Renew Your Texas Power Plan: Compare Rates Before Auto-Renew
If you live in competitive Texas and your fixed electricity contract is winding down, doing nothing is a choice—with a price tag. Under Texas rules, sitting out the renewal window does not cut off your power. It rolls you onto a ¹ that you can cancel later without a fee, but whose price can change between billing cycles. That setup is why consumer watchdogs and the state's own shopping site hammer the same message: treat expiration notices like calendar invites you actually keep, then ².
This guide walks through how retail choice works in Texas, what your provider must tell you, how to read the documents that make "apples-to-apples" comparison possible, and how to switch without paying an unnecessary exit fee. It also covers what to do if you are on a municipal or co-op system—or shopping in another state—where the auto-renew playbook looks different.
Why comparing before auto-renew matters
Texas residential customers, on average, paid ³, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Electric Power Annual state table. That statewide average blurs a competitive retail market where the plan you pick—and whether you let it lapse—can move your bill more than weather alone.
More recent monthly figures show the same idea from another angle. EIA's Electric Power Monthly reported Texas residential prices at ⁴. Those are statewide averages, not the exact offer on your bill, but they remind you that retail power pricing moves. A stale plan that felt fine last spring can look expensive by the time summer demand returns.
Auto-renew is where inertia meets that volatility. Statewide averages from EIA also put Texas among the largest electricity systems in the country by generation and sales, which is why retail plan design and shopping behavior matter for so many households at once (⁵). Averages will never pin your individual bill; they do explain why shopping season after season remains worth the half hour it takes.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) makes clear that if you take no action after your provider's contract-expiration notice, the retail electric provider (REP) continues serving you on a ⁶. Power to Choose's consumer FAQ puts the shopping advice bluntly: renew with your current company or pick a new one before the end date so you are not ².
You keep the lights. You may not keep the rate you thought you locked in.
How Texas retail electricity choice actually works
In 1999, the Texas Legislature passed a deregulation law that let most customers ². The seller of the electricity—the REP—is separate from the wires company that delivers it. Transmission and distribution utilities still ², no matter which REP appears at the top of your bill. Wires companies handle delivery day to day—meters, outages, and construction work appear on utility customer portals—while new service starts are steered to competitive shopping. Oncor’s customer resources, for example, list delivery tools alongside a new-service path through PowertoChoose.org (⁷).
Not every Texan has that choice. Municipally owned utilities and electric cooperatives were not required to open to competition; many still set rates through local boards or city councils (⁸). The PUCT's shopping page states the competitive rule of thumb: if you live in the ERCOT region and are not served by a co-op or municipal utility, you ⁹. Power to Choose is the official, unbiased PUCT site listing residential offers (¹⁰).
ERCOT itself is the grid operator for most of Texas. Retail shopping documents and EFLs reference ERCOT-related administrative fees among the limited items that can still move even on some "fixed" products (¹). Knowing the acronym is optional. Knowing that "fixed" does not always mean every line on the bill is frozen forever is not.
What your provider must tell you before the contract ends
Texas customer-protection rules treat fixed-rate expirations as an event that requires notice, not a silent handoff. Under ¹, for fixed-rate products the REP must send at least three written notices of the expiration date during the last third of the contract period, spaced as evenly as practicable. For contracts longer than four months, the final notice must arrive at least 30 days before expiration (15 days for fixed contracts of four months or fewer; at least 14 days for small commercial customers).
The same rule explains the consequence of inaction: if you do nothing after that final notice, the REP must place you on a ¹, cancelable anytime without a fee, with a price that may vary between billing cycles under terms designed to be understandable to an average customer. Final notices must highlight the expiration date, describe any renewal offers the REP is making, and include (or timely provide) the Electricity Facts Label for the default product (¹).
The PUCT's consumer FAQ restates the residential version in plain English: providers must notify you at least 30 days before expiration; you can switch without an early termination charge if the switch is no earlier than 14 days before the expiration date in the notice; and if you take no action, you land on a month-to-month product (⁶).
Treat those mailers—and the "Contract Expiration Notice" language that must appear on envelopes or email subject lines under the rule—as your shopping start gun, not spam.
There is also a backstop if a REP skips required fixed-rate expiration notices: under §25.475, the company must keep serving you under the existing fixed-rate terms until it provides compliant notice or until you choose another product (¹). Separately, affirmative consent rules cover intentional re-enrollment onto a new or same product; that consent path is not required when the company simply parks you on the default renewal product after expiration (¹). In other words, silence is not the same as signing up for a new fixed deal—silence is how you get the default month-to-month path.
Compare rates using your usage and the Electricity Facts Label
Headline cents-per-kWh figures only help if they describe your usage pattern. Power to Choose's user guide tells shoppers to calculate average monthly use from past bills and remember seasonal swings—higher consumption in months like August and February—before filtering plans (¹¹). Entering your ZIP code, usage, preferred contract length, and filters for prepaid or time-of-use plans is how you keep from comparing a thrifty 500 kWh apartment bill to a 2,000 kWh summer HVAC bill by accident.
The document that makes that comparison honest is the Electricity Facts Label (EFL). Power to Choose's glossary defines the EFL as a standardized fact sheet covering contract terms, pricing, fees, and renewable-energy content so customers can make an ¹². The PUCT requires one for every plan (²). Under §25.475, residential EFLs must show average price in cents per kWh at ¹ (small commercial uses a different triad of usage levels). Fixed products must disclose total average price reflecting recurring charges; variable products disclose the first-billing-cycle average and spell out how later months can change.
Minimum-usage charges are a classic trap. Many plans assess a fee if you use less than a set amount; the fee may or may not show as a separate line, so the EFL is where you check (²). Power to Choose's shopping tips also urge you to ask what you pay per kWh at 1,000 kWh average usage, whether transmission and distribution charges and recurring fees are included, whether the offer is fixed, variable, or indexed, what happens at expiration, and whether a break fee applies (¹³).
