How mandatory ERCOT REP enrollment and POLR assignment work
Inside competitive ERCOT TDU footprints, retail choice is mandatory rather than optional. A laundromat on Oncor, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, AEP Texas Central, AEP Texas North, or Texas-New Mexico Power must contract with a PUCT-certified Retail Electric Provider for supply or be assigned to the Provider of Last Resort product. Those TDUs never sell bundled retail energy in that footprint.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas certifies REPs and publishes plan-selection guidance at https://www.puc.texas.gov/consumer-help/electricity/electric-plan/. Certification materials live at https://www.puc.texas.gov/industry/electric/business/rep/. POLR is a safety-net supply product administered after you fail to choose, not a TDU tariff you elect the way some states elect SSO.
Houston and Dallas city pages on this site walk through CenterPoint and Oncor ESIDs, but the statewide mechanic is the same: supply is the REP commodity and delivery remains the TDU. Switching REPs changes the Electricity Facts Label, not who owns the feeder or who rolls a truck after a storm.
Shop commercial products on https://www.powertochoose.org/ with the ESID printed on the bill. Residential teasers will not match a coin-laundry meter class. After enrollment, the same TDU still delivers power and restores outages regardless of which REP logo prints at the top of the invoice.
Railroad Commission LDCs and the missing statewide gas portal
Electric retail choice in ERCOT has no gas twin. The Railroad Commission of Texas regulates local distribution companies that sell both commodity and delivery under LDC tariffs. Operators looking for a Power to Choose equivalent for dryer therms will not find a statewide marketer shopping site.
Railroad Commission natural-gas price FAQs at https://www.rrc.texas.gov/about-us/faqs/gas-services-faq/natural-gas-prices-faqs/ explain how LDC gas service is priced and regulated. That framework is bundled utility service, not a certified-marketer marketplace you filter by ZIP.
Dual-fuel stores therefore keep two procurement tracks: a PUCT REP contract for washers, lighting, HVAC, and any electric water heat, plus an RRC-regulated LDC bill for gas dryers and water heaters. You cannot assume Pennsylvania-style PAGasSwitch shopping applies after you move a brand into Houston or Dallas.
When a seller or landlord quotes 'the gas rate,' ask which LDC holds the meter and which commercial schedule applies. Commodity and delivery sit on that LDC invoice. Switching REPs never rewrites the gas bill, and there is no POLR-style gas shopping mandate at the state level.
TDU footprints versus municipal, cooperative, and non-ERCOT islands
The competitive map is TDU-shaped, not city-shaped. Oncor covers a wide North Texas and West Texas wires footprint. CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric covers the Gulf Coast urban core. AEP Texas Central, AEP Texas North, and TNMP cover other ERCOT counties. Lubbock Power & Light joined the ERCOT competitive market and should be verified by ESID, not by mailing city.
Austin Energy and CPS Energy are municipal utilities. Stores inside those city systems buy bundled electric from the muni and cannot shop Power to Choose the way a Plano Oncor or Houston CenterPoint meter can. Most electric cooperatives remain outside the mandatory REP rule even when they sit near an ERCOT TDU feeder.
El Paso Electric and Entergy Texas operate outside ERCOT. Those fully regulated utilities are not Power to Choose shopping territories. A multi-site owner who benchmarks every store against an ERCOT Electricity Facts Label will mis-state both supply options and delivery riders on those non-ERCOT accounts.
Confirm the wires company on page one of the bill and through TDU ESID lookup before you compare REPs. A 'Dallas' or 'Austin' mailing label is not proof of Oncor or of municipal service. The PUCT home page at https://www.puc.texas.gov/ is the starting point for competitive-market rules, not a substitute for the name on the meter.
Reading a commercial invoice: TDSP delivery versus REP energy
A typical competitive bill consolidates TDU delivery and REP energy under one logo. Pull the TDSP or TDU delivery block first—transmission cost recovery, distribution, and other PUCT-approved riders that apply equally across REPs at the same meter class. Those lines are delivery, not supplier markup.
The Electricity Facts Label describes the REP product: fixed, indexed, or other disclosed structure, plus term length and early-termination language. Compare EFL to EFL only after you have isolated delivery. A lower energy line that ignores rising TDSP riders can still raise the total due.
Storm and infrastructure riders belong with the TDU. Attribute them to Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, or TNMP when you benchmark suppliers, not to whichever REP mailed the invoice. After a switch, those delivery labels persist while the REP name and energy product change.
