IGS is sold as a Texas REP. It is really an Ohio gas company that learned electricity later.
Most provider directories treat IGS Energy like any other Texas REP: a list of plans, a star rating, a phone number. That misses the most useful fact about the company.
IGS started in 1989 as a wholesale natural-gas desk inside Ohio's newly deregulated gas market, not Texas's later electric one. Founder Marvin White and his son Scott built the customer book on gas, residential and small commercial accounts in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, before electricity was ever on the menu.
Electric retailing came later as states opened up: Ohio in 2001, Texas in 2002, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts in waves through the 2000s and 2010s. IGS used the same wholesale-hedging muscle it had built for gas. That heritage shows up in how the Texas plans are priced, conservative fixed-rate structures, low marketing volume, and a sales channel that leans on door-to-door and B2B more than digital ads.
What an IGS Texas bill is actually made of.
Every Texas electricity bill has three layers. IGS only controls one of them. Knowing which is which is the difference between a real comparison and a marketing one.
Layer 1 / What IGS sets
Supply & base charge
The ¢/kWh energy charge plus a flat monthly base fee. This is the only line IGS quotes in its marketing and the only line a competing REP can actually beat.
Layer 2 / Same for every REP
TDU delivery
Your wires company (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP, TNMP) charges a per-kWh delivery fee plus a flat monthly fee. The PUCT sets these. Identical whether you buy from IGS, TXU or anyone else.
Layer 3 / Contract fine print
Term & exit fees
A 12-month or 24-month contract carries an ETF, often $150 to $295. Letting a fixed plan expire kicks you to a month-to-month variable rate that can be 50 to 150% higher than what you locked in.
Every IGS Texas plan shape, decoded.
IGS markets several plan families in Texas. They are not interchangeable. The right one depends on how long you plan to stay, how steady your usage is, and how much variable-rate exposure you can stomach.
| Plan family | What it is | Best fit | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12-month fixed | Locked ¢/kWh for one year | Renters, first-time switchers | ETF if you move; auto-rollover at end |
| 24-month fixed | Locked rate for two years | Settled homeowners, hedge fans | Usually 0.3 to 0.6¢ higher than 12-mo |
| 100% renewable | Fixed rate, matched by RECs | Buyers who want the green claim | Small premium vs standard fixed |
| Small business | Commercial fixed plans, custom terms | Retail, restaurants, small offices | Higher base charge; quoted, not listed |
| Month-to-month | Variable rate, no contract | Movers, gap-fillers only | Rate can spike during scarcity |
Always pull the Electricity Facts Label (EFL) before signing. By PUCT rule it must show the average ¢/kWh at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh, the base charge, the ETF, and the renewable content.
A 15% supply discount is really about 9% off your Texas bill.
At 1,000 kWh on Oncor, a typical IGS 12-month fixed plan runs about $182 all-in. Roughly 60% of that is the supply slice IGS controls; the rest is TDU delivery, monthly fees and base charge.
So a competitor offering "15% less than IGS" is offering 15% off the supply slice only. On the all-in number, that lands at about 9%, meaningful but not the headline figure on the flyer.
Two neighbors on Oncor with the same 1,000 kWh and the same IGS rate can still see different totals if their meters fall on different TDU rate schedules. Same supplier, same rate, different wires charge.
at a 12.9¢/kWh IGS fixed plan
How an Ohio gas wholesaler ended up selling you Texas power.
Four moments that shaped how IGS prices and runs its Texas book today.
1989: Ohio gas wholesale
Marvin White and his son Scott found Interstate Gas Supply in Dublin, Ohio. The business model is reselling Ohio-produced natural gas to industrial customers in a state that had just opened its gas market to competition. No electricity yet.
1997: residential gas, then electricity
Ohio extends gas choice to households. IGS pivots from purely industrial to mass-market residential. The retail playbook (door-to-door, utility-bill consolidation, fixed-price contracts) gets built here, on gas, well before electricity is added.
