Bring The Energy Companies to You

Hunting for electricity providers can be a very long, very dull process. Between thinking about all of the different providers available, searching the web for reviews, looking at a dozen websites for a half a dozen plans each, and giving up in exasperation and settling for the one with the lowest advertised rate, there are a lot of moments where you’ll question your own sanity

Choice is a good thing, but sometimes, too many options leave us feeling uncomfortable, so we go with what we’re familiar with or what looks best at first glance. In the electricity world, this often means we will continue with an incumbent provider that is charging more than competitors, or we go with a competitor who advertises a low rate, only coming to find out with the first bill that’s not the rate you’re paying because you didn’t use just the right amount of electricity.

There are a lot of retail energy providers (REPs) in Texas offering several plans each. Not every company serves the same area and not every city even gives you the option to choose. The good news is, we here at Shop Texas Electricity like to bring the energy companies right to you, so all that searching is a lot easier.

To get started, all you have to do is enter your zip code. Then, we find all of the energy companies that serve that zip code and all the plans available for you. We present them to you in an easy to read, sortable list that gives you access to all the plan highlights as well as a hyperlink to the plan’s electricity facts label (EFL), which mainly serves as the plan’s “fine print.”

The highlights of each plan lay out details like contract length, average rate, and special offers like renewable energy or rebates. These at-a-glance highlights give you a pretty good idea of what the plan entails and how viable an option it would be for you. When you find a plan that looks pretty good based on the highlights, click on the EFL link to see what it entails in full. Some plans may have a very low average rate, but you have to use a certain amount of electricity to get that rate. Any more or less than the range specified, and your rate could jump a lot! The EFL will also break down how the average rate is calculated, taking into account monthly fees like the base charge and meter reading fees, the energy charge (REP’s price per kilowatt hour), and the transmission charge (utility’s price per kilowatt hour to send you electricity).

The contract length specifies how long you are locked into a plan and rate. Variable and prepaid plans do not have a contract and can be changed at any time. Fixed rate plans lock in your rate for a specified amount of time, during which the rate will not change. If you choose to get out of a fixed rate plan before your term ends, you could be subject to a penalty for early termination.

The biggest benefit to using our site is that you can see plans for several providers all in one place. By sorting the list, you can search by rate, term length, provider, and plan name. This lets you choose how you want to prioritize your search. When searching by rate, all of the cheapest average rate plans will show up first, regardless of provider. Sorting by term length lists the plans out according to their contract term, be it one month, three, twelve, or more. Searching by provider makes it easier to seek plans based on providers you know or have heard of. Bringing the providers to you means a lot less searching for the best plan.