Your Texas Electricity Contract Is Ending: How to Switch

Updated October 31, 2026

When a fixed-rate contract ends, you can renew with your current company, switch to a new plan, or do nothing. If you switch, Texas rules help you:

This guide is for homes on fixed-rate plans in the parts of Texas where you can choose your electricity company. City-owned utilities and electric co-ops, such as those serving Austin and San Antonio, have their own rules. Prepaid plans aren't covered here. Thinking about leaving a contract early instead? See our switching guide on early termination fee math.

Two terms first. Your electricity company (the rules call it a retail electric provider) is the one you sign a plan with and pay. Your local utility, such as Oncor in Dallas or CenterPoint in Houston, owns the poles, wires and meter, and stays the same whichever company you choose. Power to Choose is the state's official plan-comparison website.

What happens if you do nothing

Your current company moves you to a month-to-month plan. You can leave it at any time without a fee, but its price can change from one billing cycle to the next (16 TAC §25.475(e)(2)(A)). Your company must send you that plan's Electricity Facts Label with your final expiration notice, or at least 14 days before your end date (§25.475(e)(2)(C)(v)). The notice also describes any renewal offers your current company is making (§25.475(e)(2)(C)(iv)). Compare those with other plans the same way.

1. Find your contract's end date

Your company has to warn you before a fixed-rate contract ends. It must send at least three written notices in the last part of your contract; for a contract of 12 months or longer, the first can come up to three months before the end (§25.475(e)(1)(A)). Look for an envelope or email that says "Contract Expiration Notice" (§25.475(e)(2)(B)). The final notice must be sent:

The notice shows your end date in bold, underlined text (§25.475(e)(2)(C)(i)). On a short plan, the final notice can reach you after your no-fee window has already started, so put the end date on your calendar when you sign up. If your company doesn't send the required notices, it has to keep serving you at your fixed rate until it does (§25.475(e)(1)(C)).

2. Aim for your no-fee window

In the 14 days before the end date in your notice, your current company can't charge an early termination fee for leaving. The notice has to say so in bold print (§25.475(e)(2)(C)(ii)–(iii)). If your contract ends at "the first meter read on or after" a date, the 14 days count back from that date.

Any start date from the first day of that window on avoids the fee. If your new plan starts after your end date, you're on the month-to-month plan for the days in between, and you can leave that with no fee. If you leave before the window opens, the early termination fee in your contract may apply.

3. Choose a term length: 3 months or 12

Compare the 3-month and 12-month prices on the day you sign up. The shorter plan isn't always the cheaper one.

ElectricityFinder saves the Power to Choose plan list every day. Comparing the five cheapest fixed-rate plans of each length at 1,000 kWh a month, here's what that record showed in summer and fall 2026:

We also compared two ways to cover the same year, for start dates from May 23 to August 4, 2026: a 12-month plan bought that day, or a 3-month plan followed by a 12-month plan bought three months later. On average, the two came within 1 cent per kWh of each other at every utility, which is under $10 a month at 1,000 kWh.

The timing mattered. For May starts, 12-month prices had dropped by the time the 3 months were up, enough to make up for the pricier short plan. For late July and early August starts, locking in 12 months did better.

A short plan also means doing this again in three months. If you miss that, you roll onto the month-to-month plan. Past prices don't tell you what future prices will be.

How we measured: the five cheapest fixed-rate plans of each length listed on Power to Choose each day from May 23 to October 31, 2026, for one ZIP code per utility, priced at 1,000 kWh every month. That's one season of data. Prepaid, time-of-use and minimum-usage plans are left out. Real usage is higher in summer, which makes the 3-month-first path look worse for summer starts than these averages show. Fees, switching time, and the cost of missing the next switch aren't included.

4. Check the company, not just the price

The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) gives each electricity company listed on Power to Choose a complaint score from one to five (PUC complaint scorecard). It's based on the number of informal complaints the PUC handled per 1,000 customers over the last six months, and every complaint counts, whether or not the company was at fault. Companies are then split into five groups of about the same size, so the score shows how a company's complaint rate ranks against the others. Five is the group with the fewest complaints.

When two plans cost about the same, the complaint score is a reasonable tiebreaker. The PUC calls it only one measure of customer service, and a small company's score can swing on a few complaints. Several brands can share one score when they're licensed under the same company. ElectricityFinder shows the score in each plan's details.

Compare plans at your own usage.

Enter your monthly usage or upload your Smart Meter Texas data. The calculator prices the plans listed on Power to Choose for your utility, as of our most recent update, against your usage.

Compare Plans Now

5. Sign up and pick your start date

You can sign up before your no-fee window opens. If you do it more than about a week ahead, ask for a start date. Without one, the switch can happen within seven business days (Power to Choose FAQ), which could be before the window opens, and your current company's early termination fee could apply. A date a few days inside the window gives you room. Your new company has to request the switch for the date you ask for, within what your local utility allows, and tell you the approximate date your service will start (§25.474(k)).

6. Use your three days to read the contract

Your new company sends its terms of service after you sign up. You can cancel at no charge for three federal business days after you receive them (§25.474(j)). Weekends and federal holidays don't count. Count from the day the terms reach you; if they came by mail, the company may treat them as received three business days after mailing, so read them as soon as they arrive.

The terms of service must explain how to cancel, including a phone number, in a separate paragraph or box (§25.475(f)(4)(A)), and the company must take cancellations by phone 24 hours a day (§25.485(b)(4)). If it has already sent your switch and you cancel in time, it has to stop the switch or return you to your current company "without inconvenience or additional cost" (§25.474(k)).

Miss the three days and you can still choose another company, but you'll owe for the service you used until the switch (§25.474(j)), and the new plan may have its own early termination fee. The three-day right applies to switches, not to starting service at a new address.

A checklist, with an example

Say your 12-month contract ends on January 31. Your no-fee window starts around January 17; your notice gives the exact date.

  1. December, or when your first notice arrives: put the end date and the window on your calendar.
  2. Early January: compare plans, including any renewal offer, on price, term length and complaint score.
  3. By about January 10: sign up and ask for a start date a few days inside the window, such as January 20.
  4. Within three business days of receiving the terms of service: read them, and cancel then if something's wrong.
  5. After the switch: check your old company's final bill and your deposit, and check that the new company's first bill matches your plan.

Your protections under Texas rules

This is general information about Texas rules, not legal advice. Your plan's terms of service and Electricity Facts Label have the details. Rules checked against the PUC's published text on October 31, 2026.

Sources

Related Articles