Methodology: how we compare Texas electricity rates

Data source

All plan data comes from Power to Choose, the official plan comparison site operated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. We read its published export directly. We do not model, estimate, or adjust the prices it reports.

Scrape cadence

A scheduled job pulls a fresh snapshot once per day and commits it to the repository, so every figure on this site traces to a dated, versioned file. Each snapshot records the timestamp it was fetched, and that timestamp — never the page’s build time — is what we publish as the data’s last-modified date.

Comparison window

Rate movement is measured week over week: the current snapshot against the most recent snapshot roughly seven days earlier. A plan counts as a mover only when the same plan, from the same provider, in the same market, appears in both snapshots. Plans that appear or disappear between snapshots are reported separately as new or withdrawn, not as price changes.

All-in price

The price shown at each usage level is the average price per kWh including the energy charge, any base or monthly fee, and TDU delivery charges. Power to Choose publishes these blended figures per usage tier, and we use them as published. Because fixed fees are spread across the kWh used, the same plan can be cheap at 2,000 kWh and expensive at 500 — which is why we show all 3 tiers rather than a single number.

Coverage

These reports cover two Texas markets: Dallas (Oncor delivery territory, ZIP 75201) and Houston (CenterPoint delivery territory, ZIP 77001). They are the two largest deregulated markets in the state, but they are not the whole state. Nothing on this site should be read as a statewide figure.

• Houston — ZIP 77001 (current status: ok)
• Dallas — ZIP 75201 (current status: ok)

The rebaselining rule

A week-over-week comparison is only meaningful when both snapshots are close to seven days apart. When the snapshot history has a gap — a scraper outage, or a first run in a new market — comparing across it would report months of drift as if it happened in a week. In that situation we mark the market as rebaselining, publish no movers, and state the date on which a valid comparison becomes available again. We would rather show nothing than show a number that means something different from what it appears to mean.

What we do not do

• We do not accept payment from providers to rank or feature a plan.
• We do not adjust or smooth the prices Power to Choose publishes.
• We do not fill gaps in the snapshot history with interpolated data.
• We do not report a statewide average, because we do not collect statewide data.