Your retail plan is not the whole story, your TDU is.
In Texas, every residential bill is split into two halves. The retail electric provider (REP) sells you the electricity itself. The transmission and distribution utility (TDU) owns the poles, wires and meter and charges a regulated delivery fee. Your PUCT sets the TDU rate. You cannot shop the TDU portion.
Most comparison sites show you a "low rate" plan from a REP and stop there. That ignores the second half. TNMP's TDU delivery charge is the highest of the five Texas IOU wires companies, both on the monthly customer charge ($7.85) and on the per-kWh blended delivery rate (~5.24¢). At 1,000 kWh, TNMP's delivery portion is around $15 more per month than Oncor's at the same usage. Same retail plan, same usage, same supplier, but a TNMP address pays more because the wires portion is bigger.
If you live in a TNMP ZIP, the way to lower your bill is not to chase a 0.5¢/kWh discount on the supply side. It is to use less during peak hours, pick a plan whose bill-credit threshold matches your real usage, and rule out efficiency upgrades that pay back in fewer than five years.
How a TNMP TDU charge is built.
The TDU line on your bill is not one number. It is three components stacked together, each approved separately by the PUCT.
Component 1
Customer charge
A flat monthly fee of $7.85, billed even at zero usage. Covers metering, billing and the line drop to your house. Highest of the five Texas TDUs.
Component 2
Delivery charge
A per-kWh rate of about 5.24¢ on the residential schedule (a blend of distribution + transmission). The more electricity you use, the more this scales.
Component 3
Riders & pass-throughs
Storm recovery, energy-efficiency program rider, transmission cost recovery. Updated by the PUCT one or two times a year and bundled into the per-kWh delivery rate above.
Your REP collects all three on TNMP's behalf and remits them. The REP cannot waive or discount any of them.
Every TNMP bill line, decoded.
REPs label the same TNMP charges in slightly different ways. Here is the mapping back to what each line really is.
| Line on your bill | What it really is | Who sets it | Shoppable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy charge | Retail supply, ¢/kWh | Your REP | Yes |
| TDU customer charge | TNMP $7.85/mo fixed fee | PUCT, via TNMP tariff | No |
| TDU delivery charge | TNMP ~5.24¢/kWh wires fee | PUCT, via TNMP tariff | No |
| Transmission cost recovery factor | Bundled inside the delivery rate above | PUCT, true-up filings | No |
| Gross receipts & PUC assessment | State pass-through tax | Texas Legislature + PUCT | No |
| Sales tax (where applicable) | Local / state sales tax on the supply portion | City / county | No |
Only the top line, energy charge, moves when you switch REP. Everything below is a TNMP or PUCT line item your REP simply passes through.
TNMP delivery costs ~50% more per kWh than Oncor.
At PUCT-approved tariffs effective 11 April 2026, the residential blended delivery rate is roughly 5.24¢/kWh in TNMP territory versus 3.49¢/kWh in Oncor's, about 50% higher. The fixed customer charge is also more than 2× Oncor's ($7.85 vs $3.42).
Plug 1,000 kWh into the math: TNMP delivery is roughly $60/mo vs about $38/mo in Oncor. That is a ~$22/mo gap, about $260/year, on the wires alone, before the REP charges you a single cent for the actual electricity.
Two neighbors using identical kWh on the same TXU plan can therefore see a $20+ monthly difference simply because one is in Lewisville (TNMP) and the other a few miles east in McKinney (Oncor).
extra in TNMP vs Oncor, before supply
How a TNMP TDU rate actually gets set.
TDU rates are not market prices. They are administrative outcomes of multi-year regulatory proceedings, and a new corporate owner is now in the loop.
TNMP files a rate case
Every few years TNMP submits a full cost-of-service application to the PUCT, capital invested in wires, depreciation, operating expenses, requested return on equity. The 2024 base-rate review fed directly into the tariff effective April 2026.
PUCT review and approval
PUCT staff, the Office of Public Utility Counsel and intervenor groups challenge the requested numbers. The Commission then sets a final customer charge and per-kWh delivery rate. The current residential charge of $7.85/mo + ~5.24¢/kWh blended is the outcome of that process.
Riders updated between rate cases
Between full reviews, TNMP files smaller annual updates, transmission cost recovery, energy-efficiency program riders, storm cost recovery. The PUCT approves these too. They flow through the per-kWh delivery rate.
