TDU delivery charges are the pass-through fees your local Transmission and Distribution Utility (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas Central, AEP Texas North, TNMP, or Lubbock Power & Light) collects to move electricity from power plants across the wires to your meter. According to Constellation (2026), retail providers are required to bill these charges without any markup. For the five investor-owned utilities, the rates are set by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), and the PUCT's own rate table as of October 1, 2026 puts delivery on a 1,000 kWh home between $59.27 a month (AEP Texas North) and $85.27 (TNMP).

Updated October 27, 2026: the rate tables, bill math and FAQ below now reflect the delivery-charge changes that took effect between August 1 and October 4, 2026, plus the Lubbock change that starts November 1, 2026. This guide first published August 3, 2026 with June 1, 2026 rates.

Key Takeaways

• Every Texas electric bill is split between a Retail Electric Provider (REP) that sells you power and a TDU that delivers it. Only the REP portion is competitive.
• As of October 1, 2026, the PUCT lists residential delivery at: Oncor $4.06 a month plus 6.0295 cents per kWh, CenterPoint $4.90 plus 6.5333 cents, AEP Texas Central $3.24 plus about 5.7 cents, AEP Texas North $3.24 plus about 5.6 cents, and TNMP $7.56 plus 7.7710 cents.
• Oncor moved again after that table. Effective October 4, 2026, its per-kWh charge rose to 6.8673 cents, which puts a 1,000 kWh Oncor home at $72.73 a month for delivery, according to Oncor's tariff.
• Compared with the June 1, 2026 rates this guide first used, delivery at 1,000 kWh is up $13.87 a month at CenterPoint, $12.75 at TNMP and $7.47 at Oncor, while both AEP Texas utilities edged down slightly.
• Rates don't only change on March 1 and September 1. This fall alone, residential delivery charges changed on eight different dates between August 1 and October 4, 2026, and TNMP adds a one-month surcharge on December bills.
• You cannot switch TDUs (yours is determined by your address), but you can control your kWh use and your REP plan choice. That is where meaningful savings live.

What Changed This Fall: TDU Delivery Charges, June vs. Now

Between August and early October 2026, every PUCT-regulated TDU in the competitive Texas market changed its residential delivery charge at least once. Here is what a 1,000 kWh month costs for delivery alone, before and after.

Sources: June 1, 2026 figures from BKV Energy (2026) and Quick Electricity (2026). Current figures from the PUCT TDU rate table (as of October 1, 2026), Oncor's Tariff for Retail Delivery Service (rider sheets effective October 4, 2026), and the City of Lubbock FY 2026-2027 delivery tariff. The PUCT's AEP Texas figures fold in percentage-of-revenue charges that a simple rate-times-usage figure leaves out, so the AEP change shown is approximate.

Each change has its own story, and we've covered the biggest ones in detail: CenterPoint's three Houston changes in seven weeks, TNMP's rate case and December surcharge, and Lubbock's new $2.50 base charge.

What Are TDU Delivery Charges on a Texas Electric Bill?

TDU delivery charges are the fixed monthly fee and per-kilowatt-hour fee your Transmission and Distribution Utility charges the retail provider to physically deliver electricity to your address. According to TXU Energy (2026), the TDU is the company that maintains the poles, wires, substations, and meter in your area, and the utility is responsible for restoring power after an outage.

The deregulated Texas market splits your electric service into three parts. Generation companies produce the electricity at power plants, wind farms, and solar sites. Transmission and Distribution Utilities own and maintain the physical grid. Retail Electric Providers (like Ambit Energy) buy wholesale power, package it into a plan, and bill you. According to Constellation (2026), the REP is legally required to add the TDU charge to your bill without markup, which is why these fees are called "pass-through" charges.

The important consumer point for Texas households and small businesses: neither Ambit nor any other REP profits from the delivery line item on your bill. That money flows straight to the TDU that keeps the wires up in your neighborhood.

Who Is My TDU? The Utilities That Deliver Electricity in Texas

Your TDU is determined entirely by your service address, not by the retail provider you pick. According to Quick Electricity (2026), the six major Texas utility zones are Oncor, CenterPoint, TNMP, AEP Central, AEP North, and Lubbock Power & Light. All six now sit inside the competitive market that lets you shop for a REP, since Lubbock opened to retail choice in 2024. The PUCT sets delivery rates for the first five. LP&L is city-owned, so the Lubbock City Council approves its delivery rates instead.

