Reliant Rates and Plans for Houston, Dallas, and the Rest of Texas.

About Reliant Energy

In 1999, Houston Industries Inc, parent company of Houston Lighting & Power Co., reorganized itself into Reliant Energy Inc. When Texas deregulated its energy market, Reliant Energy again reorganized, separating out CenterPoint (distribution), Texas Genco (electricity generation), and Reliant Energy (energy retailer). In 2009, New Jersey-based NRG purchased Reliant Energy.

Since then, the company has grown to be one of the largest electricity providers in Texas, serving over 1.5 million customers. It has gone on to win several prestigious business awards, including the 2019 Smart Energy Innovation award, the 2018 Better Business Bureau Education Foundation Pinnacle Award for ethics, excellence and quality in the workplace, and several customer experience awards.

Does Reliant Service My Texas City?

Reliant offers plans and products throughout Texas. Browse plans for your city.

Reliant Plans for Houston

Dallas Reliant Plans

Reliant Plans in Fort Stockton

Reliant Electricity in Corpus Christi

Abilene Reliant Plans

Reliant Energy In The Community

Reliant has long been engaged in Texas community initiatives, supporting charitable causes from the Gulf Coast to the Panhandle that have included Junior Achievement, Literacy, scouting, and scholarships to name just a few. Reliant has also stepped up in times of trouble to help with relief for hurricanes, power for cooling centers, and other sorely-needed programs to help Texans rebuild after a disaster.

Begun in 2016, the Reliant Gives Vote Program lets Reliant Energy employees to support nonprofit organizations they feel are making a difference in their communities. In 2018, Reliant employees volunteered over 8,000 hours, and donated $3 million to more than 150 community programs across Texas. This year, 2019, has seen donations to Lunches of Love, Shriner's Hospital for Children, and Bo's Place, a bereavement center that helps children and families cope with the death of a loved one.

Reliant Energy Customer Assistance Service

Reliant is very sensitive to customers having financial difficulties or are facing a serious illness. Under certain circumstances, they allow extra time for customers to pay their bills, provided the customers discusses their situation with an agent in advance. Reliant also established their Community Assistance from Reliant Energy (CARE) program to provide payment assistance to qualified customers who have experienced an emergency or temporary hardship impacting their financial status. The program is funded in part by contributions from Reliant customers who can donate to it on their monthly bills.

Value Added Plans

Plans for Renters

Reliant's Apartment 9 plan offers a fixed rate for 9 months. The energy charge for 0-1,000 kWh averages about 8.5 cents per kWh. Anything over 1,000 kWh comes in roughly at 10.5 cents per kWh. Including TDU charges, the average rate across Texas for this plan comes to about 13.8 cents per kWh for 1,000 kWh usage. The term length makes it well suited for students or other renters who don't expect to be staying in their residence for a full year.

Plans for Texas Sport Fans

Reliant offers several energy plans to attract Texas sports fans. Reliant offers sports-themed 12 month fixed rate plans, each one with its own incentive to appeal to football, basketball, and rodeo fans.

• Signed Football Jersey or $100 Visa Incentive Plans Customers in Dallas and Houston get a signed jersey an invitation to an autograph session with the Dallas Cowboys or Houston Texans. The $100 Visa plans offer prepaid Visa cards and invitation to an autograph session, too. Both plans are essentially identical. They offer a 12 month fixed rate with no usage charge per billing cycle if usage is equal to or over 800 kWh. However, if customer's usage falls below 800 kwh, it incurs an additional $9.95 charge per billing cycle. The plan sports an early termination fee of $150.
• Rockets Secure Advantage 12 plans Houston customers can choose a plan that offers an authentically signed Clint Capela basketball and an invitation to an autograph session with the Houston Rockets. Or customers could chose the $100 Adidas gift card version of the plan which also includes invitation to an autograph session. Both plans are 12 month fixed rates with no usage charge per billing cycle when the usage is equal to or over 800 kWh. However, if the customer's usage falls below 800 kwh, there is an additional $9.95 charge per billing cycle. The early termination fee is $150.
• Reliant Rodeo plan For those who like horsing around, there's even a plan offering discounts on rodeo wear. Like the other sports plans, this plan is a 12 month fixed rate with no usage charge per billing cycle if usage is equal to or over 800 kWh. Again, when a customer's usage falls below 800 kwh, it incurs an additional $9.95 charge per billing cycle. The early termination fee costs $150.