New owner: Blackstone Infrastructure
TNMP's parent, formerly PNM Resources, renamed TXNM Energy in 2024, has agreed to be acquired by Blackstone Infrastructure. The PUCT signaled approval in February 2026 (per the TXNM Q1 2026 10-Q on SEC EDGAR); closing remains pending. Future rate cases will be filed by a Blackstone-owned holding company.
Bottom line: a TDU rate change is never sudden, it is the visible end of a 12-to-18-month process. Customers can intervene at the PUCT but rarely do.
How TNMP customers quietly overpay.
Five recurring patterns specific to households inside the TNMP service area.
Hurricane prep for the Gulf Coast TNMP zone.
Texas City, La Marque, Friendswood, Dickinson, Alvin, Angleton and Brownsville all sit inside the official Gulf hurricane corridor. TNMP's coastal grid takes named-storm damage roughly every two-to-three years; multi-day outages are realistic.
Before the season starts in June, save the outage line as a contact, photograph your meter and breaker panel, charge two power banks, and confirm any medically necessary equipment qualifies for TNMP's Critical Care registration (filed through your REP). Critical Care does not guarantee continuous power, it triggers priority restoration and pre-storm notification.
What to actually do if your address is in TNMP.
Confirm you are in TNMP
Check the ESI ID on your bill or look up your ZIP on powertochoose.org. TDU zone is the single biggest predictor of your bill total.
Pull 12 months of usage
Your Smart Meter Texas account has the data. You need it to pick a plan whose bill-credit threshold matches your real usage.
Shop the EFL, not the marketing
The Electricity Facts Label is the legal document. Look at the all-in ¢/kWh at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh, those numbers already bake in the TNMP delivery portion.
Shift load off peak
The wires charge is fixed by tariff, but a time-of-use REP plan can credit you for shifting laundry, EV charging and pool pumps to overnight hours.
Apply for assistance if eligible
The Texas CEAP program (via LIHEAP) pays a portion of bills for income-eligible households. Apply through your local community action agency.
Save the right phone numbers
For an outage or downed line: TNMP at 1-888-866-7456. For billing: your REP. Calling the wrong party wastes hours during a storm.
Common questions about TNMP.
Call 1-888-866-7456 (option 1), the line is staffed 24/7. You can also report and track outages on the TNMP outage map, refreshed every 20 minutes. Do not call your retail electric provider, REPs have no real-time outage data and cannot dispatch a crew.
No. TNMP is a regulated wires-only company (a TDU). Your bill comes from your retail electric provider (REP), which collects TNMP's delivery charge on TNMP's behalf along with its own supply charge. If you have a billing dispute, contact your REP first; complaints about the delivery portion go to the PUCT.
Because your neighbor in central Dallas is in Oncor territory, not TNMP. TNMP's residential delivery rate is roughly 5.24¢/kWh versus Oncor's 3.49¢/kWh, and TNMP's customer charge is $7.85/mo versus Oncor's $3.42/mo. At 1,000 kWh that is about $22 more per month before any retail energy charge.
Three non-contiguous patches. Gulf Coast: Texas City, La Marque, Friendswood, Dickinson, Alvin, Angleton, Sweeny, West Columbia, and parts of Brownsville. North Texas: parts of Lewisville and Frisco around the DFW suburbs, plus Glen Rose, Whitney, Princeton, Gatesville and Hamilton. West Texas: Pecos, Fort Stockton, Kermit, Sanderson and parts of Plainview. TNMP does not serve Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin or San Antonio, those are Oncor, CenterPoint, Austin Energy and CPS Energy respectively.
Yes, sale pending close. TNMP's parent company is TXNM Energy (formerly PNM Resources). Blackstone Infrastructure agreed to acquire TXNM in 2024; the PUCT signaled approval in February 2026 (per the TXNM Q1 2026 10-Q on SEC EDGAR). Closing was still pending at the time of writing. Day-to-day operations, rates and the outage line are not changing for customers, the TDU's PUCT-regulated tariffs continue to apply.
No. TDU territory is set by geography, not by choice, only one wires company serves your address. What you can switch is your retail electric provider (the REP that sells you the supply portion). TNMP works with more than 60 REPs operating on the ERCOT grid.
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