Keep the ESID, meter class, and TDU outage number on a shop card separate from REP billing support. Delivery restoration stays with the TDU. Billing disputes about the energy product stay with the REP. Mixing those phones is the most common post-switch operational error on 24/7 laundry shifts.
Summer cooling, dryer therms, and dual-fuel laundry plants
Statewide, coin laundries combine a relatively steady washer and lighting baseload with weather-sensitive HVAC and makeup air. Gulf Coast humidity lengthens dryer tumble times and keeps cooling online for long operating hours. North Texas summer peaks can introduce demand-related terms on some commercial products. Neither climate pattern creates a published kWh average you should treat as your store.
Gas dryers and gas water heaters ride the RRC LDC tariff, not the REP contract. Model electric kWh and gas therms as separate commodities. Equipment change-outs that shift dryers from gas to electric, or the reverse, change which bill carries the swing—they do not create a gas shopping portal.
Use twelve months of your own interval or monthly history when you compare Electricity Facts Labels. Night-heavy stores care about off-peak product structures; daytime drop-off stores care about coinciding with cooling peaks. Do not import a Houston city-page humidity story onto an Amarillo Oncor meter or a Corpus Christi AEP Texas site without looking at that ESID's history.
Contract start months that overlap the longest cooling season lock in kWh exposure for the entire term. Align EFL start dates with lease and equipment-finance horizons, then re-check TDSP rider changes at each renewal. The TDU still delivers after you sign; only the supply product is what you shop.
Multi-TDU mistakes: Houston, Dallas, El Paso, and municipal Austin
A quote built on a Dallas Oncor ESID cannot price a Houston CenterPoint meter. TDSP schedules, storm-rider histories, and commercial class labels differ even though both cities sit inside ERCOT mandatory choice. Treat the Houston and Dallas city pages as local walkthroughs, then rebuild the delivery benchmark whenever the TDU name changes.
El Paso Electric and Entergy Texas accounts are not ERCOT REP shopping problems. Do not drop those stores into a Power to Choose workbook and assume POLR or EFL rules apply. Fully regulated bundled service means the utility sells supply and delivery together under that utility's tariffs.
Austin-area and San Antonio-area portfolios often mix municipal meters with nearby TDU meters. An Austin Energy store cannot enroll on the same REP product as a suburban Oncor or CenterPoint location. Confirm each ESID before you sign a multi-site confirmation or a portfolio Letter of Authorization.
Cooperative pockets and Lubbock Power & Light competitive status are address-level facts. Fringe ZIPs with a big-city mailing address still need ESID proof. One POLR assignment on a neglected vacant meter can also surprise a buyer at closing—check whether each account ever selected a REP.
Texas operator checklist before you lock a REP term
Work statewide, meter by meter. Identify the TDU or the exempt utility first, then decide whether Power to Choose shopping even applies. Only ERCOT TDU ESIDs belong in a REP comparison. Municipal, cooperative, El Paso Electric, and Entergy Texas accounts follow different rules.
Split every sample bill into TDSP delivery versus REP energy before you rank Electricity Facts Labels. Match commercial—not residential—product class. Calendar the POLR risk on any account that never chose a supplier, especially recently purchased or previously vacant stores.
File TDU outage contacts separately from REP customer service. After the first two bills under a new REP, confirm delivery riders still sit in the TDSP block and that the EFL term matches what you signed. Gas LDC bills stay on the Railroad Commission track with no statewide marketer portal.
For portfolios that span Houston, Dallas, and other markets, keep one workbook tab per TDU. Never copy an Oncor EFL onto a CenterPoint ESID. Re-verify cooperative and municipal exceptions at lease signing and again at renewal so a boundary change does not silently move a store out of choice.
- Confirm TDU name and ESID before opening PowerToChoose.org.
- Use a commercial Electricity Facts Label, never a residential teaser.
- Isolate TDSP riders from REP energy on every sample invoice.
- Treat POLR assignment as a real default if no REP was chosen.
- Exclude Austin Energy, CPS Energy, co-ops, El Paso Electric, and Entergy Texas from ERCOT REP workbooks.
- Keep RRC gas LDC bills on a separate dual-fuel track with no marketer portal.
- Post the TDU outage number for staff; the TDU still restores after a switch.