Security Plans

Around 2015, Reliant moved into the home security ecosystem with plans and devices for Texas electricity customers. Reliant's security plans offer home security and comfort whether you're there or across town via the Reliant Connect app. You can lock doors, adjust lights, and receive notifications via email or text. Reliant's security plans are available only to Reliant Energy customers. There are three different packages, all with 24/7 professional monitoring:

The Essential package offers baseline home security; one motion detector, three door/window sensors and a control panel that operates and monitors the sensors. The control panel communicates by cellular signal and can be controlled remotely through an app on your phone.

The Basic Video package mostly adds video monitoring and record capability to the Essential package. You get the same motion detector, three door/window sensors, and app-compatible control panel, plus choose between an indoor video camera or a video doorbell.

The Video Plus package comes with the same basic equipment as the Essentials package and includes your choice of two additional options:

• Choice of two indoor cameras, or one indoor camera and WiFi doorbell camera, or one outdoor camera.
• Choice of two thermostats, or 1 garage opener, or two smart plugs, or one door lock, or one image sensor.

Since every home has somewhat different security requirements, Reliant wants customers to call for a quote. However, according to Reliant, the basic Essential package starts at $24.99/month. Compared to similar home security services such as ADT and Vivint, Reliant offers competitive pricing. Customers can buy additional sensors, cameras, smart locks, smart outlets, smart LED bulbs, and other additional devices for the price of the hardware Reliant installs. Meanwhile, all package contracts begin at 36 months (3 years).

Google Nest Plans

By turning your home into a Google Nest Home, think of how you can stay informed, save time, save energy on your usage.

• Reliant Learn & Conserve Both 24 month and 12 month plans are available. These offer a Google Nest Learning Thermostat or the Google Nest Thermostat E. Both smart thermostats can be controlled via your smartphone or tablet and can help reduce your energy usage by 15%. There is no base charge nor usage charges, just a straight energy charge and TDU charges. Early termination fees are high. The 12 month plan is $150, the 24 month plan is $295.
• Reliant Speak & Play 12 Plan is also a simple fixed rate. It that gives customers a Google Home smart speaker and voice assistant. Use it to surf the web, find out weather reports, play music, or even pay your Reliant bill. There is no base charge nor usage charges, just a straight energy charge and TDU charges. Early termination fee is $150.
• Reliant Truly Free Weekends 12 Plan offers customers a free Google Nest Hub. The Google Nest Hub lets customers use their voice to control lights, outlets, video cameras, even doorbells via. Meanwhile, the plan is a 12 month with a high fixed weekday rate. However, from 8:00 PM Friday to 12:00AM Monday, there is no energy charge or TDU charge. On average, customers can get 32% of their usage for free. Early termination fee is $150.

AC Warranty Plans

Reliant electricity customers get a 10% discount when they sign up for one of Reliant's AC/Heating home maintenance plans. Services include better system efficiency with duct sealing, air filter delivery, tunes up, and smart thermostat installation as well as convenient inspections for leaks, worn parts, and poor performance.

Plans available include AC Services and Repair, Heating Services and Repair, AC/Heat Protection, Nest Thermostat, Indoor Air Quality, and Air Filter Delivery. Customers in Dallas and Houston with single family homes can also sign up for a Home Energy Check Up to learn about their home's energy efficiency.

AC, Heating, and Indoor Air Quality service requires customers set up an appointment for a $49 initial diagnoistic fee to come and assess your system before any repairs or maintenance can be made.

Reliant's AC/Heat Protection program covers your home's central cooling and heating systems (up to two complete systems) and ductwork. Reliant offers three levels of claim coverage Basic costs $9.99/month, Premium is priced $19.99/month, and Elite which costs $29.99/month. Per claim limits run from $500/claim to $1500/claim. Each service call costs $60. Customers can avoid heating and air conditioning breakdowns by catching the small problems before they become big, expensive headaches.

Solar Plans and Programs

Reliant Energy has supported renewable energy for years. It's one of the few Texas electricity providers that buys energy from its customers. It also offers its customers ways to participate in carbon offsetting through its EcoShare Program and solar-charging battery power accessories from Goal Zero.

