"Shop your Texas electricity supplier" does not apply to UCS members.
Texas is famous for retail electric choice. Across most of ERCOT, including Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth city limits and the Rio Grande Valley, consumers can pick from hundreds of REP plans. About 85% of Texas load is on that competitive market.
The other 15% is served by municipal utilities and electric cooperatives that never opted in. UCS is one of them. Member-owned distribution coops were allowed to keep their integrated model after the 2002 deregulation. Most chose to: a coop is owned by its members, so the savings from competition are already passed through as low rates rather than supplier margin.
Practically: if your meter is on UCS lines, the only "supplier" you can choose is UCS. There is no Power to Choose comparison to run. The right questions are about UCS's own rate schedule, the PCRF rider, and the wholesale contract UCS holds with Brazos Electric.
How a UCS bill is built. Three layers.
UCS is a vertically-integrated coop: the same entity handles supply procurement, the wires to your house, and the billing. Your invoice still splits into three layers, it just lists them differently from an ERCOT retail bill.
Layer 1: Wholesale
Energy charge + PCRF
The base kWh energy charge plus the monthly Power Cost Recovery Factor that passes through Brazos Electric's wholesale price (gas, coal, wind, ERCOT scarcity).
Layer 2: Distribution
Local wires
UCS owns the poles, transformers and meter that bring power onto your property. This cost is folded into the energy rate rather than billed as a separate TDU line as it would be in Dallas or Houston.
Layer 3: Fixed
Customer charge
A flat monthly fee for the connection: meter reading, billing, account servicing. You pay it whether you use zero kWh or 5,000 kWh. Coops typically run this higher than ERCOT REPs because there is no marketing budget to amortise across customers.
Sales tax is exempt on residential electricity in Texas, so a UCS residential bill ends at layer 3. A small-commercial bill adds state and local sales tax on top.
Every line on a UCS bill, decoded.
UCS uses coop-style billing terms that look different from an ERCOT retail invoice. Here is what each line really represents and who controls it.
| Line on your bill | What it really is | Who sets it | Shoppable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy charge (¢/kWh) | Wholesale power + distribution rolled in | UCS board, on staff recommendation | No |
| PCRF (Power Cost Recovery Factor) | Monthly true-up against wholesale fuel cost | Calculated from Brazos invoice + ERCOT settlement | No |
| Customer / facilities charge | Fixed monthly connection fee | UCS board | No |
| Capital credits (annual) | Your share of UCS margin returned over time | UCS board retirement schedule | Credit |
| Sales tax (commercial only) | State + local tax on commercial usage | Texas Comptroller + local jurisdiction | No |
| Late fee / reconnect fee | Penalty for missed payment cycle | UCS policy | Avoidable |
Capital credits are the cooperative difference: a coop has no shareholders, so any annual surplus is allocated back to members proportional to how much they bought, then refunded over time when the board votes a retirement.
100% of your supply price comes from one place.
For an ERCOT competitive customer in Dallas, only the supply slice (~50% of the bill) is shoppable. For a UCS member, that slice is not shoppable at all: you buy from UCS.
That looks worse, but the math is not always worse. UCS buys wholesale power through Brazos Electric, a generation-and-transmission cooperative serving 16 member coops. The wholesale contract hedges against ERCOT scarcity spikes the way a fixed-rate REP plan does, and the savings flow back to members as capital credits rather than to a corporate parent as profit.
The decision-relevant question is not "how do I switch?". It is "how do I reduce the kWh and demand UCS bills me for?". Every section below is built around that.
at indicative coop blended rate (UNVERIFIED)
How UCS actually sets the price you pay.
A coop's rate is built differently from an IOU rate. Four price-setting processes feed into your monthly invoice.
Member-elected board
UCS is governed by a board of directors elected by the members themselves at annual meetings. Each meter-location has a vote regardless of usage. The board, not a state regulator, approves the rate schedule.
General manager & cost-of-service study
UCS staff commission a periodic cost-of-service study that allocates fixed costs (poles, transformers, billing) to customer charges and variable costs (wholesale energy, line losses) to the per-kWh rate. The result is the proposed rate book.
