almost certainly landed on Power to Choose. It’s the state’s official shopping site, built to give consumers a central place to compare providers. It lists every licensed plan. It’s run by a government agency. And for a lot of Texas shoppers, it leads them to the wrong plan.

Here’s what Power to Choose actually does, why its rate display doesn’t tell the whole story, and what to use instead if you want to know what you’re actually going to pay.

What Power to Choose is

In 2002, Texas opened its electricity market to competition, giving most residents the legal right to choose their own Retail Electric Provider (REP). The state built Power to Choose to make that shopping process accessible. If you live in a deregulated area of Texas you can use Power to Choose to browse available plans, view rates, and enroll online or by phone.

It is free. It’s official. But it was designed for listing plans, not for helping you pick the right one.

>>Learn about Power to Choose Alternatives

>>Jump to the official PowertoChoose.org website

The Problem With Advertised Rates

When you search for plans on Power to Choose, rates are displayed at three standard usage levels: 500, 1000, and 2000 kWh per month. The logic is that these levels give you a sense of what you’d pay at different consumption points.

The problem is that Texas electricity providers have learned to price their plans around these display levels. Many plans include a bill credit that makes your rate appear fantastically low at exactly 1000 kWh. But at 900 kWh, you don’t get the credit at all. And at higher usage levels, the bill credit, while still in play, is spread over more usage, so your effective rate isn’t what you expected.

The average Texas home uses around 1300 kWh per month. But usage swings widely across seasons: a moderate 800 kWh in October can become 1,800 kWh in August. That means a plan optimized to look cheap at 1000 kWh might cost significantly more than you expected for eight months of the year.

Power to Choose doesn’t address this. It just shows an advertised rate at three usage levels. It doesn’t show your estimated bill, and doesn’t let you calculate what you’ll really pay.

PRO TIP: Power to Choose is the right place to confirm that a provider is licensed in Texas and to find a list of all plans available in the market. It is not the right tool for figuring out which plan will cost you the least money based on how you actually use electricity.

How a Good Power to Choose Alternative Can Help

If you want to go beyond what Power to Choose offers, here’s the difference that matters most: an alternative should calculate your estimated bill based on your actual usage, not a fixed kWh level.

When a comparison tool knows you typically use 950 kWh per month, it can factor in bill credits, base charges, and tiered pricing to show you what each plan would actually cost. That changes how plans rank. And a comparison tool that shows rates based on your usage? That’s how to choose the best plan with no regrets.

Beyond bill math, a useful alternative comparison site will:

• Summarize the fine print in plain language, so you know whether a plan has unusual conditions before you enroll
• Let you compare plans side by side, not just scroll through a list
• Be transparent about how plans are ranked and which providers are featured
• Have reviewed the plans before listing them so you’re not sorting through hundreds of plans

Why we Built ElectricityPlans.com

We launched ElectricityPlans.com in 2017 because we were frustrated by the same things Texas electricity shoppers are still frustrated by today. Power to Choose lists plans. It doesn’t help you choose one.

We’re a licensed Texas electricity broker. Providers pay us a commission when you enroll through our site; that’s standard for comparison shopping in this market, and it’s how we keep the service free for consumers. What we don’t do is charge providers for higher rankings or accept payment to feature plans. Every plan on our site has been reviewed. Every listing includes a summary of what the plan actually is, not just what the provider wants you to know.

The most important thing we do is let you shop by your usage, and give you the tools to understand your choices. Enter your average monthly kWh and you’ll see estimated bills, not just rates at 1,000 kWh. Have a bill handy? Use the BillSmart™ Low Bill Finder. We’ll estimated a full month of usage based on a single bill and

Gut Check for Electricity Shopping: Your local TDU delivery charges are 5-5.6¢ per kWh. Does it make any sense to think that an all-in rate of energy plus delivery would be 7 to 8¢ per kWh? Of course not. That’s a dead giveaway for a bill credit plan that’s designed to show an advertised rate that super low at exactly 1000 kWh/month. Always shop based on your usage, and use a comparison shopping site that highlights real rates.

What to Watch Out For When Shopping Electricity

Whether you use Power to Choose, ElectricityPlans.com, or any other comparison tool, a few patterns are worth recognizing:

Bill credit plans. These are the most common source of billing surprises in the Texas market. If a plan’s advertised rate depends on you clearing a usage threshold each month, read the EFL carefully before enrolling. The credit applies when your usage is high enough. But the key is “consistently high enough” or you’ll only get the credit in some months.

Variable rate plans. These plans can start with an attractive rate, but they can also move significantly when market conditions change. If you’re looking for predictability, a fixed-rate plan is a safer choice.

Short introductory rates. Some plans offer short term electricity plans with low rates. But these 3 month terms can leave you expiring when energy prices are typically at their highest.