# Compare Power to Choose Electricity Plans for Houston Apartments > Compare Power to Choose electricity plan prices at your expected apartment usage. Learn how base charges, usage fees and credits affect the monthly bill. URL: https://houstonapartmentlocators.com/guide/how-power-to-choose-electricity-plans-actually-price-out/ - [Home](/) - / - [Guides](/guide/) - / - [Moving Concierge & Electricity Setup](/moving-concierge/) - / - How Power to Choose Electricity Plans Actually Price Out Moving Concierge # How Power to Choose Electricity Plans Actually Price Out What a Power to Choose plan really costs depends on how much power you use and the fees it carries. Here's how base charges and bill credits work, and how to compare plans at apartment sized usage. It’s the same plain approach we take on rent. Published August 1, 2026 · Updated October 27, 2026 · 5 min read ## The same approach we take on rent A concession makes an apartment look cheaper than it is by spreading a discount across a term. An electricity plan does something similar by quoting a rate at a usage level you won’t hit. Both are solved the same way: work out what you’ll really pay at your usage or term, rather than taking the number in the ad. That’s the whole method, and it’s how we work across our [moving concierge service](/moving-concierge/). The setup steps are in [choosing a Houston electricity plan on the CenterPoint grid](/guide/choosing-a-houston-electricity-plan-on-the-centerpoint-grid/). ## What’s inside a Texas electricity rate Four parts, and only one of them gets advertised. Energy charge. The price per kWh for the electricity itself. Base charge. A fixed monthly fee regardless of usage, often $5 to $10. This is what wrecks the effective rate at low usage. A $9.95 base charge across 500 kWh adds 2¢ per kWh on its own. Delivery charges. CenterPoint’s charges for getting the power to you. They’re the same for everyone. Some plans fold them into the quoted rate and some don’t. Bill credits or minimum usage charges. The interesting part. A plan might give a $50 credit for any month at 1,000 kWh or more. That makes the headline rate look great at exactly 1,000 kWh and poor at 800. ## A worked comparison Two plans, as they’d appear on a comparison site. Plan A: advertised 9.8¢ per kWh, with a $50 bill credit at 1,000 kWh or more and a $9.95 base charge. Plan B: advertised 12.1¢ per kWh, no bill credit, no base charge. At 1,000 kWh, Plan A looks excellent. At 600 kWh (a realistic spring or fall figure for a one bedroom) the credit doesn’t apply and the base charge spreads across fewer kWh: UsagePlan A effectivePlan B effective600 kWh~15.5¢12.1¢1,000 kWh~9.8¢12.1¢1,400 kWh~10.9¢12.1¢ Plan A wins at high usage and loses at low. The right one for you comes down to your unit size and how you run the air conditioning. Houston has mild spring and fall months and brutal summers, so most renters land in both columns in a single year. The figures above are examples to show the math, not current quotes. Rates change all the time, so check the Electricity Facts Label for the plans you can actually get. Read the Electricity Facts Label Every Texas retail electricity provider must publish one. It shows the average price at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh, the base charge, the contract term, and the early termination fee. One page, all the information, no marketing. ## Estimate your usage first You can’t compare plans without a usage number. Rough Houston guidance: - Studio / small 1BR: 400 to 600 kWh in spring and fall, 800 to 1,100 in peak summer - Standard 1BR: 500 to 800 in spring and fall, 1,000 to 1,400 at peak - 2BR: 700 to 1,000 in spring and fall, 1,300 to 1,800 at peak Older buildings push it up. So do west facing glass and high ceilings. If you’re moving into a loft with fourteen foot ceilings and a wall of windows, plan for the top of the range. ## Traps to watch for Teaser rates that reprice. Some plans advertise a low introductory rate that changes after a few months. Check the term. Early termination fees. Often a flat fee in the low hundreds of dollars, or a set amount for each month left on the contract. Match the plan term to your lease so a move doesn’t trigger one. Automatic renewal onto a variable rate. When a fixed plan ends, some providers roll you onto a much higher variable rate automatically. Put the end date on your calendar. “Free nights” and “free weekends.” These can work if you use most of your power in those hours. They’re expensive if you don’t, since the daytime rate goes up to pay for the free hours. ## The short version Find your realistic usage. Read the Electricity Facts Label at that number. Match the contract term to your lease. Ignore the headline rate entirely. Or hand it to us with the rest of the move in list. Free. The property pays our fee after you sign. So we just tell you which plan fits. Related search ## Moving Concierge & Electricity Setup Free help picking a Houston apartment electricity plan on the CenterPoint grid, plus renters insurance and lease-fee review before move-in. [Learn more about Moving Concierge](/moving-concierge/) Related guides - [Choosing a Houston Electricity Plan on the CenterPoint Grid](/guide/choosing-a-houston-electricity-plan-on-the-centerpoint-grid/) - [Renters Insurance for a Houston Apartment](/guide/renters-insurance-for-a-houston-apartment/) Calculators Run the effective-rent math yourself before you sign anything. [Open the calculators](/calculators/) Common questions ## Questions we get on this ### Why is my bill higher than the advertised rate? Advertised rates assume a usage tier, usually 1,000 or 2,000 kWh. Base charges, minimum usage fees, and bill credits that only kick in above a threshold change the math. Your effective rate at real apartment usage can be far higher than the headline. ### What usage should I compare plans at? Your realistic monthly usage. A Houston one bedroom often runs 500 to 800 kWh outside peak summer and 1,000 to 1,400 in July and August. Compare at both, since the cheapest plan at one tier is often not the cheapest at the other. ### What is the Electricity Facts Label? A one page summary every Texas retail provider has to publish. It shows the average price per kWh at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh, the base charge, the contract term, and the early termination fee. It's the only document worth comparing on. ## Want this applied to a real list? We'll match you to options that fit your move date and budget, and flag the specials and fees worth asking about. Free to you. The property pays our fee after you sign. [Get My Custom List](/get-started/) [Moving Concierge](/moving-concierge/) Contact: [Call (713) 489-2187](tel:+17134892187) · [Email](mailto:hello@houstonapartmentlocators.com) We reply the same day, every day. A custom apartment list can take a day or two, and weekend requests usually get their list on Monday. We locate apartments only.