Most Houston business owners think about electricity once a year — when the contract renewal notice arrives. They sign it, file it, and move on. That habit costs the average Houston commercial account between $4,000 and $18,000 annually in above-market rates that a competitive procurement process would have eliminated.
Houston operates under CenterPoint Energy as its transmission and distribution utility (TDU) — the company that owns the poles, wires, and meters that deliver power to your building. CenterPoint's role is fixed and non-negotiable. What is negotiable is the supply side: the retail electricity provider (REP) that generates or purchases the electricity and sets the rate you pay per kilowatt-hour.
In Houston's deregulated market, over 100 licensed REPs compete for your account. The rate difference between the highest and lowest legitimate offer for the same account at the same time can be 20–30%. Most Houston businesses never see that spread because they renew with whoever sends the renewal notice first.
This guide explains exactly how the procurement process works in Houston's CenterPoint territory, what rates are available right now, and what a commercial energy broker does that you can't replicate by calling providers directly.
Texas deregulated its electricity market in 2002, creating a structure that separates delivery from supply. In Houston, this means:
CenterPoint Energy owns and maintains the physical grid — the infrastructure that delivers electricity to your meter regardless of which provider you choose. CenterPoint's delivery charges are regulated by the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUCT), fixed, and identical for every Houston business in the same meter classification. Switching REPs doesn't change your delivery charges by a single cent.
Your retail electricity provider (REP) is the company that supplies the electricity and sends your bill. This is the competitive portion — the rate your REP charges for the energy itself (the supply charge, measured in ¢/kWh) is what varies between providers and what a competitive auction drives down.
Your total bill = supply charge (competitive) + CenterPoint delivery charge (fixed) + applicable taxes and fees.
For most Houston commercial accounts, the supply charge represents roughly 50–60% of the total bill. The delivery charge represents 35–45%. Taxes and fees make up the remainder. When a broker runs a competitive auction, the savings come entirely from the supply side — providers bid against each other to win your supply contract, and competition drives the supply rate down.
Average supply rates for Houston commercial accounts as of April 2026 are running 7.4–8.8¢/kWh for 24-month fixed contracts, depending on your usage volume, load factor, and meter classification. CenterPoint delivery charges add approximately 3.8–5.2¢/kWh depending on your rate class. All-in rates for most Houston commercial accounts currently fall between 11.5–14.5¢/kWh.
If you are paying above 14¢/kWh all-in and your contract is more than 12 months old, you are almost certainly on a passive renewal rate that a competitive auction would improve.
The term “energy broker” is generic enough that it's worth being specific about what a Texas-licensed commercial broker does versus what you can do by calling providers directly.
What happens when you call a provider directly: That provider quotes you their current rate for your account. You have one data point. You have no way of knowing whether that rate is competitive, average, or above-market without spending days calling 20–30 other providers — by which time the first quote has expired because commercial rates are repriced daily based on wholesale market conditions.
What a reverse auction does differently: A PUCT-licensed broker submits your account — your CenterPoint meter number, 12 months of usage history, and your load profile — to 25+ licensed providers simultaneously. Each provider bids a fixed supply rate for your account without knowing what their competitors are bidding. The broker presents every bid to you side by side: rate, contract term, demand charge structure, early termination fee, auto-renewal terms. You see the full competitive market for your specific account in a single view.
The rate difference between the lowest and highest bid in a Houston commercial auction routinely runs 1.5–2.5¢/kWh. On a Houston office building consuming 80,000 kWh per month, that spread is $1,200–2,000 per month, or $28,800–48,000 over a 24-month contract.
The broker's compensation comes from the winning provider — a small, fixed commission built into the supply rate that is the same whether you use a broker or contact the provider directly. You do not pay more by using a broker. In most cases you pay less, because the competitive pressure of the auction drives rates below what providers would offer in a direct negotiation.
One of the most common points of confusion for Houston commercial buyers is understanding which parts of their bill are negotiable. Being clear about this prevents you from making procurement decisions based on the wrong variables.
What you cannot negotiate: CenterPoint delivery charges. These are set by PUCT rate case proceedings and are identical for every business on the same rate class (Primary, Secondary, Large Secondary, etc.) regardless of which REP supplies their electricity. A broker cannot reduce your delivery charges. No REP can reduce your delivery charges. Anyone who implies otherwise is misleading you.
What you can negotiate: The supply rate — the energy charge per kWh — and the contract structure. The supply rate is the entire competitive opportunity in Houston's deregulated market. Contract structure matters too: whether the contract is fully fixed, indexed with a fixed adder, or variable; how demand charges are handled; what the early termination fee is; whether there's an auto-renewal provision and how it's triggered.
Understanding your demand charges specifically is important for Houston accounts. For commercial meters above 20 kW — which includes most businesses outside small retail — CenterPoint assesses demand charges based on your peak 15-minute power draw in each billing period. These charges can represent 30–50% of your total bill for high-usage operations. Some supply contracts include demand charge riders that affect total cost; comparing total delivered cost rather than headline supply rate is essential for accounts with significant demand exposure.
Houston's climate creates a procurement timing dynamic that is more pronounced here than in Dallas, Austin, or San Antonio. Houston's Gulf Coast humidity means air conditioning loads run longer and harder than anywhere else in ERCOT. A commercial building in Houston that uses 60,000 kWh in March may use 110,000–130,000 kWh in July — more than double — simply from the HVAC load increase.
For electricity procurement, this matters because forward contract pricing reflects what providers expect the market to look like over the contract term. In spring, before peak summer risk is fully priced in, forward rates are at their lowest. By June and July, providers have incorporated summer risk premiums into every fixed-rate quote. By August, if your contract has lapsed into a holdover rate, you are paying month-to-month variable pricing during the peak demand period of the year — the most expensive possible combination.
