DCS

Energy savings in Texas?

Texas energy advisory and savings.

ERCOT-deregulated supply, eight wires-only utilities, and a demand-charge market that rewards procurement discipline.

Territory profile

State
TX
Market
Deregulated supply market
Utilities tracked
6
Programs tracked
6

Texas is the most consequential state in the country for commercial energy strategy. ERCOT is the only major deregulated grid in North America with no capacity market, so demand charges and transmission cost recovery are unusually concentrated. Wires-only TDUs (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, TNMP) bill the delivery side; retail electric providers compete on the supply side; the two halves of the bill require separate optimization. Manufacturing operators, logistics campuses, and retail chains in Texas typically carry recoverable cost in tariff classification, 4CP transmission demand exposure, sales tax exemption gaps on qualifying manufacturing load, and supply contract structure that does not match the actual load profile. Developments CS works portfolio-wide across all four major TDUs, the retail electric market, and Atmos Energy and CenterPoint gas, with attention to the four annual coincident-peak intervals that drive the following year's transmission cost recovery.

Major utilities we work with

Utilities we track in Texas

Each utility carries its own tariff book, demand structure, and program environment. The engagement maps every account against every applicable schedule.

  • Oncor Electric Delivery

    electric

    Wires-only transmission and distribution across North and West Texas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, and Midland. Tariff schedules drive a large share of total bill cost; supply is procured separately.

  • CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric

    electric

    Wires-only TDU for the Houston metro and surrounding Gulf Coast area. Carries the highest demand-related charges among Texas TDUs on standby and primary tariffs.

  • AEP Texas

    electric

    Central and North TDU serving the Coastal Bend, Rio Grande Valley, and parts of West Texas. Two operating areas with distinct rate schedules.

  • Texas-New Mexico Power

    electric

    Wires-only TDU in scattered service areas across Texas. Smaller footprint, but rate riders worth tracking.

  • Atmos Energy

    gas

    Largest gas distribution utility in Texas. Mid-Tex, West Texas, and Pipeline divisions each carry their own rate structure.

  • CenterPoint Energy (gas)

    gas

    Natural gas distribution in the Houston, Beaumont, and South Texas regions, separate from the electric TDU operation.

Programs we capture

Key Texas programs the engagement stacks into

State and utility programs that stack with the underlying tariff and procurement work to compound the annualized recovery.

  • Efficiency

    SECO LoanSTAR Revolving Loan Program

    State Energy Conservation Office low-interest loans for energy retrofits at public and nonprofit facilities, repaid from documented utility savings. Typical loan range $50K to $5M.

  • Efficiency

    Oncor Take A Load Off Texas

    Oncor commercial energy efficiency incentive program covering lighting, HVAC, controls, and custom measures. Pays a kW/kWh-based rebate to service providers; client benefit shows up in project economics.

  • Demand response

    ERCOT Emergency Response Service (ERS)

    Standby reserve program that pays loads to be available for curtailment during grid emergencies. Open to commercial sites with at least 100 kW of dispatchable load and an aggregator relationship.

  • Tariff structure

    ERCOT 4 Coincident Peak (4CP) avoidance

    Not a program in the usual sense; the four 15-minute summer peak intervals that determine the following year's transmission demand charges. Avoiding load during these intervals can cut transmission costs 60 to 80 percent for the next twelve months.

  • Tax credit

    Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) with energy community bonus

    Solar and storage projects in Texas energy community census tracts (former oil and gas counties qualify in much of West and South Texas) earn a 10 percent bonus on the federal ITC.

  • Tax credit

    Texas sales tax exemption for manufacturing utilities

    Texas exempts electricity and natural gas used predominantly (more than 50 percent) in manufacturing or processing from state sales tax. Requires a utility study and an exemption certificate filed with each utility.

What an engagement looks like

How a Texas engagement runs

A Texas engagement begins with a clear separation of the TDU side of the bill from the retail electric provider (REP) side. Most commercial operators in deregulated Texas have a single bill that bundles the two together; the optimization levers on each half are completely different. The TDU side is tariff classification, demand charge structure, transmission cost recovery, and rider exposure. The REP side is supply contract structure, term, and indexation.

Within the first month we map every account, pull twelve to twenty-four months of interval data where the meter supports it, and run the load against the relevant TDU tariff schedule alternatives. For Oncor and CenterPoint accounts in particular, the 4 Coincident Peak (4CP) intervals from the prior summer typically signal the largest single optimization opportunity: avoiding load during the next year's 4CP windows cuts the following year's transmission demand charge by 60 to 80 percent for that meter.

Manufacturing operators carry an additional recovery track: Texas sales tax exemption on the electricity and natural gas used predominantly in manufacturing. A utility study quantifies the qualifying load percentage, an exemption certificate is filed with the utility, and back-credit recovery is pursued for prior overpayments within the comptroller's 48-month statute. The combined recovery on a qualifying Texas manufacturer routinely covers the entire engagement fee inside the first quarter.

Sample finding patterns

What the pipeline catches in Texas

Plausible examples drawn from the pattern types most commonly caught in Texas. Specific clients are not named; utilities, tariff codes, and recovery ranges are. Recovery ranges are stated as ranges (typically the 25th to 75th percentile of the relevant cohort), never as point estimates.

  • Transmission demand avoidance

    Oncor · Rate Schedule Secondary GS (Greater than 10 kW)

    A North Texas distribution warehouse operating through summer afternoons was not tracking the ERCOT 4CP intervals. Interval data showed the facility ran at 92 percent of historical peak across all four 4CP windows in the prior year. Coordinated curtailment during the next summer's 4CP windows is on track to cut the following year's transmission demand charge by roughly two thirds.

  • Tariff misclassification

    CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric · Rate Schedule Primary

    A Gulf Coast logistics campus had grown from a secondary-service tariff into primary-voltage territory over five years of expansion. The original tariff was never updated. Reclassification to the correct primary tariff cut the demand charge component meaningfully and triggered the standard back-credit on prior overpayments where the utility allowed it.

  • Manufacturing sales tax exemption gap

    Oncor and Atmos Energy

    A North Texas plastics manufacturer had never filed a Texas sales tax exemption for the electric and gas service feeding the production lines. A utility study quantified the qualifying load at 78 percent and 91 percent respectively. The exemption certificates went in; the comptroller's back-refund window covered 48 months of prior sales tax.

  • Supply contract structure

    Retail electric provider (deregulated supply)

    A retail chain with 26 Texas locations was on identical fixed-rate REP contracts. Locations carried materially different load profiles. Restructuring the procurement to match each profile to the right product (some on indexed, some on heat-rate, some on block-and-index) produced commodity savings without changing the TDU side of the bill at all.

Related engagement archetypes

How this looks as a complete engagement

Engagement archetypes describe the pattern of work across a cohort of engagements sharing the same vertical, tariff exposure, and recovery shape.

Where to next

The disciplines that drive the work in Texas

The Texas engagement runs across all our standard service lines. Tariff and rate audits and billing forensics produce the immediate-cycle bill corrections; demand management and supply procurement cut the structural cost base; incentives and grants stack utility and state program funding into capital projects; tax and fee recovery surfaces back-credit on prior overpayments where qualifying use applies.

Schedule a 30-minute call about your Texas portfolio.

Fifteen minutes with one of your Texas bills is usually enough for us to see whether there is meaningful savings on the table.

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