New this month! We analyzed indexed products offers on the Power to Choose website. These products are not the most common ones and we captured some variations in the number of offers and Retail Electric Providers in Texas offering such products.
Our team at EnergySavings.com has been capturing daily snapshots of electricity plans from the Power to Choose website. Data collected* are analyzed monthly to give you an understanding of the offers available and the market trends. Grouping the most common plans by category, we analyze the same plan categories every month to give you an apples-to-apples comparison.
TRENDS: AUGUST vs JULY
CenterPoint Delivery Area – August 2021: Rates and Trends for Most Common Plans1
| Fixed Rate (cents/kWh) 12mo Plans |
Variable Rate (cents/kWh) | |||||
| July | August | Trends | July | August | Trends | |
| Lowest | 9.5 | 9.5 |  0% |
8.8 | 9.5 |  8% |
| Highest | 13.9 | 13.9 | 0% |
17.0 | 17.0 | 0% |
| Average | 10.8 | 11.0 | 2% |
12.3 | 11.6 |  -5% |
| Number of REPs | 29 | 30 |  3% |
10 | 10 | 0% |
1Trends show the percentage change in the rate from the previous month for the same category of products. This table compares the lowest price offered by each Retail Electric Provider that offered the respective type of plan in each month. The “Highest” row above shows the highest price among all the lowest price plans offered by Retail Electric Providers offering that type of plan in this region for each month.
In the CenterPoint delivery area, PESO POWER has joined the game. This provider was offering other kinds of fixed rate plans before August. They have been certified for less than a year (see here certification by the Public Utility Commission of Texas).
Regarding trends, the fixed rate, 12-month plan category did not vary a lot between July and August. Our team only captured a 2% increase for the average rate. The variable rate category had more variations: +8% for the lowest rate explained by 3 providers that increased their prices in August. The average rate decreased by 5% as 4 other providers did the opposite and decreased their rates.
CenterPoint Delivery Area – August 2021: Rates and Trends for Most Common 100% Green Plans1
| 100 % green, Fixed Rate (cents/kWh) 12mo Plans |
100 % green, Variable Rate (cents/kWh) | |||||
| July | August | Trends | July | August | Trends | |
| Lowest | 9.9 | 10.0 | 1% |
11.9 | 10.7 | -10% |
| Highest | 12.6 | 12.6 | 0% |
17.2 | 17.2 | 0% |
| Average | 11.1 | 11.2 | 1% |
14.5 | 14.1 | -3% |
| Number of REPs | 10 | 11 | 10% |
3 | 3 | 0% |
1Trends show the percentage change in the rate from the previous month for the same category of products. This table compares the lowest price offered by each Retail Electric Provider that offered the respective type of plan in each month. The “Highest” row above shows the highest price among all the lowest price plans offered by Retail Electric Providers offering that type of plan in this region for each month.
As in all the other delivery areas, the new player in the first category from this table is AMPRA ENERGY. This provider is affiliated with the new electric provider mentioned in the table above (source: certification from Public Utility Commission of Texas). This retail electric provider was offering 100% green plans before but with a shorter term.
Regarding trends, nothing to highlight regarding the first category as we only captured a +1% for both the lowest and average rates. The variable rate category experienced more variations this summer. The lowest rate decreased by 10% and the average by 3%. INFUSE ENERGY LLC decreased their rates in August, which explains those trends.
INDEXED RATE PLANS
- What is an indexed rate for electricity plan? It is the least common rate you may find on Power to Choose. Basically, your electricity price can vary substantially every month: the rate can increase or decrease.
- How is the rate calculated for an indexed rate plan? The price is directly tied to a pricing formula connected to a publicly available index such as ERCOT’s wholesale price of electricity, or NYMEX gas prices.
- What are the characteristics of an indexed rate electricity plan? When the contract term is fixed (commonly 6, 12, 18, 24 or 36 months), there’s usually a termination fee. In other cases, indexed rate products may be month-to-month and not have a termination fee.