Here is where each one delivers power, with residential rates as of October 1, 2026 unless noted:

Sources: PUCT TDU rate table, rates as of October 1, 2026 (the PUCT rounds the AEP Texas per-kWh charges). Oncor October 4 rate from Oncor's Tariff for Retail Delivery Service. Lubbock rates from the City of Lubbock FY 2026-2027 delivery tariff.

Oncor is by far the largest TDU in the state. It delivers electricity to more than 4.1 million homes and businesses across the DFW area and much of North and East Texas, according to Oncor's second quarter 2026 results. If you live in Austin, San Antonio, or another city served by a municipal utility that hasn't opened to competition, you are outside the deregulated market entirely and cannot shop REPs.

What Are the Current 2026 TDU Delivery Charge Rates?

As of October 1, 2026, the PUCT's residential table lists five utilities, and the spread between them is wider than it was in June. TNMP now sits at the top at $85.27 for 1,000 kWh, after its rate case rates took effect September 13. CenterPoint is next at $70.23, after a transmission rider increase on September 1 and an interim distribution rider for meters read on or after September 30. Oncor showed $64.36 on that table, then rose to $72.73 when new rider rates took effect October 4. The two AEP Texas utilities are the least expensive to deliver to, at $60.42 (Central) and $59.27 (North), after final rider rates took effect for bills rendered on and after September 29.

Oncor's bigger story this year is its full base-rate case. According to Oncor (2026), the PUCT approved a final order in Docket 58306 on April 17, 2026, and Oncor's new base rates took effect June 1, 2026. Oncor is also allowed to surcharge the difference between the new rates and the interim rates it billed earlier in the year, which is what Oncor's Rider IS collects through December 2026. Our Oncor Rider IS explainer walks through that surcharge.

How Are TDU Delivery Charges Calculated?

Your TDU delivery charge is the monthly fixed fee plus the per-kilowatt-hour rate multiplied by every kWh you used. That per-kWh rate is really a stack: a base distribution charge set in the utility's last rate case, plus riders the PUCT approves separately to recover specific costs between rate cases. According to Constellation (2026), the main ones include the Transmission Cost Recovery Factor (building and maintaining transmission lines) and the Energy Efficiency Cost Recovery Factor (conservation programs). The Distribution Cost Recovery Factor covers new distribution investment.

Here is how Oncor's residential stack adds up, effective October 4, 2026, from the rider sheets in Oncor's tariff:

Those six lines, before the October 4 change, add up to exactly the 6.0295 cents the PUCT listed for Oncor as of October 1, 2026, so the two sources agree. One more Oncor rider shows up only on December bills: the mobile generation rider, which was 0.1027 cents per kWh effective December 1, 2025. The December 2026 amount hasn't been posted in the tariff yet.

For a plain example, take CenterPoint at 6.5333 cents per kWh (as of October 1, 2026). If you use 1,200 kWh in a month, the volumetric TDU charge is 1,200 x $0.065333, which is $78.40, plus the $4.90 fixed monthly charge, for a total delivery bill of $83.30. Your retail provider then bills you the energy supply portion on top of that, adds any state and city taxes, and prints it all on the same statement.

TDU delivery charges are typically not subject to Texas state sales tax when applied to residential accounts, though some special assessments and municipal fees do show up on the same line depending on your city.

Worked Example: What Do TDU Charges Add to a 1,000 kWh Bill?

At 1,000 kWh per month (roughly the state average residential usage), the same-size Texas home pays very different delivery charges depending on which TDU serves it. Here are the PUCT's own residential bill examples, as of October 1, 2026, with Oncor's October 4 rate and Lubbock's November 1 rate added:

Sources: PUCT residential bill examples (as of October 1, 2026) for TNMP, CenterPoint and AEP Texas. Oncor at 6.8673 cents per kWh effective October 4, 2026. Lubbock from the City of Lubbock FY 2026-2027 delivery tariff, as reported in our Lubbock rate guide.

To see what that means for a whole bill, say your plan's energy charge comes to $110 on a 1,000 kWh month (an illustrative figure, not an Ambit plan price). Add Oncor's $72.73 delivery charge and the bill is $182.73 before taxes, so delivery makes up about 40 percent of it. In TNMP territory, the same energy charge plus $85.27 in delivery comes to $195.27, and delivery is about 44 percent.

The percentages shift with usage. A home using only 500 kWh pays a bigger share of its delivery bill to the fixed monthly charge, while a home using 2,000 kWh pays nearly all of it through the per-kWh rate. According to ElectricRates.org (2026), the statewide TDU-related portion of a typical residential bill lands between 40 and 46 percent when you add fixed and variable components together. For a broader look at how the pieces add up, see our guide to the average Texas electricity bill.

