CenterPoint Energy · Houston-area TDU

CenterPoint Energy: service area, rates, and how it works

CenterPoint Energy owns the poles, wires, and meter across Greater Houston and delivers your power. It doesn't sell electricity — you choose the retail provider. Here's what CenterPoint does, what it charges, and how to find your meter.

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Researched and written by the Base Power team · Last updated May 27, 2026

How we source this: delivery charges are taken from the utility's PUCT-approved tariff and the PUCT monthly rate reports, and verified against the published bill examples. Rates reset on a schedule — we link the sources so you can check the current numbers.

The short version

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric is the wires company for Greater Houston and the upper Gulf Coast — about 2.5–2.6 million metered homes and businesses. CenterPoint doesn't sell electricity and you can't choose it; it's set by your address. It charges a PUCT-regulated delivery rate (about 5.15¢/kWh plus $4.90/month as of June 1, 2026) that every retail provider passes through at cost, so it's identical no matter who you buy power from. You choose your retail provider — like Base — which sets the energy rate and sends your bill.

Wires vs. retail

How CenterPoint works

In Greater Houston your bill is really two services bundled together. CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric is the TDU (transmission & distribution utility) — the regulated company that owns the poles, wires, substations and the meter on your house, delivers your power, and restores it after an outage. You don't choose your TDU and can't switch away from it: if your address is in CenterPoint's territory, CenterPoint delivers your power no matter what.

Separately, you choose a retail electric provider (REP) — a competitive company like Base — that you sign up with, that buys the electricity, and that sends your bill. The REP sets the energy price; CenterPoint sets the PUCT-approved delivery charges. On your bill the TDU delivery portion is a pass-through that's the same for every Houston home regardless of which REP you pick. A transparent REP passes CenterPoint's charges straight through with no markup and adds only its own energy rate and membership. So when you switch providers, the wires, the meter, the lineworkers and the outage response all stay CenterPoint — only the company you buy electricity from changes.

Parent company

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP)

Headquarters

Houston, Texas

Delivers to

~2.5M meters

Service area

5,000+ sq mi

History: CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric traces to Houston Lighting & Power (HL&P), the area's integrated utility for most of the 20th century. When Texas deregulated under Senate Bill 7, the integrated utility was unbundled (2002–2003) into competitive generation, a competitive retailer, and the regulated wires company that became CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC. Its sole regulated role since has been to own and operate the wires that deliver power across Greater Houston, while customers buy electricity from competing REPs.

PUCT-regulated delivery

CenterPoint delivery charges

CenterPoint's delivery charge is set by the PUCT, not your retail provider, so it's identical for every Houston-area customer. The PUCT updates it on a schedule (usually around March 1 and September 1, sometimes with interim adjustments), so the exact number can change a couple of times a year — always confirm it on the EFL.

Volumetric charge

5.1461¢

per kWh delivered

Fixed monthly

$4.90

$2.11 customer + $2.79 metering

At 1,000 kWh

$56.36

estimated monthly delivery, before your energy rate

CenterPoint Houston Electric applies a single residential delivery schedule across its territory. PUCT bill math: 500 kWh ≈ $30.63, 1,000 kWh ≈ $56.36, 2,000 kWh ≈ $107.82.

Effective June 1, 2026; verified against the PUCT rate report on May 27, 2026. TDU rates reset periodically — your plan's Electricity Facts Label shows the exact current figure.

Where it delivers

CenterPoint service area

CenterPoint's electric delivery territory spans roughly 5,000+ square miles across Greater Houston — Harris County plus Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Liberty, Montgomery, Waller and Wharton counties — about a quarter of the ERCOT competitive retail market.

Texas cities Base serves in CenterPoint territory

Larger cities in CenterPoint territory

Houston
Pasadena
Pearland
Sugar Land
Baytown
Missouri City
League City
Conroe
The Woodlands
Galveston
Texas City
Katy
Friendswood
Spring
Cypress
Tomball

Service areas are set by your address, not your city name — neighboring streets can be on different utilities. Your ESI ID is the reliable test (see below).

Storms & restoration

Reliability and outages

CenterPoint reports that in a typical (non-major-storm) year a Houston-area customer sees on the order of one outage lasting roughly 1.5–2 hours. After the 2024 storm season, CenterPoint launched a Systemwide Resiliency Plan; through mid-2025 the company reported roughly a 45% reduction in customer outage minutes versus the same period in 2024, plus tens of thousands of storm-hardened poles and hundreds of miles of line moved underground. (These are company-reported figures.)

