Is My City Deregulated? Why Austin and San Antonio Can't Choose Electricity Providers
Texas "deregulated electricity" comes with a giant asterisk that confuses everyone eventually: the two most famous cities in the state can't use it. If you've moved from Houston to Austin and wondered where all the provider choices went — or moved the other way and suddenly been told to pick a company you've never heard of — this is the explanation.
The short version
In 2002, Texas opened most of its electricity market to retail competition. But the law only applied to areas served by investor-owned utilities inside the ERCOT grid. Cities that owned their own electric utility, and member-owned rural cooperatives, were allowed to keep their monopolies — and nearly all of them did. The result: about 85% of Texans choose their provider; the rest have one assigned, take it or take it.
Who HAS choice
If your delivery utility is Oncor (Dallas–Fort Worth and much of north/west Texas), CenterPoint (greater Houston), AEP Texas (Corpus Christi, the Valley, Abilene, San Angelo), TNMP (parts of the Gulf Coast and west Texas), or Lubbock Power & Light, you shop the competitive market. That covers Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Corpus Christi, Plano, Laredo, McAllen, Killeen, Waco, Tyler, Midland, Odessa, Galveston — and yes, Lubbock, which in 2024 became the first municipal utility ever to join retail competition. Every one of those cities has a live rate table on this site.
Who DOESN'T — and which flavor of "no"
- Municipal utilities: the city owns the power company and it answers to city council, not the PUCT's competition rules. Austin (Austin Energy) and San Antonio (CPS Energy) are the giants; Garland, Denton, Georgetown, Brownsville, College Station, Bryan, and dozens of smaller cities work the same way. No choice, but profits flow to the city budget.
- Electric cooperatives: member-owned utilities serving mostly rural and exurban Texas — Pedernales, Bluebonnet, CoServ, Magic Valley, and many more. You're a member, you get one option, and you can vote in board elections. (A few co-ops have technically opted into competition; almost none of the big ones have.)
- Outside ERCOT entirely: some of Texas isn't even on the Texas grid. El Paso (El Paso Electric), the Beaumont/Port Arthur/Conroe area (Entergy Texas), the Longview/Texarkana corner (SWEPCO), and the upper Panhandle (Xcel/SPS) are on neighboring grids under traditional regulation. No choice, regulated rates.
"So is my address deregulated or not?"
Three checks, fastest first:
- Look at your electric bill. If it comes from Austin Energy, CPS Energy, a co-op, El Paso Electric, Entergy, SWEPCO, or Xcel — no choice. If it comes from a company you picked (or a retail brand you didn't, plus delivery charges from Oncor/CenterPoint/AEP/TNMP) — you have choice.
- Enter your ZIP on our homepage. If plans come up, you're deregulated and looking at your actual market.
- Border cases: a handful of ZIPs straddle territories — parts of the Metroplex mix Oncor with co-op or municipal pockets, and suburbs like Round Rock split between providers-with-choice and Austin Energy. When plans come up for your ZIP but your bill says otherwise, the bill wins — territory follows the wires at your specific address, not the ZIP.
The trade-off, honestly
Deregulation's champions point to choice and innovation; its critics point out that municipal customers never got a Griddy-style disaster and never sit on holdover rates. The fair summary: attentive shoppers in deregulated Texas — the ones who compare at their usage and re-shop at contract end — typically beat municipal rates. Inattentive ones often do worse. Which is to say: if you're in the 85%, the market rewards exactly the ten minutes of comparison this site exists to make easy. If you're in Austin or San Antonio — enjoy the simplicity, and there's genuinely nothing to shop.