CenterPoint Delivery Charges Explained (plus Every Texas TDU)

Last updated: October 27, 2026. Rates checked October 27, 2026 against the PUCT rate reports and CenterPoint’s own tariff.

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric charges residential customers $4.90 a month in fixed fees plus 6.5333¢ for every kilowatt-hour you use, effective October 1, 2026. The fixed part is a $2.11 customer charge and a $2.79 metering charge. At 1,000 kWh that’s $70.23 a month for delivery alone, before your retail provider charges a cent for the electricity itself. The numbers come straight from CenterPoint’s rate report on the PUCT website, and they match the itemized rates on CenterPoint’s Houston Electric rates page.

This page takes the charge apart, prices it at different usage levels and compares CenterPoint with the other Texas TDUs. It also explains why the rate jumped this fall. I write GridPenny from Fort Bend County, which is CenterPoint territory, so I’ll update the page whenever the rates move.

What a delivery charge actually is

In the parts of Texas open to retail competition, two different companies are involved in getting power to your house. The transmission and distribution utility (TDU) owns the poles, wires, substations and meter. In the Houston area that’s CenterPoint. The retail electric provider (REP) is the company you pick, sign a plan with and pay. You can switch REPs whenever your contract allows. You can’t switch TDUs: whoever owns the wires on your street is your TDU.

Your REP collects the TDU’s charges and passes them along on your bill. Some providers list them as a separate “TDU delivery charges” line; others fold them into a single all-in energy rate. Either way, you pay them. Every REP in CenterPoint’s area passes through the same tariff, so delivery is the one part of the bill that plan shopping can’t change.

One detail surprises a lot of people. A “fixed rate” plan in Texas is allowed to change its price to reflect actual changes in TDU charges. That’s written into the PUCT’s customer-protection rule on Electricity Facts Labels, 16 TAC §25.475. So when CenterPoint’s rate goes up, many fixed-rate customers can see it on their bill even though their contract hasn’t ended. Your plan’s EFL tells you whether it passes TDU changes through. If you’ve never read one closely, here’s how to read an Electricity Facts Label line by line.

CenterPoint’s residential delivery rate, piece by piece

The 6.5333¢ isn’t one charge. It’s a base distribution rate with a stack of “riders,” each approved separately by the PUCT. Here is the full residential stack from CenterPoint’s rates page, cross-checked against the current Tariff for Retail Delivery Service (PDF).

Component	Residential rate	What it covers
Customer charge	$2.11 per month	Fixed cost of having an account
Metering charge	$2.79 per month	Your smart meter and its data
Base distribution charge	2.3240¢/kWh	The local wires, set in CenterPoint’s last base-rate case
TCRF (Transmission Cost Recovery Factor)	3.0812¢/kWh	Changes in wholesale transmission costs since base rates were set
DCRF (Distribution Cost Recovery Factor)	0.6137¢/kWh	New distribution investment made since the last rate case
SRC III (System Restoration Charge)	0.2848¢/kWh	Repays storm-restoration bonds (see below)
EECRF (Energy Efficiency Cost Recovery Factor)	0.1576¢/kWh	State-required energy-efficiency programs
TEEEF	0.0742¢/kWh	Temporary emergency electric energy facilities
SRC II (System Restoration Charge)	0.0636¢/kWh	An earlier set of restoration bonds
Small items and credits combined	−0.0658¢/kWh	Nuclear decommissioning, rate-case expenses, two ADFIT tax credits, a TC5 refund
Total per kWh	6.5333¢/kWh	Plus $4.90/month fixed

TCRF: the piece that moves the most

At 3.0812¢/kWh, the transmission rider is now bigger than the base distribution charge, and it makes up about 47% of the per-kWh total. Under the tariff, it exists to pass through changes in the wholesale transmission rates CenterPoint pays after its base rates were last approved (PUCT rule §25.193). On a 1,000 kWh month the TCRF alone costs you $30.81.