You must consult the Energy Facts Label (EFL), Terms of Service (TOS), and Your Rights as a Customer (YRAC) of the plan you are interested in to make sure you understand those aspects as they may vary from one plan to another. To find out more about each kind of rate, consult this article or if you haven’t decided which kind of plan is the best for you, read our FAQ.
Overview of Indexed rate plans offered in 2021 in the CenterPoint delivery area2:
| Energy Providers | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug |
| CHARIOT ENERGY | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GRIDDY ENERGY LLC | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| RELIANT | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| VOLT ELECTRICITY PROVIDER LP | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
2This table shows providers that offered indexed rate plans since the beginning of 2021. The numbers show how many indexed plans the provider offered within the month. When no indexed plan was offered at all, we indicate it with a “0” in the table. When a plan is offered in both English and Spanish, we only counted this plan as one.
Offers decreased dramatically since the beginning of the year.
In terms of the number of offers, we captured 8 plans offered at the beginning of the year versus only 1 last month (August 2021). After two months with no indexed offers at all on Power to Choose (March and April), the number of indexed plans offered went brutally down in May 2021 (from 8 to 1 plan). We can correlate this decrease with the Winter Storm Uri that shook the entire industry mid-February. Our article here details how the most common plans were impacted by this storm.
Now, looking at the players in this niche market, all but one threw in the towel after the storm …
CHARIOT ENERGY, GRIDDY ENERGY LLC, RELIANT and VOLT ELECTRICITY PROVIDER LP were all offering indexed rate plans on the Power to Choose website at the beginning of the year. All but RELIANT stopped showing offers in May. Again here, we can assume that the winter storm is the reason for those losses. The three electric providers that stopped showing offers in May 2021 are no longer actively selling retail electricity plans in Texas (observed on 9/10/2021).
RELIANT has been offering the same plan since January called “Reliant PowerTracker”. As this is a month-to-month contract, there is no cancellation fee, and their price formula uses the NYMEX natural gas futures contract. According to their special terms on Power to Choose, you can expect to see a price change on the 15th of every month.
NYMEX or New York Mercantile Exchange is an exchange where tradable commodities (such as contracts on natural gas) are bought and sold. NYMEX is an independent agency of the United States government and is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. (Learn more about NYMEX.)
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LIST OF ELECTRIC PROVIDERS/ PRICES
CenterPoint Delivery Area – August 2021: List of Lowest Reported EFL Prices for an estimated 1000 kWh’s*
August 2021: Lowest Electricity Prices in Houston, Texas (or CenterPoint TDU area): Non-100% Green 12mo-Fixed Rate Plans:
(lowest to highest rate)
| Energy Providers | Rate for 1000 kWh (¢/kWh) |
| EXPRESS ENERGY | 9.5 |
| FRONTIER UTILITIES | 9.9 |
| SPARK ENERGY LLC | 9.9 |
| DISCOUNT POWER | 10.1 |
| 4CHANGE ENERGY | 10.2 |
| CIRRO ENERGY | 10.2 |
| FIRST CHOICE POWER | 10.2 |
| VETERAN ENERGY | 10.3 |
| SOUTHWEST POWER & LIGHT | 10.4 |
| V247 POWER CORPORATION | 10.4 |
| WINDROSE ENERGY | 10.4 |
| YEP | 10.4 |
| POWERNEXT | 10.5 |
| INFUSE ENERGY LLC | 10.9 |
| DIRECT ENERGY | 11.0 |
| PESO POWER | 11.1 |
| SUMMER ENERGY LLC | 11.2 |
| RANCHERO POWER | 11.3 |
| SOUTHERN FEDERAL POWER LLC | 11.4 |
| THINK ENERGY | 11.4 |
| AMIGO ENERGY | 11.5 |
| JUST ENERGY | 11.5 |
| RELIANT | 11.5 |
| TARA ENERGY | 11.5 |
| CHAMPION ENERGY SERVICES LLC | 11.8 |
| PULSE POWER LLC | 11.8 |
| TRIEAGLE ENERGY LP | 11.8 |
| ENERGY TO GO | 12.2 |
| TXU ENERGY | 12.2 |
| AMBIT ENERGY | 13.9 |
EXPRESS ENERGY held the lowest price spot and AMBIT ENERGY offered the highest rate in this plan category in August. Of the Texas electricity providers in this list, 60% changed their prices. Among the ones that changed their prices during the month, the majority of them increased their rates.
