TDU delivery charges are what you pay the company that owns the poles, wires, and meter at your house. In most of Texas that's CenterPoint, Oncor, AEP Texas, or TNMP. They aren't your electricity provider, you can't pick them, and they charge every provider in their area the same regulated rate for your delivery.
So when you compare plans, the TDU delivery charge is the one part of the bill that won't change no matter which company you choose. At 1,000 kWh a month it runs about $60 to $82 depending on where you live. Here's what it pays for, what it costs in your area right now, and why it keeps creeping up.
Texas split the electricity business in two when it deregulated. Your retail electric provider (REP) buys power and sends you the bill. Your transmission and distribution utility (TDU) moves that power to your house and maintains everything between the power plant and your meter.
The TDU delivery charge covers that second job:
Building and maintaining the local poles, lines, and substations
Your share of the high-voltage transmission lines that cross the state
Reading and maintaining your meter
Restoring power after storms and outages
That last one is why you call your TDU, not your provider, when the lights go out. The TDU is a regulated monopoly. It doesn't compete for your business, so the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) sets what it's allowed to charge.
Your TDU is set by your address. If you're in a deregulated area, it's almost always one of these five:
CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric covers the Houston area. See Houston electricity plans.
Oncor Electric Delivery covers Dallas-Fort Worth plus much of North, Central, and West Texas. See Dallas electricity plans.
AEP Texas Central covers Corpus Christi and much of the Rio Grande Valley. See Corpus Christi electricity plans.
AEP Texas North covers Abilene, San Angelo, and much of West Central Texas. See Abilene electricity plans.
Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP) covers pockets of the Gulf Coast, North-Central Texas, and West Texas.
Lubbock is the exception. It opened to retail choice in 2024, and Lubbock Power & Light stayed on as the wires company, so LP&L sets the delivery charge there instead of one of the five above.
The PUCT keeps a map of TDU service areas if you're near a border. If your power comes from a city utility like Austin Energy or CPS Energy, or from an electric co-op, you don't have a separate TDU charge to shop around. Delivery is baked into that utility's own rates, and you don't get to choose a provider.
Every TDU files a monthly rate report with the PUCT. These numbers come straight from the PUCT's TDU rate reports, residential class, as of September 1, 2026.
Utility | Monthly charge | Per kWh | Delivery at 1,000 kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
CenterPoint (Houston) | $4.90 | 6.4¢ | $69.03 |
Oncor (DFW) | $4.06 | 6.0¢ | $64.36 |
AEP Texas Central | $3.24 | 5.8¢ | $61.07 |
AEP Texas North | $3.24 | 5.7¢ | $59.93 |
TNMP | $7.85 | 7.4¢ | $81.87 |
The monthly charge is the TDU's customer charge and metering charge added together. You pay it even in a month where you barely use any power. The per-kWh charge scales with your usage.
Put those next to a whole bill and they're bigger than most people expect. Say your Houston plan works out to 15¢ per kWh all-in at 1,000 kWh. That's a $150 bill, and CenterPoint's $69.03 is a little under half of it. The energy you're actually shopping for is the other half.
Every REP in CenterPoint's territory pays CenterPoint the same residential delivery rate. Same for Oncor, AEP, and TNMP. Switching providers changes the energy price and the provider's own fees. It doesn't touch the delivery charge.
What does change is how a provider shows it to you. There are two common setups:
Passed through. The plan lists its own energy rate, then adds "TDU delivery charges" as a separate line at cost. You see exactly what CenterPoint or Oncor is charging.
Bundled. The plan folds delivery into one all-in price per kWh. You don't see a separate TDU line, but it's in there.
Neither one is a trick, but the passed-through style makes it easy to misread an ad. A plan advertising an 8¢ energy charge in Houston isn't an 8¢ plan. Add roughly 6.4¢ per kWh plus $4.90 a month for delivery before you compare it to anything.
The Electricity Facts Label is where this gets settled. Under PUCT rule §25.475(g), the EFL for a fixed-rate plan has to show the total average price at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh, reflecting all recurring charges. That average includes delivery, whichever way the plan presents it.