DCRF: paying for new poles and wires between rate cases

The DCRF lets a utility start recovering distribution investment without waiting for a full rate case, under PUCT rule §25.243. CenterPoint’s current residential DCRF of 0.6137¢ took effect for meter reads on and after September 30, 2026, and the tariff says it stays in place until a final order in PUCT Docket No. 59981. It’s an interim number, and it could change again.

SRC: the storm bill

System Restoration Charges repay bonds that financed storm recovery. The newest one, SRC III, was authorized by a PUCT financing order in Docket No. 58252 on October 23, 2025. The tariff’s companion credit for that docket ties it to restoration costs from Hurricane Beryl, Hurricane Francine and Winter Storm Enzo, and says it runs for the 14-year term of SRC III. Expect to see it on Houston-area bills for a long time. At 1,000 kWh it’s about $2.85 a month.

EECRF and TEEEF

The EECRF funds state-required energy-efficiency programs and is recalculated yearly. TEEEF covers temporary emergency generation facilities; it fell from 0.2392¢ in the June 1, 2026 tariff to 0.0742¢ from August 15, 2026.

What CenterPoint delivery costs at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh

You can do this math on the back of your bill: $4.90 + (kWh × $0.065333). The fixed part is small, so delivery behaves almost like a pure per-kWh charge. Use twice the power and you pay roughly twice the delivery.

• 500 kWh: $37.57 (7.51¢ per kWh all-in)
• 1,000 kWh: $70.23 (7.02¢)
• 1,500 kWh: $102.90 (6.86¢)
• 2,000 kWh: $135.57 (6.78¢)
• 3,000 kWh: $200.90 (6.70¢)

Those are GridPenny calculations from the October 1, 2026 rates; the 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh results match the averages printed in CenterPoint’s PUCT rate report.

Now a full year. EIA’s 2025 data puts the average Texas residential customer at about 13,319 kWh for the year (total residential sales divided by customers each month, from EIA retail sales data). Run those twelve months through today’s CenterPoint rates and delivery comes to about $929 for the year, or roughly $77 a month. Rates change during the year, so read that as a rough scale, not a forecast. Still, a typical home sends close to $1,000 a year to the wires company, and no amount of plan shopping changes that.

The flip side is useful. Every kWh you don’t use saves 6.5333¢ in delivery on top of whatever your plan charges for energy. If your plan’s energy charge is around 10¢, a kWh saved is worth more than 16¢. Use that figure, not the energy rate alone, when you work out what an appliance really costs to run.

Every Texas TDU, side by side

The PUCT’s TDU rates page lists residential delivery rates for five service areas, each backed by the utility’s own monthly report (CenterPoint, Oncor, AEP Texas, TNMP). All figures below are as of October 1, 2026.

TDU	Customer charge	Metering charge	Per kWh	500 kWh	1,000 kWh	2,000 kWh
AEP Texas Central	$1.27	$1.97	5.7¢*	$31.83	$60.42	$117.59
AEP Texas North	$1.27	$1.97	5.6¢*	$31.26	$59.27	$115.30
CenterPoint	$2.11	$2.79	6.5333¢	$37.57	$70.23	$135.57
Oncor	$1.48	$2.58	6.0295¢	$34.21	$64.36	$124.65
TNMP	$1.70	$5.86	7.7710¢	$46.42	$85.27	$162.98

CenterPoint costs $5.87 a month more than Oncor at 1,000 kWh, which is about $70 a year. TNMP is the outlier. It runs $26 a month more than AEP Texas North at the same usage, and its $7.56 in fixed charges is the highest in the table. The two AEP areas come out cheapest at every usage level shown.

None of this applies if your power comes from a city-owned utility (Austin Energy or CPS Energy in San Antonio, for example) or an electric co-op outside the competitive market. Those utilities set bundled rates of their own, and you can’t pick a REP. Not sure which kind of area you live in? Our guide to setting up electricity in a new Texas home shows how to check.

