"Call your power company" is the wrong answer in Texas.
In most US states there is one company on the bill, one company that owns the wires, and one phone number to call. In Texas it works differently. The deregulation law passed in 1999 split the business into two pieces.
Your REP (retail electric provider) sells you a plan, sends a bill, runs a website, and operates a call center. Names like Reliant, TXU Energy, Gexa, Green Mountain. They do not own a single pole or wire. When the lights go out, their phone reps cannot dispatch a crew, cannot see your meter, and cannot give you an estimated time of restoration.
Your TDU (transmission and distribution utility, also called TDSP) owns the physical grid in your area. Five of them serve the deregulated ERCOT zone: Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, TNMP, and Sharyland (now operated by Oncor). They run the trucks, the dispatch system, and the outage map. They are who you call.
Outside the deregulated zone, in municipal cities like Austin and San Antonio, and across the dozens of rural electric cooperatives, one entity does both jobs. The bill and the outage truck come from the same place. The phone number is still different from a REP, though, so the table below covers them too.
How an outage report actually moves through the system.
Once you dial the right number, your report enters a four-step chain that ends in a crew on a pole.
Step 1
You report
Phone, text, or app. Give your service address and, if you have it, your ESI ID or account number.
Step 2
TDU dispatch
Your report joins a heat map. Dispatchers cluster nearby reports to find the upstream device, a fuse, a transformer, a line section.
Step 3
ERCOT-aware crew
A truck rolls. If the outage is grid-driven (load shed by ERCOT), the crew waits for the grid operator to release the circuit before re-energising.
Step 4
Restoration ETA
Your ZIP code shows an estimated time on the TDU's outage map. The number updates as crews progress; downed primary wires take hours, blown transformers can take days.
Every Texas outage line, in one table.
Bookmark this page. Phone numbers verified May 2026 against each utility's published outage instructions. Every number is a 24/7 line.
| Utility | Type | Outage phone | Outage map | Service area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oncor Electric Delivery | IOU TDU | 1-888-313-4747 | stormcenter.oncor.com | North & West TX, DFW, Waco, Midland |
| CenterPoint Energy | IOU TDU | 1-800-332-7143 | tracker.centerpointenergy.com | Greater Houston, Gulf Coast |
| AEP Texas | IOU TDU | 1-866-223-8508 | aeptexas.com/outage | South & West TX, Corpus, Laredo, Abilene |
| Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP) | IOU TDU | 1-888-866-7456 | outagemap.tnmp.com | Pockets statewide |
| Sharyland (now Oncor) | IOU TDU | 1-888-313-4747 | stormcenter.oncor.com | Former Sharyland territory, call Oncor |
| Austin Energy | MOU | 512-322-9100 | austinenergy.com/outage-map | City of Austin |
| CPS Energy | MOU | 210-353-4357 | cpsenergy.com/outagemap | San Antonio, Bexar County |
| Denton Municipal Electric | MOU | 940-349-7000 | cityofdenton.com | City of Denton |
| Garland Power & Light | MOU | 972-205-3500 | gpltexas.org | City of Garland |
| New Braunfels Utilities | MOU | 830-629-8400 | nbutexas.com | City of New Braunfels |
| Bryan Texas Utilities | MOU | 979-821-5701 | btutilities.com | City of Bryan |
| College Station Utilities | MOU | 979-764-3660 | cstx.gov | City of College Station |
| Pedernales Electric Cooperative | Coop | 888-883-3379 | pec.coop | Hill Country, Travis, Hays, Burnet |
| Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative | Coop | 1-800-949-4414 | bluebonnet.coop | Bastrop, Lee, Fayette, Washington |
| Magic Valley Electric Cooperative | Coop | 1-866-225-5683 | magicvalley.coop | Rio Grande Valley |
| Victoria Electric Cooperative | Coop | 1-361-582-5555 | victoriaelectric.coop | Victoria and Crossroads area |
| Wood County Electric Cooperative | Coop | 866-415-2951 | outagemap.wcec.org | East TX, Wood County |
| Rusk County Electric Cooperative | Coop | 855-945-3520 | rcelectric.org | East TX, Rusk County |
| Nueces Electric Cooperative | Coop | 1-800-632-9288 | nueceselectric.org | Coastal Bend, Nueces County |
| PUCT consumer line | Regulator | 1-888-782-8477 | puc.texas.gov | Complaints, oversight, post-storm escalation |
Not sure which TDU covers your address? In ERCOT deregulated zones, check your monthly bill, the TDU is named under "Delivery charges" or look up your ESI ID. Or call the PUCT consumer line above.
Post-Uri, ZIP-level ETAs are required. Accuracy still varies.
After Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 left more than four million Texas households without power for days, the PUCT issued new rules requiring TDUs to publish ZIP-code-level estimated restoration times on their public outage maps.
The mandate exists. The accuracy varies by event and TDU. During Hurricane Beryl in July 2024, CenterPoint's ETA estimates drifted by 24 hours or more in some Houston ZIP codes as the scope of damage outran the initial model.
