Electricity providers in Waco, TX

How it works

What you're actually choosing in Waco

In the city of Waco, your provider doesn't own the wires — Oncor does. It owns and maintains the poles, wires, and meter, delivers your power, and restores it after an outage, for every home in its territory regardless of who you buy from. So choosing or switching a retail provider changes your energy rate and plan, not your reliability or your delivery charges.

Here's the Waco-specific catch worth knowing before you shop: not all of McLennan County is on Oncor. Rural areas around Waco are served by electric cooperatives — Heart of Texas Electric Cooperative and HILCO — and co-op members buy power from the co-op and can't choose a retail provider. Most addresses inside the city of Waco are on Oncor and can shop, but the only way to be sure is to confirm your address or check your current bill.

The wires

Waco is served by Oncor Electric Delivery

Whoever you pick as your retail provider, Oncor still owns and maintains the poles, wires, and meter — and restores your power after an outage. Its delivery charges are set by the PUCT and passed through by every provider without markup, so they're identical no matter whose name is on your bill.

The hard part

The plan-type maze

For the Oncor-served majority of Waco, the shopping experience is the same crowded market as the rest of North Texas — more than 70 providers, dozens of plans per ZIP, and the familiar mix of bill-credit and tiered plans whose advertised rate only holds inside a usage band. With triple-digit Central Texas summers (Waco hit a record 90 days at or above 100°F in 2011), missing that band is a real risk. Base removes it: one flat energy rate at any usage, Oncor's delivery passed through without markup, and a flat monthly membership.

Researching a specific provider?

Honest reviews of the big Texas providers

We dug into who owns each major provider, how its plans are structured, what it charges, and what customers actually say — balanced, sourced, and updated. Start with whoever you're weighing in Waco.

Local context

Choosing power in Waco

Waco sits on the Brazos River about halfway between Dallas–Fort Worth and Austin, a city of roughly 146,000 anchored by Baylor University and, increasingly, by the Magnolia brand that Chip and Joanna Gaines built downtown. Its I-35 location has made it one of Central Texas's faster-growing small cities.

For most Waco homes, electricity is straightforward deregulated Oncor territory — you choose your provider, Oncor delivers. After Winter Storm Uri in 2021 left much of Central Texas without power, some homeowners added a home battery: a separate product that backs up your own home during an outage, independent of which provider you choose.