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How to Read Your Electricity Facts Label (EFL)
The one document for comparing Texas plans honestly — average prices, charges, credits, and contract terms.
Updated: 4/24/2026
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What Is an Electricity Facts Label?
The Electricity Facts Label — the EFL — is a standardized one-page summary that every Texas retail provider must publish for every plan. Its format and contents are set by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT Rule §25.475), so an EFL from one provider lines up against an EFL from another. That makes it the single apples-to-apples document for comparing plans honestly — far more reliable than the advertised rate on an ad.
The EFL doesn't travel alone. Together with the Terms of Service and the Your Rights as a Customer document, it forms your actual electricity contract. The EFL handles the pricing and key facts; the other two cover the fine print and your protections.
If you're still deciding which plan type to shortlist, our Texas electricity rates guide covers fixed, bill-credit, and no-deposit options; once you've read the EFL and picked one, Switching providers takes about ten minutes.
How to Read an EFL, Top to Bottom
An EFL packs a lot into one page, but you only need four passes to read it well — and the order matters. Work top to bottom, always anchoring on your own usage.
- 1
Start with the average price at YOUR usage
The EFL lists an average price per kWh at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh. These are all-in averages — what you'd pay per kWh if you used exactly that much — not your energy rate and not a range. Pull your real monthly usage off a past bill and read the column closest to it, not the advertised number.
- 2
See what's baked into that price
Each average folds together three things: the energy charge (the provider's price per kWh), a base charge (a flat monthly fee you pay even at zero usage), and the TDU delivery charges (your utility's regulated, pass-through fee — same for every provider in your area). The base charge is why a low-usage month costs more per kWh.
- 3
Hunt for credits, tiers, and minimum-usage fees
This is where the headline number lies. A bill credit that only triggers at, say, 1,000 kWh makes that one average look great and the others much worse; a minimum-usage fee spikes the 500 kWh average. If the three numbers swing wildly, the plan is usage-sensitive — read it carefully against your real usage.
- 4
Read the term, ETF, and renewable content
Finally, note the contract length (e.g., 12 or 24 months), the early termination fee you'd pay to leave early, the plan type (fixed, variable, or indexed), and the percentage of renewable content. These don't change your price directly, but they decide how locked-in and how green the plan is.
The Average-Price Trap
The three EFL prices are averages at exactly 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh — so a plan can look cheap at a usage level you never actually hit. Usage-credit plans are the worst offenders: a $100 bill credit at 1,000 kWh might read about 9.5¢/kWh at 1,000 kWh but jump to roughly 12.3¢/kWh at 1,400 kWh — the very same plan.
The fix is simple: always read the average at your real monthly usage (it's on any past bill), and be suspicious when the three numbers swing far apart. That swing is exactly the usage cliff our Bill credit plans guide breaks down.
The EFL, TOS & YRAC: Your Contract
When you enroll, you receive three documents. They work as a set, and it's worth knowing which answers which question.
Electricity Facts Label (EFL). The pricing sheet: average prices at 500/1,000/2,000 kWh, the energy and base charges, TDU delivery charges, contract length, early termination fee, plan type, and renewable content. This is the one you read first and compare across plans.
Terms of Service (TOS). The full contract conditions — billing and payment, deposits, what happens at renewal, how to cancel, and any other fees. If the EFL says what you pay, the TOS says how the agreement works.
Your Rights as a Customer (YRAC). A plain-language summary of the protections every Texas customer has under PUCT rules — including the right to dispute a bill, protections against improper disconnection, and the three-day right to cancel a new enrollment without penalty.
Using the EFL to Compare Plans Honestly
Because every EFL uses the same format, Comparing plans is straightforward once you anchor on your own usage. Pull up the EFLs for the plans you're weighing, find the average price at the usage column closest to your real monthly use, and compare that single number side by side. That one habit defuses almost every pricing trap in the Texas market — the bill-credit cliff, the no-deposit premium, the teaser energy rate that ignores the base charge.
When the EFL math points to a better plan, acting on it is quick: our guide to Switching electricity providers walks through enrollment and the 14-day window for leaving your current contract without a fee. The EFL tells you which plan; switching is how you get there.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a standardized one-page disclosure that every Texas retail electricity provider must publish for every plan, in a format required by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT Rule 25.475). It lays out the plan's price, fees, contract terms, and renewable content so you can compare plans on equal footing. The EFL, the Terms of Service, and the Your Rights as a Customer document together form your electricity contract.
Those are average all-in prices per kWh if you used exactly that much in a month — not your energy rate and not a range. They differ because fixed monthly charges, like the base charge and the TDU's fixed fee, get spread across more kWh as usage rises, so the average per-kWh usually drops at higher usage. Read the column closest to your own monthly usage.
The energy charge is just the provider's price per kWh for the electricity itself. The average price is the all-in number: it folds in the energy charge plus the base charge plus the regulated TDU delivery charges (taxes usually excluded). The advertised rate is often the energy charge or the 1,000 kWh average, which is why you should always check the average at your real usage. Compare current Texas electricity rates by usage level.
TDU (or TDSP) delivery charges are what your local utility, such as Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, or TNMP, charges to deliver power over the poles and wires. They include a per-kWh charge plus a fixed monthly fee, are regulated, and are passed through with no markup, so they are the same for every provider in your area.
A bill credit applies only when your usage reaches a set threshold, so it makes the average price dip sharply right at that level and jump on either side. For example, a $100 credit at 1,000 kWh might show about 9.5 cents per kWh at 1,000 kWh but about 12.3 cents at 1,400 kWh on the same plan. See our Bill credit plans guide for how that cliff works.
The Electricity Facts Label covers the pricing and key plan facts. The Terms of Service spells out the full contract conditions, such as billing, deposits, and cancellation. The Your Rights as a Customer document explains your protections under PUCT rules. All three are provided together and form your electricity agreement.
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