Why Do TDU Delivery Charges Change So Often?

Transmission rider (TCRF) updates are built around a twice-a-year schedule, and the formula in Oncor's tariff is written around March 1 and September 1 updates. In practice, Oncor's own transmission rider moved on August 1 and October 4 this year. And that's only one rider. Distribution riders, interim rates, rate case settlements and the newer tracker filings each have their own timing, so a fixed-rate energy plan can see its delivery line move in almost any month. When your bill suddenly moves up or down, the delivery line is almost always where to look first. Our earlier reporting on the June 2026 TDU delivery-charge change walks through what showed up on Texas summer bills.

Fall 2026 shows how often that can happen. Residential delivery charges changed on these dates:

• August 1: Oncor's transmission rider fell from 2.3580 to 1.9046 cents per kWh (effective August 1, 2026).
• August 15: CenterPoint's per-kWh charge dipped after an emergency-generation rider cut.
• September 1: CenterPoint's transmission rider nearly doubled.
• September 2: TNMP's per-kWh charge rose ahead of its rate case.
• September 13: TNMP's rate case rates took effect.
• September 29: AEP Texas final rider rates took effect for bills rendered on and after that date.
• September 30: CenterPoint's interim distribution rider applied to meters read on or after that date.
• October 4: Oncor's transmission and distribution riders rose.

The bigger, less frequent adjustments come through full base-rate cases. Oncor filed its most recent case in 2025, and the PUCT approved a final order on April 17, 2026 (Docket 58306), according to Oncor's official rate case page (2026). CenterPoint has been just as active. According to Click2Houston (2026), CenterPoint filed 10 separate rate requests with the PUC starting in 2025, and nine of them were approved.

Over a longer stretch, the climb is clear. Oncor's residential transmission rider alone went from 1.4176 cents per kWh effective March 1, 2020 to 2.1669 cents effective October 4, 2026, about 53 percent higher, according to the rate history printed in Oncor's tariff. Lawmakers are paying attention. On September 30, 2026, the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee held an interim hearing on "Modernizing Transmission and Enhancing Affordability." It ran about nine hours, senators pressed for competitive bidding and cost controls, and no votes were taken, according to The Texas Dispatch (October 2, 2026).

The demand growth behind these cases is real. ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas has spoken publicly about the pressure new data centers and load growth are putting on the grid, per The Texas Tribune (2025). Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, has cautioned that some of ERCOT's demand forecasts may be aggressive, per the same Tribune reporting. And Doug Lewin, founder of Stoic Energy, has repeatedly criticized ERCOT's forecasting assumptions in the same coverage. Whether or not the growth projections are correct, the TDU capital plans (Oncor announced a $47.5 billion 2026-2030 base capital plan, per Oncor 2026) are already reshaping the delivery rate outlook.

Do Free Nights and Weekends Plans Still Have TDU Delivery Charges?

Yes, TDU delivery charges apply during "free" hours on a free-nights or free-weekends plan. The energy supply portion is what the REP zeroes out during the promotional window. The delivery pass-through keeps ticking regardless of the plan type.

For a household running the dishwasher, laundry, and EV charging on an Oncor free-nights plan, the meter still logs every kWh, and Oncor still bills the REP 6.8673 cents per kWh (effective October 4, 2026) for those delivered electrons plus the $4.06 monthly fixed charge. The REP passes that to the customer without markup, then charges zero cents on the energy line for the free-hour usage. On big overnight loads, this still comes out well ahead of a flat-rate plan, but it is not literally free.

If you want to see whether the math on a free-nights plan pencils out for your household, our Free Nights Plan Calculator works through the actual numbers by ZIP code and usage profile.

Why Your Fixed-Rate Bill Fluctuates: The TDU Pass-Through Reality

A fixed-rate REP contract locks in your energy supply rate, not necessarily your delivery rate. When a customer signs a 12-month or 24-month fixed-rate plan, Texas law still lets the price change for actual changes in TDU charges, ERCOT or Texas RE administrative fees, or changes in law, under the fixed rate product definition in Section 39.112 of the Texas Utilities Code. The TDU portion is regulated separately and, as this fall showed, can move several times during the life of a contract.

According to Constellation (2026), this is why a fixed-rate customer occasionally sees the average price on their Electricity Facts Label move a fraction of a cent between billing cycles. The retail supply rate is holding steady. The delivery pass-through is doing the drifting. It is worth calling out to Texas families who assume "fixed" means the whole bill is locked. It does not. It means the piece the REP controls is locked, which is still a meaningful portion of the bill.