The Reliant Simple Solar Sell Back 12 plan gives you credit for the electricity your solar panels generate and return to the grid for the same price of the electricity you buy. As a fixed rate 12 month plan, the credit for your excess generation is applied automatically to your monthly Reliant bill. The plan is available only in the Oncor and Centerpoint TDU territories. Because potential customers would be acting as power producers, they must call Reliant to discuss their system capacity and enroll in the program.

The Reliant 100% Solar Plans are for customers who don't own solar panels but still want to support renewable energy. Reliant offers fixed rate solar powered electricity plans from 2 local solar farms in Houston and Dallas to a limited number of homes. Terms run from 12 months to as long as 60 months. Plans include a $12 monthly membership fee. An added perk is that customers can leave the plan at any time; there are no cancellation fees.

Understand Your Reliant Bill

Unsure about how to decipher your Reliant bill?

We can help.

Check out our How to Understand your Reliant Bill page where you can get information on what the various charges and fees mean.

Bill Period or Cycle

The dates this bill covers. Your Texas utility company will read the meter at their discretion. This will not always be a month or 30 days. If you are on a plan that has "monthly" fees, that fee will appear on your bill, regardless of how many days were within the period.

What is the Difference Between Energy Rate and Average Rate?

the 'Energy Rate' is the price in cents that you pay your electricity provider for the actual electricity that you consumed. The 'Average Rate' is the total you paid for electricity service (including all TDSP fees, bill credits, taxes, etc) divided by the number of kWhs you used that month.

What is the average Reliant electricity bill in Texas

Most customers in Texas use about 1050-1400 kWh of electricity per month. According to various sources, the average electricity rate in Texas is about 11 cents. This would make the average Texas electricity bill about $115 to $154 per month.

Of course, if you have a higher electrical load than normal you will use more energy, and thus your bills can easily be higher than that. High load items would be things like a swimming pool or electric heat in the winter.

Your home size will have an impact on your usage. A smaller 600 sqft apartment might use 500-600 kWh, while an expansive 3,000 sqft. home could easily use 2,200 to 3,000 kWh.

About TDSPs (Utilities)

The utility is the company that maintains the power poles and lines in your area. They are also in charge of generating the electricity and delivering it to your home. In Texas, there are five deregulated TDSPs: CenterPoint (Houston), Oncor (Dallas), TNMP, AEP-North and AEP-Central.

TDSPs charges and fees will show up on your bill in a couple ways - monthly fixed amounts, and per kWh amounts. These TDSP fees will be applied to your bill no matter who your provider is. Reliant doesn't really have any control over these fees at all, and if you change providers, you'll still have to pay them.

What are the TDSP Fees / Charges on your Reliant bill?

These are fees charged by your utility, and are present regardless of which electricity provider you have chosen.

Fees from the utility, not the retail electricity provider

TDSP fees can be a fixed charged per bill, or a variable charge based on how much electricity you used during that period. There are a few providers that offer "bundled" rates, which include these fees in their Energy Charge. In bundled rates, your actual average rate will not change during the course of your contract (assuming the plan has no monthly charge).

Some of the TDSP fees you may be charged are:

• Customer Charge
• Distribution Cost Recovery Factor
• Distribution System Charge
• Energy Efficiency Cost Recovery Factor
• Metering Charge
• Nuclear Decommissioning Fee
• PUC Assessment
• System Restoration Charge
• Transition Charge (1-5)
• Transmission Cost Recovery Factor
• Transmission System Charge

The TDSP fees charged and their amounts will vary depending on which TDSP services your area. As of May 2018, Oncor has the lowest per-bill charge at $5.25, while AEP-North has the highest, at $10.53 per bill. TNMP has the lowest average usage charges, at around 3.3¢/kWh, and CenterPoint is the highest, around 4.1¢/kWh.

Electric companies generally have the same energy charge applied, no-matter which TDSP the plan is in. The difference in the TDSP fees are the reason the same plan can cost around a penny higher in CenterPoint vs TNMP.

ESI ID (Electric Service Identifier)

This is the unique identifier of the electricity meter for your address. If you have multiple meters (one for the house, one for the shed) you will have multiple ESI IDs. Each ESI ID will generally get it's own bill, unless your current provider offers some sort of combined billing.