That's why the average price is the number to compare, not the energy charge. It's also why the 500 kWh column is usually the most expensive per kWh. The TDU's fixed monthly charge gets spread over fewer kilowatt-hours. In CenterPoint's area, delivery alone works out to about 7.4¢ per kWh at 500 kWh and about 6.7¢ at 2,000 kWh.
If you haven't read an EFL line by line before, here's how to read a Texas EFL. The TDU line is usually in the pricing box near the top.
This surprises a lot of people. A "fixed rate" in Texas isn't fixed against everything.
The PUCT's own definition in §25.475(b)(5) says a fixed-rate product's price can vary "solely to reflect actual changes in TDU charges," changes to ERCOT administrative fees, or new costs imposed by law that are beyond the provider's control. So if Oncor's delivery rate goes up on September 1, your fixed-rate bill in Dallas can go up with it, and that's allowed.
The rule does require your provider to be upfront about it. Under §25.475(d)(2)(B), the bill has to either show those changes as separate line items or carry a conspicuous notice that the amount may include changes allowed by law or regulatory actions. What your provider can't do is use a TDU change as cover to raise its own energy rate on a fixed plan.
A few things move these rates, and none of them are set by your provider.
Twice-yearly transmission updates. Under PUCT rule §25.193, TDUs update the transmission cost piece of their rates twice a year, on March 1 and September 1, to pass through what they're billed for high-voltage transmission. Texas is building a lot of it right now. The new 765 kV transmission lines the PUCT approved are part of how that cost reaches your bill over time.
Distribution cost adjustments. Between full rate cases, TDUs can apply to recover the cost of new local poles, lines, and substations through a distribution cost recovery factor. That's how growth in fast-building areas shows up on everyone's delivery rate.
Full rate cases. Every few years a TDU asks the PUCT to reset its base rates. Oncor's most recent one, PUCT Docket No. 58306, got a final order on April 17, 2026. Oncor estimated the approved settlement at about a 3% overall bill increase for a household using 1,000 kWh on a 15¢ plan.
Add in storm-hardening programs after hurricanes and winter storms, and you get a line item that trends one direction. That's the honest answer to "why are Oncor delivery charges so high." Delivery rates are recovering real spending on a grid that's growing fast.
You can't shop them away. Every provider at your address pays the same TDU rate, and you can't choose a different TDU. Anyone promising "no delivery charges" is either bundling them into the price or not serving a deregulated area.
What you can do:
Use less power. Most of the charge is per kWh, so every kWh you cut also cuts delivery.
Compare plans on the EFL average price at *your* usage, which already includes delivery. That's the only apples-to-apples number.
If your usage is low, pay attention to the 500 kWh price. The TDU's fixed monthly charge weighs more heavily there, and some plans stack their own base charge on top.
Moving is the only way to change TDUs, and nobody's moving over a delivery charge.
They're the regulated fees your transmission and distribution utility charges to deliver electricity to your home: poles, wires, meters, and outage repair. Your provider collects them on your bill and passes them to the TDU.
Yes, within the same TDU area. Every provider pays your TDU the same residential rate. Providers differ in whether they list delivery as a separate line or bundle it into one price.
Oncor's rates went up after its 2026 base rate case (Docket No. 58306), and like every TDU it updates transmission costs each March 1 and September 1. North Texas is adding load quickly, and the grid build-out to serve it gets recovered through delivery rates.
It means the plan bills delivery at whatever your TDU actually charges, as a separate line from the provider's energy rate. If the TDU's rate changes, that line changes with it.
Two parts. A fixed monthly amount (the customer charge plus the metering charge) and a per-kWh charge multiplied by your usage. For Oncor as of September 1, 2026, that's $4.06 a month plus about 6.0¢ per kWh.
They can. PUCT rules let a fixed-rate price move to reflect actual TDU changes, and your bill has to flag it. Your provider's own energy rate stays locked for the contract term.
Since delivery is the same for everyone at your address, the part you can actually shop is the energy price and the plan's own fees. When you compare Texas electricity plans by ZIP code, open the EFL and compare the average price at your usage, which already has delivery built in. Energy Outlet ranks plans by price and terms. We earn a commission when you enroll through the site, and it never changes the order you see.
If your contract is coming up, our guide on how to switch electricity providers in Texas walks through the timing so you don't land on a holdover rate.
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