CenterPoint Energy delivery charges in the Houston area

The delivery charge in numbers

On a Houston-area electric bill, CenterPoint's line is the delivery charge: the cost of moving power over its poles, wires and substations to the meter. EIA collects what each Texas delivery utility billed for that service. For homes on CenterPoint's wires, 2025 delivery revenue averaged 5.41¢ per kWh, against 4.93¢ per kWh² in 2024, a rise of +9.7%¹.

The average divides all residential delivery revenue, fixed monthly charges included, by all residential kWh. It is therefore not the per-kWh charge printed in CenterPoint's tariff, which the Public Utility Commission of Texas approves. Retail providers pass the approved charges through, and the Electricity Facts Label of each plan lists them separately from the provider's own energy charge.

Spread over the year, the delivery part came to about $60.74 a month for a home using 1,124 kWh¹, slightly more than the Texas residential average of 1,110 kWh³ a month in 2025.

Lowest per kWh, not lowest per month

Per kWh, CenterPoint's residential average was the lowest of the 6 delivery utilities in 2025, below Oncor's 5.64¢ per kWh and well below TNMP's 7.09¢ per kWh. Per home, the order changes: CenterPoint's delivery part averaged $60.74 a month. Lubbock Power & Light billed more per kWh (6.31¢ per kWh) but its homes used 874 kWh a month, so its monthly delivery average was $55.17; AEP Texas North averaged $57.47¹. Both were lower than CenterPoint's monthly figure. Because use per home differs from one territory to another, ranking by ¢ per kWh and ranking by dollars a month give different orders.

The 2024 to 2025 change also differed among the delivery utilities: CenterPoint's +9.7% compares with +8.7% at Oncor, +12.0% at TNMP and +2.8%¹ at AEP Texas Central.

What Houston-area homes paid their retail providers

CenterPoint sets no energy price, so there is no single CenterPoint "rate" for the whole bill. What a household pays in total depends on the retail provider and plan. EIA reports each provider's statewide residential revenue divided by kWh, delivery included; the providers do not report it by delivery area, so these figures cover all of their Texas customers, not only those around Houston. In 2025 the average across all Texas retail providers was 17.23¢ per kWh, and among the 38 with 10,000 or more residential customers it ran from 8.03¢ per kWh to 20.86¢ per kWh¹. These are past averages across every plan a provider had, not offers or prices available today.

Current plans for an address on CenterPoint's wires, with the energy charge, CenterPoint's delivery charges and the average price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh, are listed on the state's official Power to Choose site. The Texas retail choice guide explains how to read an Electricity Facts Label.

Businesses on the same wires

CenterPoint also delivered to 326,934 commercial and 2,055 industrial accounts in 2025. Their delivery revenue per kWh was lower than for homes: 3.84¢ per kWh for commercial and 1.06¢ per kWh¹ for industrial customers. Large users take power at higher voltage and in larger volumes, so less of the local network and fewer fixed charges are spread over each kWh. These averages cover delivery only; the energy part comes from each business's own retail provider.

Where CenterPoint delivers

EIA's 2025 service-territory file places CenterPoint in 12 counties: Austin County, Brazoria County, Chambers County, Colorado County, Fort Bend County, Galveston County, Harris County, Liberty County, Matagorda County, Montgomery County, Waller County and Wharton County⁵.

In 11 of those counties at least one other distribution utility also reports customers, and only 1⁵ is CenterPoint's alone. A county name therefore does not settle who delivers to an address. Homes served by an electric cooperative or a city-owned utility in those counties are not on CenterPoint's wires; the utility's own service map, searched by address, decides.

CenterPoint Energy onlyCenterPoint Energy and other utilitiesOther utilities

Source: EIA-861 2025, service territory; Census Bureau, Cartographic boundary file, counties. EIA-861 2025 service territory: 12 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
Austin County	Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, San Bernard Electric Cooperative, Fayette Electric Cooperative, City of Bellville
Brazoria County	TNMP, Jackson Electric Cooperative
Chambers County	Entergy Texas
Colorado County	AEP Texas Central, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, San Bernard Electric Cooperative, Fayette Electric Cooperative, Wharton County Electric Cooperative, City of Weimar
Fort Bend County	none
Galveston County	Entergy Texas, TNMP
Harris County	Entergy Texas, San Bernard Electric Cooperative
Liberty County	Entergy Texas, Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, City of Liberty
Matagorda County	AEP Texas Central, TNMP, Jackson Electric Cooperative, Wharton County Electric Cooperative
Montgomery County	Entergy Texas, Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, Mid-South Electric Cooperative Association, San Bernard Electric Cooperative
Waller County	Entergy Texas, Mid-South Electric Cooperative Association, San Bernard Electric Cooperative, City of Hempstead
Wharton County	AEP Texas Central, Jackson Electric Cooperative, Wharton County Electric Cooperative

Outages and meters

CenterPoint reports reliability under the IEEE 1366 standard. In 2025 its customers averaged 193 minutes without power counting every event, fewer than the Texas average of 225 minutes, and 1.95 interruptions each (Texas: 1.71). Leaving out major event days, such as large storms, the figure was 151 minutes, against a Texas average of 130 minutes⁴: on ordinary days CenterPoint's customers spent more time without power than the state average, even though the all-events total was lower in that year.

Lubbock Power & Light (TX)111

AEP Texas North (TX)133

TNMP (TX)165

CenterPoint Energy (TX)193

AEP Texas Central (TX)205

Oncor (TX)232

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
TNMP (TX)	165
CenterPoint Energy (TX)	193
AEP Texas Central (TX)	205
Oncor (TX)	232

Outages are reported to CenterPoint, not to the retail provider. All of its residential meters were advanced meters in 2025 (100.0%⁷), which record use in short intervals and make time-of-use and other interval-based plans possible from retail providers. The Texas page sets CenterPoint beside the state's other utilities, including those outside the competitive market.