Power to Choose Shows You 3 Prices. Your Home Uses a 4th. How to Find Your Real Rate
Last updated: November 1, 2026
Texas plan listings show an average price at three usage levels: 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh a month. If your plan has a bill credit or usage fee, the price can swing sharply between those points, and your real usage usually lands in the gaps. To find your real rate, take the plan's energy charge, credits and fees from its Electricity Facts Label and run them against your own monthly kWh, not the headline number.
You find a plan on Power to Choose with a headline rate that looks too good to be true. You sign up. Three months later, your average price per kWh is nowhere near the number you saw.
Nothing was hidden. The plan was priced at one usage level, and your home was somewhere else.
The three prices, and the gaps between them
Every Texas Electricity Facts Label (EFL) includes an average-price table at three usage levels: 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh per month. Guides commonly cite 16 TAC §25.475 as the rule behind that table. Power to Choose, the state’s comparison site, is built on those same snapshots, and the headline rate you see is generally the 1,000 kWh price. (For how each line of the label works, see our line-by-line EFL walkthrough.)
Three snapshots are a fair way to compare plans on paper. The trouble is that your monthly usage rarely equals 500, 1,000 or 2,000. It might be 640 in April and 1,730 in August.
On a simple plan with one flat energy rate, the gaps don’t matter much. The average price barely moves between snapshots. On a plan with a bill credit, a base charge or a minimum-usage fee, the price can change a lot between snapshots, and even more between the points in between.
Why a credit plan’s price swings
Here’s a hypothetical, with made-up numbers, to show the mechanic. It ignores delivery charges to keep the math clean. Real plans will differ, so check your own EFL.
Say a plan has a 14¢ per kWh energy charge and a $60 credit that applies only when you use at least 1,000 kWh in the billing cycle.
- At 500 kWh: $70 total, so 14.0¢ per kWh.
- At 1,000 kWh: $140 minus $60 is $80, so 8.0¢ per kWh. This is the headline number.
- At 2,000 kWh: $280 minus $60 is $220, so 11.0¢ per kWh.
- At 750 kWh: $105, so 14.0¢ per kWh. No credit, no discount.
- At 999 kWh: about $139.86, so roughly 14.0¢. One kWh short of the threshold.
Now compare it to a hypothetical flat plan at 11.5¢ with no credit. At 750 kWh, the flat plan costs $86.25. The credit plan costs $105. At 1,500 kWh, the flat plan costs $172.50, and the credit plan costs $210 minus $60, or $150.
The credit plan wins in the months you clear the threshold and loses in the months you don’t. Which plan is cheaper over a year depends on how many months land on each side. The 1,000 kWh headline price can’t tell you that.
Credit thresholds also vary. Some plans apply the credit at exactly a set usage, others above it, and some use a range. Read the wording on your own label. If you want the details on how thresholds work, our posts on how many kWh you need to hit a bill credit and what happens when you fall under the threshold go deeper.
The fourth price: yours
Think of the fourth price as the average rate you’d pay at your own usage, month by month. It depends on four things:
- The plan’s energy charge and any base charge.
- Credits you actually qualify for at your kWh.
- Fees that kick in at low usage, such as a minimum-usage fee.
- Your utility’s delivery charges, which every plan passes through in some form and which are usually listed separately on the label.
The EFL has all of these inputs. The average-price table is just the label’s own math at three points.
What to do before you sign
Pull your last 12 months of kWh. Your utility’s bill or Smart Meter Texas shows monthly usage. Seasonal swings matter more than the annual average.
Don’t compare headline rates. Compare what each plan would have cost you in each month of your own history. A plan that wins at 1,000 kWh can lose in your four lowest months.
Check the credit and fee wording. Look for the exact threshold, whether the credit applies at or above it, and whether there is a minimum-usage fee.
Look at the 500 and 2,000 numbers too. If your home spends most of the year near one of those, that column is closer to your real price than the headline.
Treat the result as an estimate. Weather, habits and any rate changes at renewal can shift your usage, so leave yourself some margin.
You can do all of this by hand with a spreadsheet and a stack of EFLs. It’s tedious, but it works.
A shortcut, if you’d rather not
WattKicker runs your actual 13 months of usage against real plans, so you see the price at your kWh in each month instead of the three on the label.
FAQ
Why is the Power to Choose price different from what I actually pay?
The listed price is an average at a specific usage level, commonly 1,000 kWh. If you use more or less in a given month, and the plan has a bill credit, a base charge or a usage fee, your average cost per kWh changes. Your delivery charges and the exact month's usage also move the number.
What are the three prices on an Electricity Facts Label?
The label lists an average price per kWh at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh of monthly use. Texas rules require this table, which is covered under 16 TAC §25.475. Check the label for the plan you are considering, since credits and fees differ from plan to plan.
What is a teaser rate on an electricity plan?
It's a shorthand people use for a low advertised price that only holds at certain usage levels, often because a bill credit kicks in at a threshold. It isn't an official term. The low number can be real at that usage, but it may not describe the months when you use less.
How do I calculate my real electricity rate in Texas?
Add the plan's energy charge times your kWh, any base charge, your utility's delivery charges, and subtract any credit you actually qualify for. Divide the total by your kWh. Do it for each month of your own usage, since the answer changes with the season.