Would you switch to an electric company you’d never heard of?
What if it saved $500 vs. your current provider? What if both were actually the same company?
Many lesser known Retail Electricity Providers (“REP”s) in Texas are actually corporate siblings of larger, more advertised “competitors”. Per the table below, some large corporations manage as many as 8 different retail brands. Why might they juggle multiple competing brands instead of merging them into one?
The main reason is “marketing segmentation”, so different brands can target different customer groups. When big brands spend a lot on TV and radio ads, name recognition allows them to charge some consumers more for commodity electricity. But not all customers are willing to pay extra just for familiarity, so retailers also offer them cheaper plans under a lesser brand without jeopardizing the big brands’ premiums. Sometimes they create the new brand from scratch, and other times they just acquire an existing smaller company.
Under the hood, subsidiaries may be separately managed for a while, but eventually the forces of corporate efficiency tend to meld them together. Look closely at the websites and EFL documents of the sibling companies in the table, and you’ll see the similarities. If you love or hate a particular retailer, you might expect or want to hold their peers in the same regard.
Online reviews often indicate large satisfaction differences between commonly-owned brands. Sometimes this reflects smaller customer service budgets for value brands. Other times it’s a higher price or credit sensitivity of their customers. And sometimes its the bias of review sites that carry plans from one sub-brand but not another. We include the Complaint Ratios from the Texas PUC’s latest Complaint Scorecard below, so you can draw your own conclusions.
Regardless of pricing or reviews, know that your choice of electricity retailer has no effect on your service reliability. Zero, zilch, nada. Retailers only set their pricing (see above) and manage your billing. They are completely independent from your Transmission and Distribution Utility — e.g. Centerpoint, Oncor, etc. — who builds and maintains the power lines that keep electricity flowing to your house. (TDUs remain regulated monopolies, so you can’t pick your TDU or avoid the charges they lump into your monthly bill.)
For shoppers, more brands and plans represents more potential savings opportunities. Click the green button to plug your monthly usage data into our RateGrinder tool and find your cheapest options. If you don’t recognize the lowest cost providers, check the table below and you might be surprised.
Texas Electric Companies Family Tree
| Corporate Parent or REP | Does Business in Texas As… | Complaint Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| ALLIANCE POWER COMPANY LLC | APC ELECTRIC | – |
| AMERICAN L&P CO | AMERICAN LIGHT & POWER | – |
| AMERIPOWER LLC | AMERIPOWER LLC | – |
| AP Holdings, LLC | AP GAS & ELECTRIC (TX) LLC | 0.6 |
| ATG CLEAN ENERGY HOLDINGS INC | GREEN ENERGY EXCHANGE | 2.8 |
| AXON POWER & GAS LLC | AXON POWER & GAS LLC | – |
| Berkshire Hathaway Inc. | MIDAMERICAN ENERGY SERVICES LLC | 0.5 |