Annual budget & capital credits
The board sets an annual operating budget and a target margin. Any surplus over the year is allocated to members as capital credits, then retired (refunded) on a multi-year schedule the board controls.
Brazos Electric (G&T) on ERCOT
UCS is one of 16 distribution coops that own Brazos Electric. Brazos procures generation (gas, wind, market purchases) and sells it back to UCS at wholesale. Brazos in turn settles into the ERCOT real-time market, which is where wholesale prices, congestion, and scarcity ultimately come from.
When ERCOT spiked to the $5,000/MWh scarcity cap during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, Brazos's exposure was so large it filed Chapter 11. UCS members were largely insulated because UCS itself had hedged the cost, but the episode is why coop rates carry a PCRF rider today.
Five mistakes UCS members make.
Each pattern below costs real money on a UCS bill. Each one is fixable without leaving the coop (because you can't).
Reporting a UCS outage during a north-Texas storm.
North-central Texas sits on the eastern edge of Tornado Alley. Spring squall lines and summer derechos take UCS distribution lines down several times a year: usually a tree limb on a pole, occasionally a substation lockout.
The fastest way to report an outage on UCS lines is to text OUT to 85700 from the phone number registered on your account. UCS receives the location instantly and adds it to the outage dashboard. Calling (817) 556-4000 works for accounts without text on file.
556-4000
What to actually do as a UCS member.
Set up account & auto-pay
Call (817) 556-4000 with your service address, last bill, and SSN-last-4 to activate or transfer service. Online portal at ucs.net handles auto-pay and paperless billing.
Register the text-OUT number
Put the phone number you actually carry on the UCS account, so a text of OUT to 85700 maps to the right meter on the first try during a storm.
Track your PCRF month over month
Note the PCRF on the bottom of each bill. A swing of more than 1¢/kWh means a budget update; a swing of more than 3¢/kWh in winter is a sign to insulate.
Vote at the annual meeting
You are an owner of UCS, not just a customer. Board elections determine who approves rates, capital-credit retirements and territory investment. Each member-location gets one vote.
Ask about LIHEAP & CEAP
If you struggle with a bill, the Texas CEAP (the state's LIHEAP implementation) can pay arrears for eligible households. Apply through your county community-action agency.
Stop searching Power to Choose
There is no REP that serves UCS territory. The state comparison site at powertochoose.org returns plans for neighboring ZIP codes that are not actually available on your meter.
Common questions about UCS.
No. UCS opted out of the 2002 Texas retail electricity deregulation. The cooperative supplies all power to all meters in its 14-county service area, and there is no ERCOT REP that can deliver to a UCS meter. The state Power to Choose site does not return real options for UCS ZIP codes.
Text the word OUT to 85700 from the phone number registered on your account. This is the fastest method and feeds the live outage dashboard at ucs.net. If text is not set up, call the Cleburne dispatch line at (817) 556-4000, which runs 24/7. Do not call ERCOT or a Texas REP, they have no operational role on UCS lines.
The Power Cost Recovery Factor is a monthly rider that passes through the cost UCS pays its wholesale supplier (Brazos Electric) for energy. It moves up and down with natural gas prices, wind output, ERCOT scarcity events and Brazos's monthly settlement. UCS does not profit from it, it is a true-up.
UCS itself does not own generation. It buys wholesale power through Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, the generation-and-transmission (G&T) coop owned by UCS and 15 other Texas distribution coops. Brazos's portfolio mixes natural gas, wind, and market purchases settled in the ERCOT real-time market.
Capital credits are your share of UCS margin (revenue above operating cost) allocated to you each year proportional to how much electricity you bought. They are not paid immediately; the board retires them on a multi-year schedule. If you moved away from UCS territory, unclaimed credits may still be in your name; call (817) 556-4000 with your former service address to request a check.
UCS serves 14 counties in north-central Texas, headquartered in Cleburne (Johnson County). Service area covers Johnson, Hood, Somervell, Bosque, Erath, Palo Pinto, Parker, Tarrant (rural pockets only), Hill, Ellis and adjacent counties. Confirm coverage for your exact address with the UCS service map at ucs.net before assuming retail-choice options exist.
More U.S. states with energy choice
Same playbook, different utility. Pick another deregulated state to compare utilities, suppliers and switching rules.
