Choose a Houston electricity plan before move-in, not after you call CenterPoint
If you are moving into a Greater Houston address, the decision is not whether CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric will “set up power.” It is whether you pick a retail electric provider (REP) and start service before you need the lights. CenterPoint delivers electricity through the poles and wires; it does not sell the kilowatt-hours, and it does not send the monthly bill. ¹ state that plainly: the company does not sell electricity, you must buy from a REP, and that REP bills you each month.
That split is the whole move-in problem. People who grew up in monopoly-utility states call the wires company, wait on hold, and get an account. In competitive ERCOT territory, that call is the wrong first move. You choose a plan, enroll with a certified REP, and the REP files the start-service request that CenterPoint actually acts on. Do that early enough that a disconnected meter, a missing ESI ID, or a construction delay does not leave you unpacking in the dark.
Houston power is sold by a REP and delivered by CenterPoint
¹ say it delivers electric service to more than 2.8 million homes and businesses throughout the Greater Houston area, through the REP you choose. CenterPoint describes itself as a regulated poles-and-wires utility. ² says retail electric providers (also called competitive retailers) have competed to sell electricity to homes and businesses in Texas since January 2002, and that CenterPoint no longer sells electricity. It delivers power on behalf of those retailers. Builders can ask CenterPoint for Electric Service Identifiers (ESI IDs) and for meter work. Requests for electric service itself, the page says, must go to a certified REP.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas draws the same line for shoppers. ³ says that if you live in the ERCOT region and are not served by an electric cooperative or a municipally owned utility, you can choose your electric provider. Greater Houston’s CenterPoint footprint sits inside that competitive map. ⁴ notes that about 85 percent of Texas electricity consumers have retail choice, including Houston, and that municipally owned utilities and most cooperatives never opted in—so Austin and San Antonio are not the Houston playbook.
That 2002 date is not a Houston marketing line. ⁴ traces competition to Senate Bill 7 in 1999, which separated generation, delivery, and retail at investor-owned utilities and assigned the PUCT to implement deregulation by January 1, 2002. Retailers buy wholesale power and compete on price structure, term, and fuel mix; transmission and distribution service providers maintain lines and meters; ERCOT runs switching.
ERCOT is not your retailer either. ⁵ says the grid operator manages power for more than 27 million Texas customers, about 90 percent of the state’s electric load, settles the wholesale market, and administers retail switching for 8 million premises in competitive choice areas. ⁴ puts the switching database at more than 8.5 million customer accounts across more than 170 competitive retailers. When you start service or switch, the REP notifies ERCOT; ERCOT coordinates the transmission-and-distribution utility and the retailers. ⁴ walks through that sequence: you sign up with the new company, the retailer notifies ERCOT, ERCOT sends a verification letter, notifies the TDSP, and—if you are switching—notifies the losing retailer. The TDSP does the meter read on the switch or start date. You still never buy energy from CenterPoint.
WattKarma’s Houston service page puts the bill in two halves for the same reason. ⁶ and handles outages and storm restoration; the REP you choose sells the energy that flows through those wires. Delivery charges are the same no matter which retailer you pick. The rate you shop is the energy product, not the TDU.
When you should choose: before keys, not after the truck
Choose the plan as soon as the address and move-in date are real—lease signed, closing date set, unit number confirmed. ⁷ says providers need the exact address and a confirmed start date, and that most providers let you schedule a connection at least two to three business days in advance. The same guide’s practical rule is stronger: set up electricity at least a week before move-in so you are not racing a disconnected meter.
That timing is not about shopping culture. It is about how the wires company processes a move-in. If the previous occupant left service on, your enrollment can look more like a same-day or next-day start. ⁸ says same-day starts are often possible when the meter is already active and was never disconnected, and that a disconnected or never-served location usually needs a utility connection of at least one business day, sometimes two or three. Weekends and holidays slow crews. Cutoffs often fall around midday on a business day. If you enroll after that window, the next business day is the realistic start.
New construction and vacant houses sit on the slow side of that range. ⁹ tell homeowners to get an ESI ID from CenterPoint, then wait two business days before contacting a REP, then enroll so CenterPoint receives a start-service order. Meters are usually installed within three to five business days of the requested start date, weather and workload permitting. ¹⁰ repeats the three-to-five-business-day meter window when construction is not required, and again tells you to wait two business days after the ESI ID before calling a retailer.