Houston businesses with contracts expiring between June and October should be running their procurement auction now, in April or May. A forward-start contract executed in April at spring pricing — effective when your current contract ends — protects you from summer rate premiums without any gap in coverage.
For the full seasonal analysis of ERCOT forward pricing, see our guide on ERCOT summer 2026 commercial electricity rates.
Houston's commercial economy is more diverse than most Texas markets. The energy sector, Texas Medical Center, Port of Houston logistics, and the Galleria retail corridor each create distinct electricity demand profiles. Here is what we see in auction results across Houston's major commercial categories:
Office buildings in the Energy Corridor and Greenway Plaza: Typically 40,000–200,000 kWh per month, high load factor, relatively predictable demand. Supply rates in competitive auctions: 7.4–8.2¢/kWh for 24-month fixed. Many of these accounts are on passive renewals at 9.5–11¢/kWh.
Medical facilities and clinics in the Texas Medical Center area: 24/7 operations, high HVAC and equipment loads, demand charge exposure. Supply rates in competitive auctions: 7.6–8.6¢/kWh. Demand charge structure matters significantly for this category. See our guide on Texas medical facility electricity savings.
Restaurants and bars in Midtown, Montrose, and The Heights: High kitchen equipment loads, summer HVAC intensity, demand charge exposure from simultaneous equipment operation. Supply rates in competitive auctions: 7.8–8.9¢/kWh. Texas restaurant electricity procurement has specific demand charge considerations worth reviewing.
Warehouses and logistics operations near the Port of Houston and Hobby Airport: High square footage, significant HVAC load in summer, relatively simple load profile. Supply rates in competitive auctions: 7.2–8.4¢/kWh. These accounts often have the best auction results because their steady load profile is easy for providers to price competitively.
Retail and convenience stores in suburban Houston: Refrigeration-heavy loads, extended hours, demand charge exposure. Supply rates in competitive auctions: 7.8–9.2¢/kWh. See our guide on Texas convenience store electricity costs for details on demand charge optimization specific to refrigeration-heavy operations.
Multifamily properties in Houston's Inner Loop and suburban corridors: Master-metered common areas, pool and fitness center loads, parking garage lighting. Supply rates in competitive auctions: 7.4–8.4¢/kWh. Portfolio aggregation across multiple properties produces meaningfully better pricing. See our Texas multifamily energy brokerage page for more detail.
The entire process from first contact to executed contract typically takes 3–5 business days for a single Houston account. Here is exactly what happens at each step.
Day 1: Bill submission and account analysis. You provide your most recent CenterPoint electricity bill or your CenterPoint account number. We pull your 12-month usage history and interval data directly, identify your meter classification, note your current supply rate and contract end date, and flag any demand charge patterns worth addressing in the contract structure.
Day 1–2: Reverse auction runs. We submit your load profile to 25+ licensed Texas REPs simultaneously. Providers bid a fixed supply rate for your account. The auction is blind — providers don’t see each other's bids, which drives genuine competition rather than matching.
Day 2–3: You receive the full bid comparison. Every bid is presented side by side: supply rate, contract term, demand structure, ETF, auto-renewal terms. We walk through the comparison with you and explain any differences in contract structure that affect total cost beyond the headline rate.
Day 3–5: Contract execution. You select the winning bid, sign the supply contract electronically (typically via DocuSign), and we submit the enrollment to CenterPoint. The switch takes effect at your next meter read boundary, usually within 7–14 days.
Zero service disruption. CenterPoint continues delivering electricity to your business without interruption throughout and after the switch. The only change is who sends your supply invoice.
Yes, but check your current contract for an early termination fee (ETF) before initiating a switch. Most Texas commercial contracts include an ETF, typically calculated as a per-kWh charge for remaining months or a flat dollar amount. We review your existing contract as part of the analysis and calculate whether the ETF makes an early switch economically worthwhile given current market rates. In many cases it is — particularly for accounts that lapsed onto holdover rates.
No. CenterPoint's role as TDU is fixed regardless of which REP supplies your electricity. The poles, wires, meters, and emergency response are all CenterPoint’s responsibility and are entirely unaffected by a supply provider switch. If there's an outage, you call CenterPoint. That doesn't change.
Demand charges on your CenterPoint bill have two components: the CenterPoint TDU demand charge (fixed, non-negotiable) and any demand-related charges embedded in your supply contract structure. Different REPs structure their supply contracts differently with respect to demand — some include all demand costs in a single flat supply rate, others separate the demand component. For accounts with significant demand exposure, we present the full cost comparison including demand structure so you can compare total delivered cost rather than just headline supply rate.
There's no formal minimum, but accounts spending $800 or more per month on electricity generally see meaningful savings from a competitive auction. Below that threshold the absolute dollar savings are smaller, though still real. For multi-location businesses, we aggregate all Houston locations into a single portfolio auction regardless of individual location size.
We aggregate all your CenterPoint-territory locations into a single portfolio auction. The combined load attracts more competitive bids than individual location auctions because providers compete for more total revenue. We also align all contract expiration dates under the portfolio, eliminating the risk of individual locations lapsing into holdover rates at different times.
Submit your most recent CenterPoint bill — or just your account number and address — and we’ll pull your full usage history, run a competitive auction with 25+ licensed Texas providers, and present every bid transparently within 24 hours. No cost to you. No obligation. No disruption to your business.
Contact EnergyBrokerTX today for a free Houston commercial electricity audit. PUCT License #BR260054. Dallas-based, serving all of Texas including Houston’s CenterPoint territory.
