<\/p>\n
Apprentice linemen, pictured here in 2025, practice at\u00a0CenterPoint\u2019s Hiram O. Clarke Training Center in Houston. The utility company raised its transmission rates by close to 30% this month as part of a seasonal shift.<\/p>\n
Raquel Natalicchio\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Apprentice linemen, pictured here in 2025, practice at CenterPoint\u2019s Hiram O. Clarke Training Center in Houston. The utility company raised its transmission rates by close\u00a0to 30% this month as part of a seasonal shift.<\/p>\n
Raquel Natalicchio\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Starting this month, Houston residents may notice an increase in their energy bills as CenterPoint Energy<\/a> raises a little-known charge for delivering power<\/a> to their homes.<\/p>\n CenterPoint increases the line item \u2014 known as the transmission and distribution charge<\/a> \u2014 every September, as Texas utilities transition from typically lower summer rates to higher winter rates<\/a>. In Houston, the rates decrease on March 1.<\/p>\n For an average family, CenterPoint calculated that the new TDU rates \u2014 which increased from 4.99 cents per kilowatt-hour to 6.41 cents per kilowatt-hour \u2014 would lead to them paying roughly $14 more for an otherwise identical energy bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The higher charge helps CenterPoint cover the cost of maintaining and building the poles and wires that deliver power to consumers, as well as ensuring its rate of return, essentially profit. \u00a0The charge usually appears on customers’ electric bills as a \u201cTDU\u201d or \u201cTDSP\u201d charge, and the rate change will kick in on bills sent in September for August energy use.\u00a0<\/p>\n BILL TIPS: How to read your Texas electricity bill<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The August energy bill of this reporter, which includes both an electricity charge and a TDU charge.<\/p>\n Nathaniel Rosenberg\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n Every major utility in Texas changes its TDU rates on Sept. 1<\/a>. But CenterPoint had a far bigger increase than its peers, with rates up 28% from March, as opposed to 7% for Dallas-based Oncor and a rate cut of more than 4% for AEP Central in Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n Ken Head, the vice president of Sugar Land-based energy broker Savant Energy Services, said he had been getting frequent calls from confused clients who were surprised by the increase, because they had signed fixed-rate contracts with their electricity provider.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n BILL SHOPPING:\u00a07 things to know when choosing your Texas electricity plan<\/a><\/p>\n But fixed-rate electricity contracts, typical in Texas, only apply to the amount customers were charged for electricity, not delivery charges, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat stands out to me isn’t simply the TDU rate change in September; that’s normal,\u201d Head said. \u201cBut the increase, the magnitude of it. We haven’t had any kind of major thing happen here to create that to justify that much of an increase.\u201d<\/p>\n The rate increase, Jason Ryan, CenterPoint\u2019s executive vice president of regulatory services and government affairs, said, was to make up for the fact that customers use less electricity in the winter than in the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n INSIDE CENTERPOINT:\u00a0CenterPoint<\/a> has invested heavily in Houston despite its extreme weather. There’s a good reason why<\/a><\/p>\n Ryan said that it would be ideal to have a fixed rate every month, but that the current system is a product of state regulations. The size of CenterPoint\u2019s rate increase reflects that it kept rates lower than other utilities over the summer, he said<\/p>\n In July, the TDU charge for an average family with CenterPoint was $56.36, lower than $65.26 for Oncor and $61.51 for AEP Central, according to data from Savant Energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ryan also argued that rates had been mostly flat over the last decade, when adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n But rate increases have outpaced inflation, according to data from Savant. In September 2017, the average CenterPoint customer paid about $62.13, adjusted for inflation, for delivery charges. Today, the same customer pays about $69.03 after the recent rate increase.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In Head\u2019s view, his clients’ annoyance with the rate increase was less about the dollar amount than their lack of say in the change.<\/p>\n Centerpoint\u2019s increased TDU rate was approved by the Public Utility Commission at a series of meetings in July and August. A spokesperson for the commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cConsumers can shop their electricity bill all the time. But you can’t shop for another transmission and distribution utility,\u201d Head said. \u201cThat’s where the frustration is, because they have a monopoly on us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apprentice linemen, pictured here in 2025, practice at\u00a0CenterPoint\u2019s Hiram O. Clarke Training Center in Houston. The utility company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-446224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n