2002: Texas opens, IGS enters as a REP
Senate Bill 7 makes Texas the largest retail-choice electricity market in the country. ERCOT separates supply from delivery. IGS picks up a PUCT REP licence and adds Texas electricity to a portfolio that is still mostly gas in Ohio and the Midwest.
2010s to today: multi-state retail electric
IGS now retails electricity, gas, or both in 12 states; LEED Platinum HQ in Dublin; over 900 employees; over $2.5 billion in revenue. Still 100% privately owned by the White family, which is the single rarest fact about an energy retailer at this scale.
That history matters because most Texas REPs are either (a) utility-affiliated brands or (b) financial-buyer-owned roll-ups. A privately-held, founder-controlled REP has different pressures, slower marketing, less churn, longer-dated hedges.
How Texas IGS customers quietly overpay.
Five patterns we see often. Each costs real money. Each is fixable in under an hour.
IGS still sells gas. In Texas it usually does not, and that is on purpose.
Texas's residential natural-gas market is mostly served by regulated LDCs like Atmos and CenterPoint, not by competitive retailers. So IGS keeps its Texas effort focused on electricity, where the deregulated structure actually exists.
In Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and the Northeast, IGS sells both gas and electricity to the same household. If you have moved to Texas from one of those states and still have an IGS account, the Texas account is a separate enrolment under a different licence.
What to actually do before you sign with IGS.
Get your kWh history
Pull 12 months of usage from your current REP or from Smart Meter Texas. That single number drives every honest comparison.
Pull the EFL
Read the Electricity Facts Label for the specific IGS plan and ZIP. Check the 1,000 kWh average rate, base charge, ETF and renewable content.
Cross-check on Power to Choose
The PUCT Power to Choose site lists every certified Texas REP plan by ZIP, with sortable average rates.
Set a renewal alarm
Add a calendar reminder for month 10 of any 12-month plan. That gives you a buffer to shop before the auto-rollover to a variable rate.
Check assistance eligibility
If you are income-eligible, CEAP (Texas's LIHEAP implementation) can pay part of your electric bill via TDHCA.
Document the call
If you enroll by phone or door-to-door, request the Terms of Service and EFL in writing before activation. PUCT rules give you a three-day right of rescission on residential enrolments.
Common questions about IGS Energy in Texas.
IGS Energy is a fully certified Texas REP licensed by the PUCT. It is the same company that retails electricity and gas in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts and California, not a separate brand or reseller.
IGS was founded in Dublin, Ohio in 1989 as a wholesale natural-gas company in Ohio's newly deregulated gas market. It only added Texas electricity in 2002 when Texas opened retail choice. The Ohio HQ stayed; the Texas operation works the same way any out-of-state REP operates, through ERCOT and the Texas TDUs.
No. IGS Energy is one of the largest privately-held retail energy companies in the United States. It is still owned by the founding White family, with no public shareholders or private-equity buyer. That ownership structure is rare at this scale and is the most under-reported fact about the company.
In Ohio, IGS sells both natural gas and electricity to the same household under one account. In Texas, it sells only electricity, because Texas's residential gas market is regulated and not open to retail competition. The contracts, ETFs and pricing structures are also different by state because each state's PUC writes its own rules.
Yes, if you stay inside Texas and inside an ERCOT service territory, IGS will typically transfer the contract to your new address without charging the ETF. Ask for a 'move transfer' specifically. If you move out of Texas, the ETF will normally apply because the licence is state-specific.
By PUCT rule, IGS must send a renewal notice 30 to 60 days before expiry. If you do not act, the plan rolls onto a month-to-month variable rate that is often 50 to 150 percent higher than the rate you locked in. Set a calendar reminder for month 10 to shop before the rollover kicks in.
More U.S. states with energy choice
Same playbook, different utility. Pick another deregulated state to compare utilities, suppliers and switching rules.
