AEP Texas Central rates: what delivery costs South Texas homes

AEP Texas Central rates are delivery rates

AEP Texas Central is a transmission and distribution utility (TDU) inside ERCOT, owned by American Electric Power. It builds and maintains the lines, substations and meters and restores power after storms; homes on its wires buy the electricity itself from a retail electric provider. A search for "AEP Texas Central rates" therefore has two answers: what the utility charges for delivery, and what the provider charges for energy. This page keeps them apart.

For delivery, EIA's annual census of utilities (form EIA-861) gives the realized average. In 2025 AEP Texas Central billed its 793,896 residential customers an average of 5.91¢ per kWh¹ of delivery revenue, against 5.75¢ per kWh² in 2024. That figure is delivery revenue divided by kWh, so it folds the monthly customer and metering charges into the per-kWh number. It is not the per-kWh charge printed in the tariff, which the Public Utility Commission of Texas approves in the utility's rate proceedings.

A home on AEP Texas Central's wires used an average of 1,154 kWh a month in 2025, and the delivery part of its bill averaged $68.16 a month. Businesses paid less per kWh because they take more power, often at higher voltage: 3.62¢ per kWh for its 128,625 commercial accounts and 1.04¢ per kWh for its 6,917¹ industrial accounts.

Middle of the pack per kWh, near the top per month

Texas has 6 delivery utilities in the competitive market. Measured per kWh, AEP Texas Central's 2025 residential average was the 3rd highest of them: below TNMP (7.09¢ per kWh) and Lubbock Power & Light (6.31¢ per kWh), and above Oncor (5.64¢ per kWh) and CenterPoint Energy (5.41¢ per kWh¹).

The monthly figure ranks it higher. Homes in AEP Texas Central's area used 1,154 kWh a month on average, compared with 1,106 kWh on Oncor's wires, 1,124 kWh on CenterPoint's and 874 kWh in Lubbock; the average for all Texas homes, on every kind of utility, was 1,110 kWh³. More kWh at a similar per-kWh average means a larger delivery charge: $68.16 a month, against $62.35 for Oncor, $60.74 for CenterPoint and $55.17 for Lubbock. Only TNMP's $81.64¹ was higher. All are 2025 averages.

The smallest increase among the delivery utilities in 2025

Between 2024 and 2025, AEP Texas Central's residential delivery revenue per kWh changed by +2.8%. The other five moved further: Lubbock Power & Light +4.0%, AEP Texas North +7.7%, Oncor +8.7%, CenterPoint Energy +9.7% and TNMP +12.0%¹.

These are year-on-year changes in an average, not in a tariff. The average also moves when the mix of customers or their use changes, and EIA's annual data do not say which charge drove it. The approved charges and their effective dates are in the utility's tariff filings at the Public Utility Commission. EIA does not report this utility in its monthly sample, so there is no September 2025 to August 2026 figure for it; the next annual reading, for 2026, is due in August 2027.

Two AEP delivery utilities in Texas

EIA reports AEP's Texas wires as two utilities. AEP Texas Central serves the south; AEP Texas North serves 158,000 homes in 51⁵ counties of West and North Central Texas. In 2025 their per-kWh delivery averages were close, 5.91¢ per kWh in the south and 5.86¢ per kWh in the north, but monthly delivery differed: $68.16 against $57.47, because northern homes averaged 981 kWh a month against 1,154 kWh in the south. The northern utility's change from 2024 was larger (+7.7%¹). Check which one is on your bill: the tariffs differ.

What homes paid their retail provider

The energy part of the bill depends on the plan, so there is no single all-in price for AEP Texas Central's area. EIA reports what each Texas retail electric provider collected from residential customers across the year, delivery charges included, but not broken down by delivery utility. Statewide, the retail-provider average was 17.23¢ per kWh in 2025. Among the 38 providers with 10,000 or more residential customers, averages ran from 8.03¢ per kWh (Southern Federal Power, LLC) to 20.86¢ per kWh¹ (Young Energy, LLC). These are past averages over all of each provider's plans and delivery areas, not offers, and they are a different measure from the delivery-only figures above: the two are not added.

For current plans, the Public Utility Commission's Power to Choose site lists offers by ZIP code. Each plan's Electricity Facts Label, required by 16 TAC §25.475, shows the average price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh with AEP Texas Central's delivery charges included. At the area's average use, the 1,000 kWh column is the nearest guide. Our Texas retail choice guide explains how to read the label.

Where AEP Texas Central delivers

With 793,896 residential customers, AEP Texas Central had 6.1% of all residential customers in Texas in 2025, the fourth-largest share after Oncor, CenterPoint Energy and CPS Energy¹. EIA's territory records place it in 44⁵ counties: Nueces and San Patricio around Corpus Christi, Victoria and Calhoun on the coast, Hidalgo and Cameron in the Rio Grande Valley, Webb and Maverick on the border, and Val Verde and Edwards to the west.

In all 44, at least one other utility also reports customers (0⁵ counties are AEP Texas Central's alone). Cooperatives such as Nueces Electric, San Patricio Electric, Medina Electric and Magic Valley Electric Cooperative, and city utilities such as Brownsville Public Utilities Board and Robstown's, serve parts of the same counties outside the competitive market. Their customers do not choose a retail provider, and their published averages are bundled prices (energy and delivery together), so they cannot be set against AEP Texas Central's delivery-only figure. A county name is not enough to tell which utility serves a home; the utility's own service map decides by address.

AEP Texas Central onlyAEP Texas Central and other utilitiesOther utilities

Source: EIA-861 2025, service territory; Census Bureau, Cartographic boundary file, counties. EIA-861 2025 service territory: 44 counties. Counts whole counties even where the utility serves only part of one; check the utility's own service-area map for an address.

