Every electricity company in Texas: the state’s full list (2026)

It depends on what you count. The state’s list says 141. Fewer of them still hold a live license, fewer still sell to homes, and only about one in four posts plans on Power to Choose.

Why is the state’s list so much longer than the shopping site? Many licenses never serve homes. Option 2 and 3 licenses, 51 in all, sell only to big customers, and they include names like Dow Pipeline, Olin and Morgan Stanley Capital Group. Some home sellers skip Power to Choose and sell on their own sites. And four companies on the list can’t sell at all anymore, because the PUCT ended their licenses without taking them off.

Almost half the list is new. Of the 141 licenses, 64 were granted in 2021 or later, starting the year of Winter Storm Uri. Only 14 go back to 2001. The three oldest belong to TXU Energy (Jan 2, 2001), Reliant (Jan 5) and Green Mountain (Jan 29). The newest licenses that allow home sales went to Distributed Power and Virtual Energy Supply in August 2026.

Brand names pile up, too. One license can use up to five names, and the PUCT counts 159 of them across the list. Eight licenses use all five, while 81 use none.

Type a brand, a legal name or a license number. Then narrow the list by who sells to homes, your utility area, the state’s complaint rating, prepaid plans or owner.

Want our verdicts instead of the raw list? See the ones we scored: 25 companies rated out of 100 from public records, as of Oct 16, 2026. Our score is one formula run on public records. It is not a finding about any company. See how we score. To see complaint counts or file a complaint, go to Texas electricity company complaints.

More than you’d guess. Seven parent companies own 24 of the licenses, and they sell under dozens of brand names. We list only links we found in SEC filings, PUCT records or a company’s own papers.

Here’s why that matters. In each of the five big utility areas, 9 of the 15 companies that sell the most power to homes belong to NRG or Vistra. Yet those two families post only about 17% of the plans on Power to Choose. If you shop only names you know, you may be picking between sister companies.

• Cirro and Discount Power share one license, US Retailers LLC (#10177), an NRG company. Pennywise Power and Compassion Energy sit on it, too.
• 4Change, Express and Veteran Energy all sell under Value Based Brands LLC (#10041), which Vistra owns.
• Payless Power’s license, Young Energy LLC (#10110), also carries Cost Plus Power, Mio Electric, SmarTricity and Uno Energy.
• Acacia Energy, Now Power, Snap Energy Latino and Vital Power share Brooklet Energy Distribution LLC (#10137).
• Tara is on two licenses. Tara Energy and Smart Prepaid Electric use #10051. Tara Energy Resources and Tara Power use #10081, the license behind Amigo Energy. Both are in the IGS group.

Owners also share a safety net. In the PUCT’s backup-provider records, NRG’s companies asked the state to let Reliant serve as the backup on their behalf. Vistra’s companies named TXU Energy, and Amigo’s license named Just Energy Texas.

It means the PUCT checked the company’s money, staff and Texas office before letting it sell power. It isn’t a grade for price or service. Under Texas law, a company needs one to sell you electricity in the open market.

What it takes to get a license that allows home sales

• Know-how: managers with at least 15 years of combined electric or gas industry work, plus one officer with 5 years of managing energy price risk.
• A Texas office, open during business hours, for customer service.
• Money in reserve: a $750,000 letter of credit, or $1.5 million once it serves 50,000 meters or more. A backer worth $100 million or more can stand in.
• Owner equity of at least $1 million for its first 24 months of serving customers.
• Your money protected: 100% of customer deposits, and prepayments of $50 or more.
• Grid tests and reports: it must pass ERCOT’s market tests and file reports each March 5 and August 15.

Once an application is complete, the PUCT has 90 days to rule on it. The bar rose in April 2023. Before then, a $500,000 letter of credit was enough, and the new rule also keeps some people from controlling a company, such as those who ran one whose customers had to be moved to a backup provider.