The line-by-line breakdown is right on your statement. Our full walkthrough of every line item is here: How to Read Your Texas Electricity Bill: Every Line Item Explained.

The 4-Lever TDU Offset Playbook

Since you cannot negotiate TDU delivery rates, the practical question for Texas households is how to blunt their impact on your monthly bill. We use a straightforward 4-Lever TDU Offset Playbook with Ambit customers who want to keep their total electric spend manageable:

1. Usage Lever. The TDU charges you for every kWh delivered. Cutting 100 kWh a month at Oncor's rate of 6.8673 cents per kWh (effective October 4, 2026) saves about $6.87 on the delivery line alone before the REP portion is even counted. In TNMP territory, the same cut saves about $7.77. High-efficiency HVAC, smart thermostats, and tightening the envelope of a Texas home all pull real dollars out of the TDU line every billing cycle.
2. Timing Lever. If your household can shift big loads (laundry, dishwasher, EV charging, pool pump) into free-hour windows on a free-nights or free-weekends plan, the REP portion of those kWh drops to zero. The TDU portion still applies, but the total per-kWh rate falls sharply during those hours.
3. Plan Lever. REPs offer very different structures: fixed-rate, variable, indexed, prepaid, and bill-credit plans. A bill-credit plan tuned to a household's actual usage band can offset the TDU portion by baking a credit into every bill in the target range. Match the plan type to how the meter actually reads, not to marketing headlines. Our Texas electricity plans guide walks through each plan type in plain language.
4. Length Lever. When wholesale power and REP supply rates are running below TDU pace, locking in a longer fixed-rate contract insulates the supply side of your bill for the length of the term. The delivery portion still moves, but your supply rate does not follow.

The right combination depends on the family, the home, and the TDU territory. A Certified VIP Consultant can walk through the plan options in your ZIP code and help you pick the mix that fits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are Oncor TDU delivery charges so high?

Oncor's per-kWh charge rose to 6.8673 cents effective October 4, 2026, when higher transmission and distribution riders took effect, and a temporary interim surcharge from its 2026 base-rate case applies through December 2026. At 1,000 kWh that's $72.73 a month for delivery, which is above CenterPoint and the two AEP Texas utilities but still below TNMP. Oncor delivers to more than 4.1 million homes and businesses, and grid expansion for population growth and data center demand is a real driver behind its capital spending.

How can I avoid TDU delivery charges?

You cannot avoid them completely on a grid-connected home. Every deregulated Texas customer pays their local TDU for delivery. What you can do is reduce total kWh (energy efficiency), shift usage into free-hour windows on the right plan, or install solar-plus-storage that offsets grid draw during the day.

Who has the lowest TDU charges in Texas?

Based on the PUCT's table as of October 1, 2026, AEP Texas North costs the least to deliver to at $59.27 for 1,000 kWh, followed by AEP Texas Central at $60.42. Both AEP utilities also have the smallest fixed monthly charge at $3.24. TNMP is the most expensive on both counts, at $7.56 a month and $85.27 for 1,000 kWh. CenterPoint, which had the smallest per-kWh charge in June, now sits in the middle at $70.23.

What is the average TDU charge on a Texas electric bill?

On a 1,000 kWh residential bill, TDU delivery runs $59.27 to $85.27 a month depending on the utility, based on the PUCT's table as of October 1, 2026, and Oncor is $72.73 since October 4, 2026. That is roughly 40 to 46 percent of a typical total bill, based on the ElectricRates.org (2026) statewide range.

Are TDU delivery charges taxable?

Residential TDU delivery charges are generally not subject to Texas state sales tax on residential accounts, though certain municipal fees and gross receipts assessments can appear on the same line depending on the city.

Do TDU delivery charges apply to solar customers?

Yes, whenever a solar home draws from the grid, the TDU bills for delivery on every imported kWh. Solar buyback plans credit exported kWh against the REP portion of the bill, not against the TDU delivery line.

The Bottom Line for Texas Households

TDU delivery charges are the least glamorous part of a Texas electric bill and the piece nobody can shop away, but they are also the piece most families never look at closely. Knowing the current rate for your utility (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP, TNMP or LP&L), understanding why it can move several times a year, and picking a REP plan that offsets what you cannot control is how a Texas household stays ahead of the delivery-side drift.

If you want a straight look at whether your current plan is working with your TDU or against it, contact a Certified VIP Consultant with your last two bills. We will walk through the delivery line together and match a plan to your actual usage. That is the piece the REP controls, and it is the piece we can move.

Plan details and rates subject to change. Energy facts label available for every Ambit plan. Subject to credit approval. Visit ambitenergy.com for full plan terms.