Show the numbers

County	Other utilities reporting service
Aransas County	San Patricio Electric Cooperative
Atascosa County	CPS Energy, Medina Electric Cooperative, Karnes Electric Cooperative
Bee County	Karnes Electric Cooperative, San Patricio Electric Cooperative
Brooks County	Magic Valley Electric Cooperative, Medina Electric Cooperative, Nueces Electric Cooperative
Caldwell County	Pedernales Electric Cooperative, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, City of Lockhart, City of Luling
Calhoun County	Victoria Electric Cooperative, Jackson Electric Cooperative
Cameron County	Magic Valley Electric Cooperative, Brownsville Public Utilities Board
Colorado County	CenterPoint Energy, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, San Bernard Electric Cooperative, Fayette Electric Cooperative, Wharton County Electric Cooperative, City of Weimar
DeWitt County	Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, Victoria Electric Cooperative, Karnes Electric Cooperative, City of Cuero, City of Yoakum
Dimmit County	Medina Electric Cooperative, Rio Grande Electric Cooperative
Duval County	Medina Electric Cooperative, Nueces Electric Cooperative
Edwards County	Pedernales Electric Cooperative, AEP Texas North, Medina Electric Cooperative, Rio Grande Electric Cooperative, Southwest Texas Electric Cooperative
Frio County	Medina Electric Cooperative, Karnes Electric Cooperative
Goliad County	Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, Victoria Electric Cooperative, Karnes Electric Cooperative, San Patricio Electric Cooperative
Gonzales County	Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, Fayette Electric Cooperative, City of Gonzales, City of Flatonia, City of Waelder
Guadalupe County	CPS Energy, Pedernales Electric Cooperative, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, City of New Braunfels, City of Seguin
Hidalgo County	Oncor, Magic Valley Electric Cooperative
Jackson County	Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, Victoria Electric Cooperative, Jackson Electric Cooperative, Wharton County Electric Cooperative
Jim Hogg County	Medina Electric Cooperative
Jim Wells County	Nueces Electric Cooperative, San Patricio Electric Cooperative
Karnes County	Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, City of Floresville, Karnes Electric Cooperative
Kenedy County	Magic Valley Electric Cooperative, Nueces Electric Cooperative
Kinney County	Pedernales Electric Cooperative, Medina Electric Cooperative, Rio Grande Electric Cooperative
Kleberg County	Nueces Electric Cooperative
La Salle County	Medina Electric Cooperative, Karnes Electric Cooperative
Live Oak County	Nueces Electric Cooperative, Karnes Electric Cooperative, San Patricio Electric Cooperative
Matagorda County	CenterPoint Energy, TNMP, Jackson Electric Cooperative, Wharton County Electric Cooperative
Maverick County	Rio Grande Electric Cooperative
McMullen County	Medina Electric Cooperative, Nueces Electric Cooperative, Karnes Electric Cooperative, San Patricio Electric Cooperative
Medina County	CPS Energy, Bandera Electric Cooperative, Medina Electric Cooperative, Karnes Electric Cooperative, City of Hondo, City of Castroville
Nueces County	Nueces Electric Cooperative, San Patricio Electric Cooperative, City of Robstown
Real County	Pedernales Electric Cooperative, Central Texas Electric Cooperative, Bandera Electric Cooperative, Medina Electric Cooperative
Refugio County	Victoria Electric Cooperative, San Patricio Electric Cooperative
San Patricio County	San Patricio Electric Cooperative
Starr County	Magic Valley Electric Cooperative, Medina Electric Cooperative
Uvalde County	Bandera Electric Cooperative, Medina Electric Cooperative, Rio Grande Electric Cooperative
Val Verde County	Rio Grande Electric Cooperative, Southwest Texas Electric Cooperative
Victoria County	Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, Victoria Electric Cooperative
Webb County	Medina Electric Cooperative, Rio Grande Electric Cooperative
Wharton County	CenterPoint Energy, Jackson Electric Cooperative, Wharton County Electric Cooperative
Willacy County	Magic Valley Electric Cooperative
Wilson County	CPS Energy, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, City of Floresville, Karnes Electric Cooperative
Zapata County	Medina Electric Cooperative
Zavala County	Medina Electric Cooperative, Rio Grande Electric Cooperative

Outages: fewer minutes overall, more on ordinary days

In 2025, AEP Texas Central's customers averaged 205 minutes without power when every outage is counted, fewer than the Texas average of 225 minutes. Excluding major event days, the large storms that the IEEE 1366 standard sets apart, the figure was 155 minutes, above the Texas figure of 130 minutes on the same basis. Customers saw 1.76 interruptions each on average, against 1.71⁴ statewide.

Among delivery utilities that report under the same IEEE standard, CenterPoint Energy's ordinary-day figure was similar (151 minutes), while AEP Texas North (106 minutes) and Lubbock Power & Light (95 minutes⁴) were lower. Oncor and TNMP use a different method, so they are left out of this comparison.

Lubbock Power & Light (TX)111

AEP Texas North (TX)133

CenterPoint Energy (TX)193

AEP Texas Central (TX)205

Source: EIA-861 2025, reliability. EIA-861 2025 final. Average revenue per kWh is all charges divided by kWh; it is not a tariff rate.

Show the numbers

Utility	outage minutes per customer (all events)
Lubbock Power & Light (TX)	111
AEP Texas North (TX)	133
CenterPoint Energy (TX)	193
AEP Texas Central (TX)	205

All of AEP Texas Central's residential meters were advanced meters in 2025 (100.0%⁷). They record use at intervals, which lets retail providers offer time-of-use plans in the area. When the power goes out, the report goes to AEP Texas Central, whichever provider sends the bill. The Texas state page compares AEP Texas Central with the state's other utilities.