Check any company’s license in 4 steps

1. 1
   Find its number

   Texas rules make a company print its PUCT license number on its website, its terms of service and its outdoor ads. Door-to-door sellers must wear a badge that shows it.

2. 2
   Look it up

   Type the number in the search box above, or open the company’s PUCT record. You’ll see its legal name, license type, start date and every brand name.

3. 3
   Match the names

   The legal name and number on your fact label should match the record. Amigo’s site, for example, reads “Fulcrum Retail Energy, LLC dba Amigo Energy | PUCT #10081.”

4. 4
   Check for an end date

   The state’s list can lag. For a company that isn’t on Power to Choose, search the PUCT’s filings for an order that revokes or ends its license.

A company can also lose its license. PUCT rules list reasons such as switching or billing people without their OK, falling short on money rules, or leaving bills from ERCOT or a delivery utility unpaid. A company that serves no customers for two years in a row must give its license up.

Your lights stay on. ERCOT, which runs most of the Texas grid, moves you to a backup company called a provider of last resort. The backup price can be steep, though, so plan to pick a new plan fast.

Since then, companies on the way out have mostly sold their customers instead. OnPoint Energy sold its customers to Good Charlie in early 2024. Declaration Energy moved its customers to three NRG companies that spring: US Retailers, Green Mountain and Reliant. Texpo Power’s went to US Retailers and Direct Energy Business in August 2023. Before a company stops serving you, the rules say it must warn you at least 45 days ahead.

Who would catch you in 2027 and 2028

On Oct 9, 2026, the PUCT approved the backup companies for the next two years. TXU Energy volunteered to take homes in all five big utility areas. Customers past what a volunteer agreed to take go to each area’s 15 biggest home sellers, in proportion to their sales.

Through all of this, your delivery utility keeps your power flowing and fixes outages, no matter who sends the bill. If the lights go out, here’s how to report a power outage.

Dozens. From January 2021 to Oct 16, 2026, PUCT orders ended at least 68 retail electricity licenses. Companies gave up 55 of them, and the state revoked 13.

The exits mix home sellers with banks and energy traders. Merrill Lynch Commodities, Citigroup Energy and J.P. Morgan Ventures Energy all gave up licenses in 2025. Some old names are gone, too. First Choice Power gave up its license in January 2024, and Pulse Power did in June 2026.

Still on the list, but the license has ended

Unpaid bills were at the heart of three of these cases. A retail company owes the delivery utility for every bill, even when its customers don’t pay. Declaration left $3.87 million unpaid to four utilities. OnPoint left $1.32 million, and its utilities got back about 38 cents on the dollar. In an order approving Texpo’s request to give up its license, the PUCT found that Texpo had not paid four utilities $1.03 million ($686,000 after deposits) and had not filed the $750,000 letter of credit due Mar 5, 2024.

Anywhere a city utility, a co-op or a regulated utility runs the whole show. There, one local utility delivers and bills your power, and none of the companies above can sell to you.

How many such utilities are there? The PUCT’s contact files list 73 city utilities and 76 co-ops, though those files also include power suppliers that serve other utilities instead of homes. In the greater Houston area alone, the PUCT counts 32 co-ops and 30 city-owned utilities.

Lubbock is the big exception. Since March 4, 2024, homes on Lubbock Power & Light lines can pick a company, and 30 names posted plans there on Oct 16, 2026. Homes on South Plains Electric Co-op lines still buy from the co-op.

Not sure which kind you have? The first 7 digits of the ESI ID on your bill name your utility. Our guide to who your electric utility is decodes it, and we cover Austin Energy, CPS Energy, El Paso Electric, Entergy Texas and Lubbock one by one.

A license tells you a company is legal. It doesn’t tell you its price. Enter your ZIP to see the plans at your address side by side, then sign up in a few minutes.

Prices by city: Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth electricity rates. Delivery charges by utility: Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas and TNMP. Moving soon? Start with how to set up electricity, or get power the same day.

Short answers from state records, dated where it matters.

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