The Texas Electricity Bill Explainer

Select your product type and click any line item to see exactly what you're paying for — and why.

Market education · bill explainer

What type of electricity product are you on?

Select the one that closest matches yours — or just browse. Click any line item on the invoice for a plain-English explanation.

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showing a representative standard commercial fixed-rate invoice · figures are illustrative

Electricity statement

Lakeside Professional Center

4821 Commerce Drive, Suite 100 · Dallas, TX
Account no. 7740-2291-04

Invoice

Invoice date

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Service period start

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Service period end

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Payment due

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ESI ID

10443720002248748

Meter

202970505LG

Usage

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Peak demand

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Contract expires

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Contract expiration shown above. Not all REPs display this — some historically left it off, requiring customers to locate the date in their original contract documents.

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Total amount due

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A complete bid should account for every component below — whether bundled into the fixed price or passed through at cost. If a submitted quote doesn't address an item, ask your REP to explain where it is. Green = included in the quoted price. Amber = passed through at actual market cost and will appear as a separate line item on your invoice. Gray = always pass-through regardless of product type. Component names and groupings vary by REP — aliases are noted where they commonly differ.

Commodity

Component	Fixed product	Pass-through / index	Notes
Wholesale price of energy	Included	Pass-through	The hub commodity cost. The negotiable anchor of any bid. On fixed products, locked at contract execution. On indexed/pass-through products, floats with the day-ahead or real-time market each month.
Line losses Also: UFE · Unaccounted For Energy · transmission & distribution losses	Included	Pass-through	Energy lost as heat traveling through transmission and distribution lines — typically 3–7% of metered usage. Both TDSP line losses and REP line losses are typically combined into one charge; the REP component tends to be larger. Different REPs label this differently — UFE (Unaccounted For Energy) and line losses are the same charge.

Qualified Scheduling Entity (QSE) fees

Component	Fixed product	Pass-through / index	Notes
QSE fee Also: ISO scheduling fee · QSE admin fee	Included	Included	Covers four underlying sub-components: Schedule Coordination Service, System Control Service, Cost for nominating required volumes, and Dispatching Service. These four appear as one combined QSE fee on virtually all invoices regardless of product type.

ISO ancillary services & fees

Component	Fixed product	Pass-through / index	Notes
Ancillary services Reg Up/Down · Responsive Reserve · Non-Spinning Reserve · RMR · RUC · Black Start · OOME · RTRN · EILS · Voltage Support · Emergency Energy · Mismatch Schedule Fee	Included	Pass-through	All ISO-procured grid stability services collapsed into one line on most invoices. Includes regulation, reserve capacity, out-of-merit energy, real-time revenue neutrality, voltage support, emergency interruptible load, and mismatch settlement. On pass-through products these float monthly with ERCOT clearing prices.
ERCOT administrative fee Also: ERCOT ISO fee · admin fee	Included	Included	ERCOT's operating cost recovery charge. Typically appears as a separate line from ancillary services. Small and stable.

Congestion management

Component	Fixed product	Pass-through / index	Notes
Hub-to-load-zone basis differential Also: Nodal · Basis · Congestion · Hub-to-load-zone — four names for the same charge	IncludedSome REPs offer fixed basis separately	Pass-throughN/A on index — basis not meaningful at index pricing	The price differential between the ERCOT hub settlement point and your specific load zone (Houston, North, South, or West). Can be a charge or a credit depending on congestion direction. On fixed products, typically bundled into the energy rate. On pass-through products, itemized and floats monthly. All four names — nodal, basis, congestion, hub-to-load-zone — refer to the same thing.

Regulated delivery charges & stranded costs (TDSP)

Component	Fixed product	Pass-through / index	Notes
Transmission charges	Pass-through	Pass-through	High-voltage grid access charge set by PUCT rate cases. Always pass-through regardless of product type. Same for every customer in your TDSP territory.
Distribution charges	Pass-through	Pass-through	Local wires delivery charge. Set by your TDSP (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP, TNMP). Cannot be negotiated and does not change when you switch REPs.
System Benefit Fund (SBF)	Pass-through	Pass-through	Low-income customer assistance fund. Per-kWh charge on all Texas electricity customers. Non-bypassable.
Nuclear decommissioning charge (NDF)	Pass-through	Pass-through	Reserve fund for eventual nuclear plant decommissioning. Small per-kW charge.
Customer charge	Pass-through	Pass-through	Fixed monthly base service charge from the TDSP. Does not vary with usage.
Metering charge	Pass-through	Pass-through	Interval meter equipment and data services. Larger on interval-metered accounts.
Discretionary service fee	Pass-through	Pass-through	TDSP-specific miscellaneous service charge. Varies by territory.
Competitive Transition Charge (CTC) Also: Transition Charge 1 (TC1) · Transition Charge 2 (TC2)	Pass-through	Pass-through	Legacy charges from Texas deregulation (2002). Recover stranded costs of generation assets that were uneconomic at deregulation. Still amortizing on many accounts. Non-bypassable.

Taxes & miscellaneous fees

Component	Fixed product	Pass-through / index	Notes
Sales tax	Pass-through	Pass-through	State and local sales tax where applicable. Many commercial classifications are fully or partially exempt — confirm your tax status.
Gross receipts tax reimbursement Also: MGRT · Municipal Gross Receipts Tax	Pass-through	Pass-through	State tax on REP gross receipts, passed through to customers. Applied at 1.997% of taxable charges. Non-negotiable.
PUCT assessment Also: PUC fee · PUCA	Pass-through	Pass-through	Public Utility Commission of Texas operating cost assessment. Passed through at 0.1667% of applicable charges.

A sophisticated bid will account for every item above — whether bundled or itemized. If something is missing or the treatment doesn't match what you see here, that's worth a conversation before you sign. Better yet, let us manage this for you — before your head starts to spin any further.

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