Oncor Electricity Rates and Delivery Charges

Oncor Electric Delivery is the wires company for a large competitive territory in Texas. A customer at an Oncor-served premise can choose an eligible retail electric provider, but that choice does not replace Oncor. The utility continues to operate the distribution network, meter infrastructure, and outage-restoration system. For rate shopping, this creates two separate layers that need to be kept visible: the REP’s retail contract and the regulated Oncor delivery tariff.

Oncor’s June 2026 tariff shows why delivery cannot be reduced to one number

The official retail delivery tariff effective June 1, 2026 listed residential base components that included a $1.48 customer charge, a $2.58 metering charge, and a $0.036043 per-kWh distribution-system charge. Those figures are only part of the delivery picture. Separate riders can recover transmission costs, energy-efficiency expenses, and other commission-approved items or credits. A shopper should therefore treat the published numbers as a dated tariff snapshot rather than as a permanent “Oncor rate.”

Dallas-Fort Worth shoppers should identify the premise, not assume the city

Many addresses in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Waco, Killeen, and other communities are in Oncor territory, but municipal boundaries and ZIP codes are not perfect utility boundaries. Use the exact service address or ESI ID before comparing plans. That utility check matters because the same REP can market similarly named products in several Texas territories while the all-in EFL averages differ due to the delivery layer.

Fixed and variable delivery components affect low- and high-use homes differently

Oncor’s fixed customer and metering components are spread over whatever amount of electricity the household uses. Their effective cents-per-kWh impact is larger in a low-use month than in a high-use month. Variable distribution charges and riders move in the opposite direction because their dollar amount grows with consumption. Once the REP adds its own energy charge, base fee, credit, or time-based design, the total price curve can become non-linear. This is why a plan should be tested against the home’s real consumption rather than judged from one 1,000-kWh benchmark.

Read the EFL with the Oncor territory in mind

The Electricity Facts Label should identify recurring plan components and show average prices at standard usage levels. Check how Oncor delivery charges are included or passed through, then look separately for REP fees, credits, minimum-use rules, and time-of-use assumptions. A bill-credit product can look excellent at one usage point and much less attractive just below the threshold. A fixed retail product can also permit regulated delivery changes to flow through, so “fixed” describes the retail pricing framework rather than a guarantee that every bill line remains unchanged.

Outages stay with Oncor after a REP switch

A retail switch changes the supplier and billing relationship. It does not move the local network to the new REP. For an outage or delivery emergency at an Oncor-served premise, Oncor remains the operational utility. This distinction also helps when diagnosing a bill change: a REP price change belongs to the retail product, while a tariff or rider revision belongs to the delivery side. Treating those as separate sources makes comparisons easier to audit.

A practical Oncor-plan workflow

1. Verify the exact service address or ESI ID and confirm Oncor as the TDU.
2. Open the current EFL for each REP plan actually offered to that premise.
3. Use recent monthly kWh, including seasonal low and peak months.
4. Identify REP charges, credits, and contract conditions separately from Oncor delivery items.
5. Check the contract term and early termination language.
6. Save the EFL and use the current Oncor tariff when a live enrollment decision is made.

Primary utility references for this page are Oncor — Tariffs and Rate Schedules and Oncor — Delivery Charges 101. The Power to Choose — official shopping guide provides the retail-shopping context. Tariffs, riders, and retail offers can change, so the current EFL and current utility documents control a specific comparison.

How the Oncor snapshot behaves at different monthly usage

Using the June 2026 base components illustrates the mechanics without pretending to calculate a full current bill. The $1.48 customer charge and $2.58 metering charge total $4.06 before any kWh-based distribution amount or separate riders are applied. At 500 kWh, that fixed $4.06 represents a larger effective cents-per-kWh contribution than it does at 2,000 kWh. Meanwhile the $0.036043 distribution-system charge scales directly with consumption. The complete delivery result still requires all effective riders, but this simple decomposition explains why delivery economics are not constant across usage levels.

Move-in requests need both REP and utility context

A new Oncor customer typically selects a REP and requests a service start date through the retailer. The REP handles the retail enrollment, while utility-side work is performed within the Oncor system. If the premise needs a discretionary service action rather than a routine switch, timing and charges can involve utility rules as well as the REP request. Using the exact premise prevents a customer from assuming that a Dallas-area address automatically follows the same process as another nearby location.

Do not compare an Oncor EFL with a CenterPoint screenshot

Price-shopping content often circulates as screenshots that omit the service territory. That can be misleading. The REP name, plan length, and marketing label may match across territories while the average-price table differs because the delivery layer differs. BestEnergyDeal should therefore store or display the territory alongside every plan-level comparison. The household should be able to see that an Oncor result is an Oncor result before judging whether the plan is cheaper than another offer.

Frequently asked questions