So the answer to “when should you choose an electricity plan?” is: as soon as you can name the premise and the date you need power, and no later than a full business week before that date if the house might be dark. Same-day rescue is a backup, not a plan. If the apartment is already energized for the current tenant, you still enroll before you take possession so the REP, not the departing roommate, is the account of record on your first night.
Confirm the premise: ESI ID, existing meter, or construction
An ESI ID is not a CenterPoint account number. ⁹ for the service location and the meter that tracks usage. Landlords, listing agents, and the previous bill sometimes have it. For a typical occupied Houston rental, your REP can often match the address without you hunting the number. ¹¹ says a Texas ESI ID speeds enrollment but is not always required.
New builds and some vacant sites are different. If there is no meter, CenterPoint’s sequence is construction readiness first (marked address, meter can, load wires, ground rod), then an ESI ID, then the REP. Homeowners and commercial owners ⁹. If CenterPoint construction is required—new poles, wire, transformers—a service consultant is assigned after an electric service request, and ¹⁰. Permits, where applicable, must be in before meters go in.
That is the only common case where you talk to CenterPoint before you shop: you need a premise identifier or construction, not a retail contract. Once the ESI ID exists, shopping still happens on the PUCT’s comparison site or through a licensed broker, not at the TDU call center. CenterPoint’s no-meter page sends you to ¹² for the list of retailers.
If you are moving into a unit where the landlord includes electricity in rent, you are not the decision-maker for a REP. Confirm that in writing. If you are the occupant who will be billed, do not assume the last tenant’s plan transfers. Competitive service is an enrollment at a premise, not a lease addendum.
Apartment versus house also changes when you shop, even though the legal split is the same. A high-rise unit that has been occupied continuously is the case ⁸. A suburban house that sat vacant after foreclosure, or a new construction in Fort Bend or Montgomery County, is the CenterPoint construction-and-ESI-ID path. ⁶ in the Houston shopping footprint—Heights and Bellaire through Sugar Land, Katy, Cypress, and The Woodlands—so the TDU is still CenterPoint, but the meter status is not. Ask the property manager one question a week out: is the meter on right now? If the answer is no, you are already late if closing is tomorrow.
Shop the energy product, not the delivery company
ZIP is not a formality. Offers are built for a TDU territory. A Houston ZIP in CenterPoint will not return the same book as an Oncor ZIP in Dallas–Fort Worth, and a municipal or co-op pocket will not return competitive REPs at all. ¹² is the PUCT’s official, unbiased electric-choice website. Providers can list offers there for free. You enter a ZIP code and compare plans. ³ points shoppers there and lists the Consumer Protection Division at 1-888-782-8477 or consumer@puc.texas.gov if you have questions. ⁴ to learn about retailers and plans. The PUCT licenses and monitors REPs, including billing transparency and contract disclosures.
Plan type matters more than a headline cent-per-kWh. ¹³ groups products as fixed (price per kWh does not change during the contract except for specified pass-throughs such as transmission-and-distribution fee changes, ERCOT or Texas Regional Entity administrative fees, or new government-imposed fees), variable month-to-month (no contract period or cancellation fee, but the rate can move at the REP’s discretion), indexed (formula tied to a public index), prepaid (pay in advance; usage calculated daily via a smart meter or similar), and time-of-use (price varies by time of day or day of week). For time-of-use, the average prices on the Electricity Facts Label and on Power to Choose are based on the REP’s estimate of how much energy falls in discounted hours. If your usage does not match that mix, ¹³.
A Houston summer makes that warning local. ⁶ notes a long cooling season, often May through October, and tells shoppers to compare at the 1,000–2,000 kWh price points rather than the lowest advertised tier. Time-of-use or “free nights” products can help only if evening and overnight use actually hits the discount window.
Statewide averages are a sanity check, not a quote. ¹⁴ shows Texas residential average revenue of 14.94 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2024, versus 14.46 cents in 2023. That blends competitive and non-competitive areas, every TDU, and every product type. Your CenterPoint delivery line item will still appear on the REP bill either way.
