Power to Choose sorts by one price. Your bill isn't one price.

By Evan Wakefield · Updated October 20, 2026

Power to Choose is the official Texas site for comparing electricity plans, run by the state's utility regulator. It sorts plans by their price at one usage level. Your bill is twelve months of different usage, and some plans are built to look low at that one level. watt marshal prices plans on your own twelve months instead.

What Power to Choose is

On Power to Choose you enter your ZIP, and it lists plans offered where you live, with each plan's price per kWh, its contract length and a link to its Electricity Facts Label.

The label is the plan's official disclosure, in a standard format the state requires. Among other things, it states the plan's average price at three usage levels: 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh a month. Each is the average price for a month of exactly that usage. The sort uses one of them.

What one price leaves out

One price at one usage level is a fair way to put plans side by side. It isn't your bill. Few homes use exactly that amount in a month, and many use very different amounts in July and in March. A plan's price at one usage level can be far from what it charges at the levels you actually use. Some plans are designed around that one number.

Bill creditsA credit that pays only above a usage line can make a plan look low at the sort point. In a month when you fall short of the line, you pay the full rate.

Minimum-usage chargesSome plans add a fee in any month your usage falls below a line. A small or efficient home can pay it often, and the label's 1,000 kWh price usually doesn't show it.

Tiers and base chargesA rate that changes at a threshold, or a fixed monthly charge, matters differently at different usage. A fixed charge matters more in a mild month.

Contract lengthA short plan and a long one can show similar prices. When a fixed-rate term ends, you pay whatever your provider charges then, unless you pick a new plan.

Early termination feeThe fee for leaving early is on the label, not in the sort. It matters most on a long contract, or if you might move.

What you'd have to do by hand

You can work out what a plan would cost on your usage from Power to Choose and the labels. For every plan in your area, it takes this:

Get your usageTwelve months of kWh from your bills or Smart Meter Texas, not one typical month.

Open every labelFind the energy charge, the base charge, the utility's delivery charges, any credit and the usage it needs, any minimum-usage charge, and any discount that assumes autopay or paperless billing.

Price each monthApply the plan's charges to each of your twelve months. A credit counts only in the months you'd earn it, and a minimum-usage charge only in the months it would apply.

Repeat for every planDo it again for every plan in your delivery area, compare within each contract length, and start over when plans change.

The one price the site sorts by does none of this.

What watt marshal does instead

watt marshal does that work for every fixed-rate plan we can price in your delivery area. We read each plan's Electricity Facts Label and price it on your own twelve months of usage. If you don't have them, we use a home-size pattern or your own monthly average. A credit counts only in the months your usage would earn it. A minimum-usage charge counts only in the months it would apply.

Plans are ranked within each contract length, so a short plan is never set against a long one. Your report links each plan's label, and we read the delivery charge from the utility's filed tariff. You pay once for the report, and no electricity provider pays us.

watt marshal is not affiliated with Power to Choose or the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

Start with your ZIP.

Two minutes to your results. The report is one flat fee, charged once, and nobody but you pays for it.