The plans they advertise are not the plans you can compare.
Free nights. Free weekends. Bill credits. Gift cards. The electricity plans Texans have actually heard of are sold on television and on the retailer's own website — and most of them are not listed on the state's official comparison site at all. Here is what one of them really costs, and how to spot the rest.
Average price per kWh at 2,000 kWh/month, Dallas. TXU figures captured 2026-08-12 from shopping.txu.com; the third from powertochoose.org on 2026-08-13. All three include TDU delivery charges — TXU says so in its own footnote, and every Electricity Facts Label states the same basis, so these are like for like.
Even TXU's own plain plan beats it
Set the rest of the market aside. On the same page, on the same day, TXU sells Simple Rate 12 at 16.50¢ and Free Nights & Cool Summer 12 at 18.20¢. Buying the free‑nights version of TXU costs $408 a year more than buying the boring version of TXU.
Why the free hours don't help
Your electricity bill has two halves. The retailer sells you energy. The wires company — the TDU — delivers it, and bills you separately per kilowatt‑hour no matter who you buy from. In Dallas that's Oncor, at 6.03¢ per kWh plus $4.06 a month.
A free‑nights plan credits the energy half overnight. It does not touch the delivery half. TXU says so themselves, in the footnote directly beneath the words “free nights all year”:
“Nighttime Energy Charges credited at 100% all year long. During July, August, and September, an additional credit of up to 25% on nighttime Energy Charges may apply and will be used toward daytime Energy Charges. TDU charges, taxes, and other applicable fees are not included in the credit and will be billed separately. Other eligibility rules apply.”
So every “free” kilowatt‑hour you use at 2am still costs you 6.03¢ in Oncor delivery. Read the plan card again and the wording is exact:
“Get free energy charges every night, all year, plus a 25% bonus toward daytime usage all summer. Rooftop solar and other customer exclusions apply.”
Free energy charges. Not free electricity. That one word is the whole product.
Where does the premium come from?
Nobody gives away electricity. The overnight credit is paid for by a higher rate the rest of the time, and the number above is what's left after both sides net out. At 2,000 kWh a month you are paying 1.70¢ per kWh — $34.00 a month — for the privilege.
This is not really about TXU
We read the Electricity Facts Label for 737 plans across all five Texas delivery utilities to see how common this is. On the state's comparison site, it isn't:
89% of listed plans are plain — one rate, no hook, no threshold. The Texas retail market is mostly boring.
So why does it feel like it's full of gimmicks? Because the plans that get advertised are not the plans that get listed. TXU sells ten plans on its own website and half of them carry a hook. It lists one plan on powertochoose.org — and that one is a bill credit too. The side by side is here.
That's the pattern worth knowing, and it has nothing to do with any single company. The plans marketed to you and the plans listed for comparison are two different sets. Television, radio and direct mail sell the hook. The comparison site lists the boring ones. If you only ever see the advertising, you never meet the 89%.
Which is why every table on this site is sorted by whether the advertised price survives contact with your actual usage, and why we say which plans we read the document for and which we only inferred.
See the plans you can actually buy
Which plans you can buy is decided by the utility that delivers your electricity, not by the retailer you pay and not by your ZIP code. Pick yours:
It's named on your bill, usually under “TDU Delivery Charges”. How to find it.
Or start from your ZIP code
We'll suggest a utility, but we won't pretend to be certain. We tested a sample of ZIP codes against the state's own plan data and 16% of them were served by two different utilities, so a site that takes your ZIP and shows one list is guessing. Confirm against your bill before you switch.
Read next
The full Free Nights teardown — every TXU plan
on Oncor, ranked by what it actually costs.
What TXU sells you vs. what TXU lists on the state's own
comparison site — they are not the same plans.
Why your ZIP code is the wrong question.