If a plan looks cheapest only at exactly 1,000 kWh and weird everywhere else, believe the EFL matrix, not the ad.
Power to Choose's user guide also flags customer-satisfaction context tied to complaint rates at the PUC, prepaid options, renewable-content filters, and provider-specific filters as tools—not trophies (¹¹). After you shortlist a plan, the same guide says it is critical to open the fact sheet link and read it carefully before you enroll. That last click is where many bill surprises could have died quietly.
Fixed, variable, and indexed: pick the risk you mean to take
A ¹² keeps the contracted energy price steady through the term, with narrow exceptions Power to Choose lists—such as changes in transmission and distribution fees or certain ERCOT/administrative fees. That stability is why fixed terms are the default recommendation for households that want a predictable budget through summer peaks. Variable-rate plans typically have no long term and no cancellation fee, but the per-kWh price can move month to month with the market and the company's discretion; they can fall when markets soften and spike when they do not (¹²). Indexed (market-rate) plans also move monthly, but according to a formula tied to a public index rather than pure company discretion (¹²).
Default renewal products after a fixed term ends are month-to-month by rule and often behave like variable service: cancel anytime without a fee, but accept price mobility between bills (¹). That is useful as a short bridge while you finish shopping. It is a weak long-term strategy if your goal was budget certainty.
Time-of-use and prepaid filters exist on Power to Choose for a reason (¹¹). Those products can reward load shifting or careful balances—and punish households that cannot change when the dryer runs. Match the product to how you live, not to whoever shouts the lowest "from" rate.
Variable EFLs must also tell residential customers where to find historical price information for that product, and they must state in bold type that the advertised first-cycle price may change later—either within a disclosed percentage band or at the REP's discretion, depending on the product type (¹). If you cannot explain in one sentence how next month's rate will be set, you do not understand the plan yet.
Timing the switch: the 14-day window and how a transfer works
Early termination fees (ETFs) are disclosed in the Terms of Service and EFL. Residential and small commercial customers generally avoid an ETF if they schedule a switch no earlier than 14 days before the expiration date stated in the notice (⁶; ¹). Switch too early and you may still owe the exit fee. Switch on time and you keep continuity of service.
You usually do not need to call your old REP first. Signing with a new company triggers the market process: ERCOT mails a switch confirmation, you have three business days to change your mind after receiving the Terms of Service, and the switch completes within about seven business days with no deliberate outage (²). There is no separate "switching fee" unless you request a special meter reading outside the normal cycle; ETF risk is the real gotcha if you break a live term contract.
If your current company already offered a renewal in the expiration notice, compare that EFL side-by-side with competitive listings on ¹⁰. Loyalty is fine when the math wins. Habit is not a rate.
Small businesses, regulated Texas areas, and other states
Small commercial customers sit under the same core disclosure framework in §25.475, with details that differ at the edges—final expiration notice timing and EFL usage levels among them (¹). Demand charges, load factor assumptions in EFLs, and multi-meter accounts make DIY shopping harder for small businesses than for apartments. Still, the same principle holds: read the default-renewal EFL before you accept it by silence.
Outside competitive ERCOT territories, the renewal problem looks different. Co-ops and municipals set rates locally; the PUCT notes that not all of Texas is open to competition and that some investor-owned areas delayed retail competition because wholesale markets were not yet adequate (⁸). In those places you cannot "Power to Choose" your way out of a high bill the same way—though you can still track usage, ask about efficiency programs, and engage local governance.
Other choice states (parts of Ohio, Maryland, and elsewhere) often separate supply from delivery the way Texas does, but each has its own shopping portals, notice rules, and exit-fee customs. The U.S. Department of Energy's consumer-protection playbook for retail competition has long emphasized standardized cents-per-kWh disclosures at common usage levels precisely because shopping gets confusing without them—questions like whether $5 a month plus 10¢/kWh beats $10 plus 8¢/kWh are exactly the kind of apples-to-oranges problem disclosure rules try to fix (¹⁴). Whatever the state, the habit transfers: know your kWh, read the official disclosure, and do not confuse "keep the lights on" with "keep the best rate."
Even in fully regulated markets with a single utility, bill literacy still pays. Usage measured in kilowatt-hours, rate schedules, and seasonal peaks determine what you owe as much as the logo on the statement. The same "know your load before you pick a price" discipline that Power to Choose teaches Texans applies when you are merely optimizing within one utility's tariff menu.
A practical checklist before you renew or roll
- Find the end date on your bill, account portal, or expiration notice. If there is no end date, you may already be month-to-month—shop anyway (⁶).
- Pull 12 months of kWh if you can. Note summer peaks. Use that number on Power to Choose, not a guess (¹¹).
- Open the EFLs for your current plan, any renewal offer, and two or three competing plans at your usage tiers (¹²).
- Check minimum-usage fees, bill credits that flip into penalties, prepaid rules, and time-of-use windows (²).
- Decide fixed versus variable based on risk tolerance, not hope (¹²).
- Schedule the switch inside the ETF-free window when you are leaving a fixed term (⁶).
- Keep copies of the Terms of Service, EFL, and Your Rights as a Customer materials. If something looks wrong—unauthorized switches ("slamming") or mystery add-ons ("cramming")—those practices are illegal; the PUCT consumer hotline is 1-888-782-8477 (²).
Texas built a competitive market that rewards attention. EIA's statewide averages will keep bouncing around as fuel costs, weather, and load change (⁵). Your job is narrower: when the contract clock hits the last third, open the mail, open ¹⁰, and pick a rate on purpose—before auto-renew picks one for you.