What to expect: a normal blue-sky outage (blown transformer, downed limb) usually has a usable ETA inside the first hour. Major weather events take longer to assess, the map will show "Assessing" for several hours before a real number replaces it.
~4.5M households dark. ERCOT load shed cascaded for 4 days. ~$9B in retail bill impacts via securitization. Triggered PUCT ETA rules.
~2.2M CenterPoint customers out at peak. Median restoration ~3 days; outer pockets 8+ days. Sparked the post-Beryl resiliency review.
~900k CenterPoint customers out. Hurricane-force straight-line winds in Houston. Restoration mostly inside 5 days.
What happens between your call and the lights coming back.
Six things move in parallel from the second your report lands.
Your call hits the TDU's outage management system
Modern systems geolocate the report from your address or ESI ID and plot it on a live map. Smart meters with two-way radios often beat your phone call, the TDU sometimes knows you are out before you do.
Dispatchers walk the radial tree upstream
A distribution network branches from substation to feeder to lateral to your house. Dispatchers find the upstream device whose customers are all out, that is the failure point.
ERCOT is checked for load-shed flags
If ERCOT has ordered rotating outages (rare; last in February 2021), no crew is dispatched until the grid operator releases the circuit. The wholesale price cap is $5,000/MWh, and load shed is the last lever before grid collapse.
A crew is assigned by severity
Hospitals, water plants, then large clusters, then small clusters, then single-customer "tap" outages. A solitary downed service line behind a house is genuinely last in line on storm days.
Power restores; meter pings home
Smart meters confirm restoration back to the TDU automatically. If your meter does not ping but your neighbors do, the TDU will text you to confirm, sometimes the line from the pole to your house is the problem.
Bill credit calculation (if extended outage)
PUCT rules entitle residential customers to bill credits for outages exceeding certain thresholds after a major storm, paid by the TDU, applied to your REP bill. You usually have to file, not opt out.
Calls that waste the only time that matters.
Five patterns we see again and again on outage days. Each one delays restoration or costs money.
Texas gets all three: hurricanes, winter storms, tornadoes.
The Gulf Coast lives with hurricane season (June to November) and named storms that take down coastal feeders. North Texas sees winter ice every few years that snaps overhead lines. The whole state runs Tornado Alley from March to June.
Three things to do before the season: save your TDU number to your phone, sign up for outage SMS alerts, and keep a printed copy of your bill (with ESI ID) somewhere you can reach without power.
Six things to do when the lights go out.
Report to your TDU
Use the phone, SMS, or app channel from the table above. Have your address and account number ready.
Sign up for SMS alerts
Every TDU offers free outage text alerts. Tie them to your account once; never wonder again.
Prepare for extended outages
A 72-hour go-bag, portable battery, and a paper copy of your bill (with ESI ID) cover most scenarios.
File a PUCT complaint if needed
If your TDU is unresponsive, call 1-888-782-8477 or file at puc.texas.gov.
Claim a bill credit
After a qualifying extended outage, check whether your TDU or REP requires you to file for the regulated bill credit.
Find your TDU by ZIP
Use the hero widget at the top of this page, or check your bill under "Delivery charges" for the TDU name.
Common questions about Texas outages.
By default, neither your REP nor your TDU reimburses spoiled food, fried electronics, or business interruption from a routine outage. Filing a claim with the TDU is possible if you can prove negligence, but those rarely succeed. Renters and homeowners insurance often covers spoilage and surge damage subject to deductible. Surge protectors are cheap insurance against the most common damage path.
After a major event the PUCT can require TDUs to issue per-customer credits for outages exceeding a regulatory threshold (typically continuous hours over a defined window). The credit is paid by the TDU to your REP, who applies it to your bill. The amount and filing process change by event, check your TDU and PUCT for the specific rule after a storm.
ERCOT runs the wholesale grid for ~90% of Texas. In a routine local outage, ERCOT does nothing, the TDU handles it. In a grid-wide emergency (extreme weather, generation shortfall), ERCOT can order rotating outages (load shed) that the TDUs implement. The last time this happened at scale was February 2021. ERCOT does not take calls from residential customers.
Texas has 76+ electric cooperatives and municipal utilities serving roughly the 10% of customers outside ERCOT deregulation. For coop and municipal members, one organisation does billing AND outage response, the phone number is the same one on your bill. The table above lists the largest by membership; for any not listed, check your bill.
The 1999 Texas deregulation law (SB7) split the old vertically-integrated utility into separate companies. The wires business stayed a regulated monopoly (the TDU). The retail-sales business opened to competition (REPs). Your REP buys wholesale power, sells you a plan, and bills you, but they own no infrastructure to dispatch. Calling them for an outage gets you a polite redirect at best.
First, confirm your outage is on the TDU's map; if it is not, call again and report it directly. Second, if you have a documented medical need (oxygen, dialysis, refrigerated medication), tell the TDU, you go up the priority list. Third, after 24+ hours on a single-customer outage with no progress, file a complaint with the PUCT at 1-888-782-8477.
More U.S. states with energy choice
Same playbook, different utility. Pick another deregulated state to compare utilities, suppliers and switching rules.
