AEP Texas Central: delivery charges, service area, and outages

No. AEP Texas Central delivers electricity and maintains the poles, wires, and meters, but it doesn't sell electricity to homes. You buy electricity from a retail electricity provider, which sends the bill and includes AEP Texas's delivery charges; about 146 providers did business with AEP Texas at the end of 2025. Billing, payments, deposits, and starting or stopping service go through the provider.

Central covers South Texas: the Coastal Bend, Victoria, Laredo and the border, and the Rio Grande Valley. North covers West and North-Central Texas, including Abilene, San Angelo, and the Big Bend. They are one company with one website and outage number, but separate rates: for most Central homes the delivery charge is 0.1147¢ per kWh higher, about $1.15 in a 1,000 kWh month, because of the Harvey storm bond charge. The ESI ID tells them apart: Central's start with 1003278, North's with 1020404.

It repays $235.3 million of bonds issued in 2019 to cover power restoration after Hurricane Harvey and earlier storms in the Central area. The charge is 0.1217¢ per kWh, less a 0.0070¢ tax credit, about $1.15 in a 1,000 kWh month, whichever provider you use. AEP Texas North customers don't pay it, and neither do the McAllen–Mission homes and businesses that moved from Oncor in 2019. It adjusts each year and ends when the bonds are repaid, scheduled for 2029.

McAllen, yes: it's one of AEP Texas Central's communities, and about 3,000 McAllen and Mission homes and businesses that Oncor had served moved to AEP Texas in 2019. Brownsville only in part: the city-owned Brownsville Public Utilities Board serves much of it, with no retail plans to choose. Check the exact address.

AEP Energy is a retail supplier owned by AEP Texas's parent, American Electric Power; AEP's annual report lists its markets as Illinois, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. CPL Retail Energy and WTU Retail Energy were the retail businesses for AEP Texas's areas until AEP sold them to Centrica in 2002; they are subsidiaries of NRG Energy today and have no ownership tie to AEP Texas.

No. AEP Texas restores power across its area, and your provider has no part in it: its tariff requires it to serve every home and every provider without discrimination. Providers differ in the energy price, fees, contract terms, and features of their plans.

An ESI ID is the number that identifies the electric service point at your address. AEP Texas Central's are 17 digits and start with 1003278; AEP Texas North's start with 1020404, and Oncor's are 17 digits too, so the prefix is what tells them apart. You'll find yours on a recent electricity bill, and a provider can look it up from your address when you sign up.

Choose a plan from a retail provider and give it your service address and move-in date. The provider sends the start request to AEP Texas through ERCOT, so you don't need to contact AEP Texas yourself. AEP Texas's tariff has it connect service at an existing smart meter on the requested day when the order reaches it by 7 p.m. Central on any day except Sundays and holidays. A home that needs a new meter needs the order by 5 p.m. on a business day, at least two business days ahead. Providers set their own order cutoffs and fees.

Create an online account at aeptexas.com, then turn on outage alerts by text or email in its notification settings. Alerts are free, though message and data rates may apply. Each person who wants alerts needs their own login. To report an outage, call 866-223-8508 or report it online.