Read the Electricity Facts Label before you enroll. ¹⁵ treats the contract as the terms of service, the EFL, the Your Rights as a Customer document, enrollment documentation, and a prepaid disclosure statement when it applies. The EFL must be unique per product and must disclose pricing in a standard format, including average price at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh. A cheap teaser at one usage band is not the plan if your house runs 1,800 kWh in August.
WattKarma is a ⁶ that compares licensed suppliers for a Houston ZIP and enrolls online. ¹¹ states the service is free to the customer; the broker is paid by the supplier at enrollment. That is a conversion path, not a substitute for reading the EFL and terms of service the REP issues.
What you actually need to start service
Enrollment is a retail contract plus a market transaction. ⁷ lists name, new address, move-in date, and identification. ⁸ adds that providers generally need a valid ID and a Social Security number or ITIN, and that some require a credit check or deposit. Prepaid or pay-as-you-go products often skip the credit check and deposit and instead require money on the account.
¹¹ describes pay-as-you-go plans in Texas as no credit check, no deposit, and no long-term contract, with prepaid usage tracked in real time. ¹³ is the official framing: you buy service in advance; usage is calculated daily. Prepaid can be a fit for a short lease or a thin credit file. It is a poor fit if you will not watch a running balance.
After you enroll, keep the confirmation with the start date. If moving day is dark, that document is what you give the REP, not a CenterPoint “account number” you never had. If the start date is in the future, most Texas providers will hold it; ⁸ when you know the date in advance.
Do not mix this with a switch at an address where you already have service. A switch is a change of REP at a live premise, typically timed to a meter read. A move-in is a start at a new ESI ID. Use the move-in path when you are taking a new Houston address.
Outages stay with CenterPoint no matter which plan you picked
Reliability is a TDU job. ⁶ state that switching retailers does not change outage response or storm restoration; CenterPoint still owns the equipment. ¹⁶ lists electric customer service and power-outage reporting at 713-207-2222 and 800-332-7143, downed lines at 713-207-2222, and a one-line reminder under “Find an Electric Service Provider”: the company delivers but does not sell electricity.
¹⁷ is the public map for outages and estimated restoration. You can report an outage in the tracker with a phone number or meter number and a house number. Data refreshes about every five minutes. If the map shows power restored but your unit is dark, CenterPoint notes customer-owned equipment (weatherhead, meter box, breaker) or a nested, localized fault.
That is why the move-in decision and the outage decision are different pages in a customer’s life. You choose a REP so the meter is authorized and billed. You still call CenterPoint when the neighborhood goes dark. ⁹ even if they had alerts at the old one.
After you move: cancel the old address, and treat POLR as a safety net
Leave the old premise cleanly. ⁷ says to give your current provider a disconnect date that matches move-out; if service stays in your name, you pay for whoever uses it.
If a retailer fails or you request last-resort service, Texas has a designated Provider of Last Resort in each competitive TDU territory. ¹⁸ describes POLR as a relatively high-priced safety net, intended to be temporary, for customers whose REP cannot continue or who request POLR. For the 2025–2026 term, the designated residential POLR in CenterPoint territory is Reliant Energy Retail Services, LLC. Do not treat POLR as a shopping strategy. It exists so a market exit does not leave you without a supplier. After a POLR drop, shop a regular plan.
PUCT consumer help on choosing a plan remains the complaint and question channel if enrollment goes sideways: ³.
The decision, in order
- Confirm the Greater Houston address is in competitive CenterPoint / ERCOT territory, not a co-op or municipal island. ³ is the test.
- Lock the move-in date. Enroll at least several business days ahead; a week is safer if the meter may be off or missing.
- If there is no meter or no ESI ID, get the identifier from CenterPoint first, wait the two business days CenterPoint specifies, then enroll with a REP.
- Compare products on the EFL at the kWh you will actually use in Houston heat, not the cheapest advertised cell.
- Enroll with the REP (directly or through a licensed comparison path). Keep the start-date confirmation.
- Report outages to CenterPoint. Pay the REP.
The customer decision this page is built for is singular: choose a REP and start service before move-in. Check plans and start-service options for your new Houston ZIP on ⁶ or on ¹². Enter the ZIP, read the EFL, and set the start date to the day you take the keys—or the business day before, if the house has been sitting dark.