May 16, 2024 Houston derecho: a windstorm with ~100 mph gusts knocked out power to roughly 1 million customers and downed thousands of poles; the public outage map went offline during the event.
July 8, 2024 Hurricane Beryl: a Category 1 landfall drove the largest outage in company history — about 2.2 million CenterPoint customers lost power, with roughly 1 million still out two days later in a heat advisory. The slow restoration prompted a PUCT investigation and the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative.
February 2021 Winter Storm Uri: CenterPoint implemented ERCOT-directed rotating outages during the statewide grid emergency, leaving many Houston-area customers without power for extended periods.

If your power is out

Report outages and track restoration with CenterPoint, not your retail provider, because CenterPoint owns and repairs the grid. Use the outage tracker at tracker.centerpointenergy.com/map or call 713-207-2222 (toll-free 800-332-7143). If you have a Base home battery, it can keep your own home powered during an outage, but broader grid restoration is still CenterPoint's responsibility.

CenterPoint outage map → Call 800-332-7143

Your meter ID

Finding your ESI ID in CenterPoint territory

Your ESI ID (Electric Service Identifier, or ESIID) is a permanent number that identifies your service address on the ERCOT grid. In CenterPoint's territory it begins with the prefix 1008901. It stays the same even if your meter is replaced or you switch providers, and it's how a new provider locates your address. You'll find it on a current bill, via CenterPoint's address lookup, or it'll be pulled automatically during enrollment.

Look up your address

Enter your address and we'll match it to your meter and your local utility, then show your Base rate. (Exact pricing always lives on the Electricity Facts Label.)

CenterPoint FAQs

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC delivers electricity to virtually all of Greater Houston and the upper Gulf Coast — about 2.5–2.6 million metered homes and businesses. As the regulated TDU it owns the poles, wires, substations and your meter. You cannot choose or switch your TDU; it's determined by your address. What you can choose is your retail electric provider (REP) — the competitive company you sign up with and pay. No matter which REP you pick, CenterPoint still delivers the power and responds to outages.

As of June 1, 2026, CenterPoint's residential delivery charge is a flat $4.90 per month plus about 5.15¢ per kilowatt-hour. (The $4.90 is itemized as a $2.11 customer charge plus a $2.79 metering charge.) On a 1,000 kWh month that's about $56.36 in delivery charges. These charges are set by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, not your retail provider, so they're identical for every Houston-area customer, and the PUCT updates them on a schedule (usually around March 1 and September 1).

It shouldn't. TDU delivery charges are regulated pass-through costs that are the same regardless of provider. A transparent REP — like Base Power Company (Base Texas REP, LLC; PUCT #10338) — passes CenterPoint's delivery charges straight through with no markup, and charges you only its own energy rate (Base's starts at 8¢/kWh) plus a flat monthly membership. Always confirm the exact, current pricing on the provider's Electricity Facts Label.

Report outages and track restoration with CenterPoint, not your retail provider, because CenterPoint owns and repairs the grid. Use the online tracker at tracker.centerpointenergy.com/map, or call 713-207-2222 (toll-free 800-332-7143). If you have a Base home battery, it can keep your own home powered during an outage, but the broader grid restoration is still CenterPoint's responsibility.

Your ESI ID (Electric Service Identifier) is a permanent number that identifies your specific service address in the ERCOT market. In CenterPoint's Houston territory it begins with the prefix 1008901. It stays the same even if your meter is replaced or you switch providers, and it's how a new provider locates your address. You'll find it on a current electricity bill, via CenterPoint's address lookup, or it'll be pulled automatically during enrollment.

Other Texas utilities

Shopping by city instead? See electricity rates by city or how to choose a provider.

You can obtain important standardized information that will allow you to compare this product with other offers. Contact Base Power at 512-518-1009 or basepowercompany.com.

CenterPoint delivers it — Base prices it

Same CenterPoint wires, same regulated delivery charges, passed through with no markup — plus a flat 8¢/kWh energy rate and a flat $19–$29/mo membership. No teaser pricing or bill-credit games.

Sources

Plan documents: Electricity Facts Label (EFL) · Terms of Service & Your Rights as a Customer. Products and pricing are offered to qualified customers in Texas only.