August 2021: Lowest Electricity Prices in Houston, Texas (or CenterPoint TDU area): Non-100% Green Variable Rate Plans:
(lowest to highest rate)
| Energy Providers | Rate for 1000 kWh (¢/kWh) |
| SOUTHERN FEDERAL POWER LLC | 9.5 |
| RANCHERO POWER | 10.4 |
| SOUTHWEST POWER & LIGHT | 10.4 |
| YEP | 10.4 |
| RELIANT | 10.5 |
| TEXPO ENERGY | 10.6 |
| INFUSE ENERGY LLC | 11.5 |
| NEC CO-OP ENERGY | 12.1 |
| TXU ENERGY | 13.6 |
| AMBIT ENERGY | 17.0 |
SOUTHERN FEDERAL POWER LLC offered the lowest price this month while AMBIT ENERGY offered the highest price. Of the 10 REPs in this category, 6 changed their rate and they all decreased it. The four electric providers that kept their prices the same the whole month are: RELIANT, NEC Co-op Energy, TXU ENERGY, and AMBIT ENERGY (who stopped showing variable rate offers on the 6th of August but came back 11 days after).
August 2021: Lowest Electricity Prices in Houston, Texas (or CenterPoint TDU area): 100% Green 12mo-Fixed Rate Plans:
(lowest to highest rate)
| Energy Providers | Rate for 1000 kWh (¢/kWh) |
| GEXA ENERGY | 10.0 |
| CLEANSKY ENERGY | 10.2 |
| MP2 ENERGY TEXAS LLC | 10.5 |
| OCTOPUS ENERGY | 10.6 |
| 4CHANGE ENERGY | 10.7 |
| RHYTHM | 11.1 |
| GREEN MOUNTAIN ENERGY COMPANY | 11.6 |
| AMPRA ENERGY | 11.7 |
| PULSE POWER LLC | 12.2 |
| TRIEAGLE ENERGY LP | 12.3 |
| ENERGY TO GO | 12.6 |
GEXA ENERGY offered the lowest electricity rate spot while ENERGY TO GO had the highest price spot in the above table. 45% of those electricity providers changed their prices in August: 3 of them decreased it , 1 increased and CLEANSKY ENERGY decreased it several times within the same month but came back to the price they started with just before the month end.
August 2021: Lowest Electricity Prices in Houston, Texas (or CenterPoint TDU area): 100% Green Variable Rate Plans:
(lowest to highest rate)
| Energy Providers | Rate for 1000 kWh (¢/kWh) |
| INFUSE ENERGY LLC | 10.7 |
| GREEN MOUNTAIN ENERGY COMPANY | 14.4 |
| AMBIT ENERGY | 17.2 |
As we see often in this category of plans, only one Retail Electric Provider, INFUSE ENERGY LLC, changed its price during the month of August (decrease).
* Data obtained from powertochoose.org (Power to Choose) for the days from 8/1/2021 to 8/31/2021. The tables above list the lowest price in cents/kWh offered by each retail electricity provider (REP) for a given type of plan for a monthly usage of 1000 kWh. If more than one product was available from the same REP for a given type of plan, EnergySavings.com only included the one with the lowest rate in its analysis. Please note that as products and rates may change at any time in the day on Power to Choose; EnergySavings.com’s analysis is based on information captured in its single daily snapshot, and therefore cannot guarantee that every product and rate made available in the month has been captured. Please reach out to [email protected] if you feel that any meaningful data has not been captured and EnergySavings.com may, at its sole discretion, issue a correction to the report. The analysis is performed by excluding plans that are marked as “Minimum usage fees/credits”, “Time of Use”, and “Prepaid” according to the data captured from Power to Choose. For more information about the electricity plans mentioned in this report, please consult both the Electricity Fact Label (EFL) and Terms of Service (TOS) for those plans. Those documents are available on the Power to Choose site if the plan is still currently offered. The rates listed may differ if the REP has changed its pricing.