Who Provides Utilities in Texas?

There's no single answer in Texas — and that's by design. Most of the state is deregulated for electricity: a delivery utility like Oncor owns the wires while you choose your own retail plan. A handful of big cities (Austin, San Antonio) run municipal utilities instead. Gas, water and sewer are local in every city. Your address decides all of it.

Free lookup · covers electric, gas, water & sewer · takes about a minute

The Texas electric map — and why it's blurry

Where each electric provider led our address-level sampling. Hover a city for its provider; click through for the full guide. Tap a legend entry to trace one provider across the state.

Oncor 11 AEP Texas 3 City-run & local utilities 8 Split territory 1
Each dot is a Texas city we sampled, shaded by the electric provider that led our results there. The colors bleed on purpose: real utility territories don't follow clean lines, and two homes on the same street can land on different sides of one. Your address is the only reliable answerlook yours up.

The most common providers across 23 Texas cities

From our address-level sampling of 23 Texas cities (2026-07-20). "Most common in" counts the cities where that provider was the leading answer.

UtilityProviderMost common in
⚡ Electricity Oncor Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Irving, Grand Prairie, Killeen, Mesquite, Waco, Midland, Round Rock
AEP Texas Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen
CenterPoint Energy Houston
🔥 Natural gas Atmos Energy Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Lubbock, Irving, Garland, Frisco, Amarillo, Grand Prairie, Killeen, Denton, Mesquite, Waco, Midland
Texas Gas Service Austin, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Round Rock
CenterPoint Energy Houston
💧 Water City of Houston Houston
San Antonio Water System San Antonio
Dallas Water Utility Dallas

How Texas electricity actually works

In most of Texas, two different companies stand between you and your lights. A transmission and distribution utility (TDU) — Oncor in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, CenterPoint Energy around Houston, and others — owns the poles, wires and meters. TDUs deliver power and fix outages, and you never get to pick yours: it's determined entirely by your address. Separately, you choose a retail electricity provider, which is the company that sells you a plan and sends the bill.

The exceptions matter: Austin (Austin Energy), San Antonio (CPS Energy) and co-op territories opted out of deregulation, so residents there sign up directly with one utility and never shop for plans. Moving between these two worlds is exactly when people get confused — which is why checking your specific address beats any general rule.

Texas utility providers by city

City-by-city breakdowns of who provides electricity, gas, water and sewer:

Texas utility questions, answered

Who is my electric provider in Texas?

It depends on where you live — Texas has no statewide electric company. In most metro areas a transmission and distribution utility (TDU) such as Oncor or CenterPoint Energy owns the wires, and you separately choose a retail electricity plan. Cities like Austin and San Antonio instead have municipal utilities that handle everything. Enter your address in the lookup to see exactly who serves your home.

Can I choose my electricity provider in Texas?

Most Texans can. About 85% of the state is in the deregulated market, where you pick a retail electricity plan and the local TDU delivers the power. The big exceptions are municipal-utility cities (Austin Energy, CPS Energy in San Antonio) and electric co-op territory, where the utility that serves your address is your only option.

Who provides water in Texas cities?

Water is almost always local: each city runs its own water utility, and many suburbs are served by municipal utility districts (MUDs) or special water districts instead. That's why the water row changes more often than any other when you look up different addresses in the same metro.

How do I find all the utility providers for a Texas address?

Use the address lookup on this page. It checks your exact address against utility territory data and returns your electric, gas, water and sewer providers with phone numbers and sign-up links — more reliable than any city-level list, including this one.

Skip the guesswork

Enter your Texas address and get your exact electric, gas, water and sewer providers.

Find my providers

Provider data comes from our address-level utility lookup engine, aggregated from geographically spread sample addresses in each Texas city. Data refreshed 2026-07-20. Territories vary address by address — always confirm yours with the lookup. Read how we verify provider data.