Why CenterPoint’s delivery charge went up this fall

CenterPoint keeps an archive of past tariffs on its historical tariffs page. I pulled several and added up the residential charges in each. This is what a 1,000 kWh month would have cost in delivery under each version:

• Sept 1, 2023 tariff: $4.39 fixed + 5.4694¢/kWh = $59.08
• Sept 1, 2025 tariff: $4.90 + 5.7889¢ = $62.79
• June 1, 2026 tariff: $4.90 + 5.1461¢ = $56.36
• Oct 1, 2026 (current): $4.90 + 6.5333¢ = $70.23

These are GridPenny totals of the residential schedule plus every residential rider in each archived tariff, checked October 27, 2026.

The charge actually dipped in the first half of 2026. Then it climbed fast. From the June 1 tariff to today the per-kWh total rose 1.3872¢, or $13.87 a month at 1,000 kWh. That’s a 24.6% jump in about four months.

One line explains the whole increase, and then some. The TCRF went from 1.6173¢ in the June 1 tariff to 3.0812¢ for meter reads from September 1, 2026, an increase of 1.4639¢ by itself. The interim DCRF added another 0.1193¢ on September 30. Smaller drops in TEEEF and SRC II offset part of it. If you want the utility’s own explanation, each rider update has a PUCT docket number listed in the tariff.

Timing matters too. CenterPoint’s tariff archive shows updates on March 1 and September 1 in every year from 2017 through 2026, with other changes scattered in between. If you’re signing a 12-month plan, assume the delivery portion will move at least twice during the contract.

What you can (and can’t) do about it

• You can’t shop it away. A plan that looks cheaper is cheaper on the energy side, never on the wires side.
• Read how your plan handles TDU changes. If the EFL lists TDU charges separately or says they pass through, your bill will follow CenterPoint’s rate. An all-in rate that includes delivery can still change for TDU increases under §25.475, so check the exact wording.
• Compare plans at your own usage. Delivery is about 7¢ per kWh at any usage, but plans with bill credits and tiers are not that tidy. Pull your real monthly numbers from Smart Meter Texas and price each plan at those.
• Use less, especially in summer. Delivery is nearly all per-kWh, so trimming usage is the only lever that cuts it directly, and air conditioning is where most Texas homes have room to trim.

FAQ

Is CenterPoint my electricity provider?

Not in the retail sense. In the Houston competitive market, CenterPoint delivers the power and handles outages and meters, while your retail electric provider sells you the electricity and sends the bill. You choose the REP; CenterPoint comes with the address.

Why did my bill go up when I have a fixed-rate plan?

Texas rules let fixed-rate plans change to reflect actual changes in TDU charges (16 TAC §25.475). CenterPoint’s residential rate rose from 5.1461¢ to 6.5333¢ per kWh between the June 1 and October 1, 2026 tariffs, so a pass-through plan at 1,500 kWh would see roughly $20.81 more per month from delivery alone.

How often do CenterPoint delivery charges change?

Several times a year. The tariff archive lists five versions so far in 2026 (March 1, May 18, June 1, August 15 and September 1) before the late-September DCRF update. March 1 and September 1 changes have shown up every year since at least 2017.

Is the delivery charge the same for every home in CenterPoint’s area?

For standard residential service, yes: the same customer charge, metering charge and per-kWh rate apply to everyone on the residential schedule, whichever REP they use. What differs is your usage and how your plan presents the charge.

Sources

• CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric Rates Report, 10/1/2026 (PUCT-hosted PDF). Checked Oct 27, 2026.
• PUCT, Transmission and Distribution Utility Rates, residential as of Oct 1, 2026. Checked Oct 27, 2026.
• Oncor PUCT Monthly Report, as of Oct 1, 2026; AEP Texas PUCT Monthly Report, effective Oct 1, 2026; TNMP PUCT Monthly Report, as of Oct 1, 2026. Checked Oct 27, 2026.
• CenterPoint Energy, Houston Electric Rates (itemized residential riders). Checked Oct 27, 2026.
• CenterPoint Energy, Tariff for Retail Delivery Service (current); historical tariffs archive. Checked Oct 27, 2026.
• PUCT Substantive Rule 16 TAC §25.475 (EFL and contract disclosures). Checked Oct 27, 2026.
• U.S. EIA, electricity retail sales data (residential sales and customers, Texas, 2025). Checked Oct 27, 2026.