| BRILLIANT ENERGY LLC | BRILLIANT ENERGY LLC | 0.8 |
| BROOKLET ENERGY DISTRIBUTION LLC | ACACIA ENERGY | – |
| VITAL POWER | – | |
| Calpine Corporation | CHAMPION ENERGY SERVICES LLC | 0.5 |
| Hello Energy | 0.5 | |
| Centrica PLC | BOUNCE ENERGY INC | – |
| CPL RETAIL ENERGY | 0.7 | |
| DIRECT ENERGY | 0.8 | |
| FIRST CHOICE POWER | 0.9 | |
| WTU RETAIL ENERGY | 1.1 | |
| CLEARVIEW ELECTRIC INC | CLEARVIEW ELECTRIC INC | – |
| ConService, LLC | ILUMINAR ENERGY LLC | – |
| ELIGO ENERGY TX LLC | ELIGO ENERGY TX LLC | – |
| Engie | THINK ENERGY | 0.8 |
| ENTRUST ENERGY INC | ENTRUST ENERGY INC | 2.7 |
| POWER OF TEXAS | 3.5 | |
| POWER OF TEXAS HOLDINGS INC | 3.5 | |
| ERM Power Limited | BEYOND POWER | – |
| SOURCE POWER & GAS LLC | – | |
| Exelon Corporation | CONSTELLATION NEWENERGY INC | 1.1 |
| STARTEX POWER | 1.1 | |
| GBPOWER LLC | G-POWER | – |
| Genie Retail Energy | SOUTHERN FEDERAL POWER LLC | – |
| GRIDPLUS TEXAS INC | GRIDPLUS ENERGY | – |
| Hanwha Group | CHARIOT ENERGY | 2.8 |
| IGS Energy | IGS ENERGY | – |
| Infinite Energy Holdings, LLC | INFINITE ENERGY | 0.7 |
| VETERAN ENERGY LLC | 0.6 | |
| INFUSE ENERGY LLC | INFUSE ENERGY LLC | 0.8 |
| Just Energy Group Inc. | AMIGO ENERGY | 2.0 |
| HUDSON ENERGY SERVICES LLC | – | |
| JUST ENERGY | 1.7 | |
| SMART PREPAID ELECTRIC | 2.1 | |
| TARA ENERGY | 2.1 | |
| LPT LLC | LIBERTY POWER | 17.3 |
| LPT LLC | 17.3 | |
| LS Power | LIFEENERGY LLC | – |
| MEGA ENERGY LP | Texans Energy | 7.7 |
| MP2 ENERGY TEXAS LLC | MP2 ENERGY TEXAS LLC | – |
| NEC Co-op Energy | NEC Co-op Energy | 0.1 |
| Nextera Energy, Inc. | FRONTIER UTILITIES | 1.2 |
| FRONTIER UTILITIES LLC | 1.2 | |
| GEXA ENERGY | 1.3 | |
| NRG ENERGY, INC. | CIRRO ENERGY | 1.2 |
| DISCOUNT POWER | 1.2 | |
| GREEN MOUNTAIN ENERGY COMPANY | 0.6 | |
| PENNYWISE POWER | 1.2 | |
| RELIANT | 0.5 | |
| XOOM ENERGY TEXAS LLC | – | |
| OUR ENERGY LLC | OUR ENERGY LLC | 1.4 |
| PENSTAR POWER LLC | PENSTAR POWER LLC | – |
| POGO ENERGY LLC | Pogo Energy | 0.4 |
| PRO POWER PROVIDERS LLC | Circular Energy | – |
| PULSE POWER LLC | Energy to Go | 3.8 |
| Lone Star Energy | 3.8 | |
| New Power Texas | 3.8 | |
| PowerNext | 3.8 | |
| PULSE POWER LLC | 3.8 | |
| QUEST DISTRIBUTORS LLC | My Quest Energy | – |
| Spark Energy, Inc. | SPARK ENERGY LLC | 1.1 |
| STREAM SPE LTD | STREAM ENERGY | – |
| Summer Energy Holdings, Inc. | PRONTO POWER | 0.3 |
| SUMMER ENERGY LLC | 0.3 | |
| TEXPO POWER LP | SOUTHWEST POWER & LIGHT | 0.5 |
| TEXPO ENERGY | 0.5 | |
| YEP | 0.5 | |
| The Chron Organization, Inc. | SHYNE ENERGY | – |
| V247 POWER CORPORATION | V247 POWER CORPORATION | 0.3 |
| Vistra Energy Corp | 4CHANGE ENERGY | 1.4 |
| AMBIT ENERGY | 1.7 | |
| Energy Rewards | 1.4 | |
| Express Energy | 1.4 | |
| POWER HOUSE ENERGY | 1.4 | |
| TRIEAGLE ENERGY LP | 1.4 | |
| TXU ENERGY | 0.3 | |
| Viridian Energy | 1.4 | |
| VOLT ELECTRICITY PROVIDER LP | VOLT ELECTRICITY PROVIDER LP | 3.2 |
| VOLT EP | 3.2 | |
| WINDROSE POWER AND GAS LLC | WINDROSE ENERGY | 0.4 |
| YOUNG ENERGY LLC | PAYLESS POWER | 1.7 |
Last updated 1/22/2020
Corrections or clarifications to the Family Tree? Please send them to feedback@texaspowerguide.com