Residents in regulated energy markets often don’t understand much about who produces their energy or maintains the grid that delivers it to their homes. Since they don’t have a choice in the matter, it’s often the same company providing energy and utilities, or it’s widely known who provides these services in their area.
However, with deregulated power in Texas, having your choice of retail electricity providers means that the company producing your electricity isn’t the same as the one maintaining your local grid. It also means that understanding who provides electricity to your home doesn’t come with just one simple answer.
That’s why it’s important for Texas residents to understand energy vs. utilities in their area, who’s responsible when problems arise with their service, the difference between an electric provider and electric utility bill, and hopefully understand the Texas power grid a little better.
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What Are Utilities?
A utility refers to the infrastructure used to deliver energy, including electricity, gas, oil, and more. From the perspective of energy customers, it mostly applies to power lines and gas lines, but can include less relevant things like coal trains, control systems in power plants, and even oil tankers.
The utility company manages these methods of delivery, and an electricity utility is responsible for fixing downed power lines, operating substations, maintaining transformers and utility poles, and managing anything that carries electricity from a generator to your home. If you experience a power outage, it’s your utility company’s responsibility to get the electricity flowing again.
Utilities are also responsible for recent grid conversions that allow homeowners with solar panels to send unused solar power back into the grid for the community to use via net metering.
Providing Energy vs. Utilities
Now that you know what utility companies do, you should know how they both differ and work together with retail electricity providers. Providers in Texas purchase electricity from electricity producers and then sell it to customers. The power providers purchase is sent into the grid, where utility companies are responsible for the delivery of that power into your home.
Since providers are responsible for selling the energy, they are the ones that offer electricity plans and contracts to consumers,as well as handling billing, payments, and customer service. While you may have many options when it comes to providers throughout Texas electricity markets, only one utility company will serve your specific location.
As you can see, Texas electric utilities and providers work together to deliver power to your home in a kind of symbiotic but distanced relationship. The division of responsibilities allows these companies to focus on one aspect of furnishing electricity to residents while maintaining checks and balances in the market.
Where Is My Electric Utility Bill?
In short, there isn’t one. Providers of electricity and utilities coordinate so that the cost of all services is included in a single bill that you pay to your provider.
The amount paid to your utility company — listed as transmission and distribution, or TDU, charges — is included in the detailed breakdown of your bill each month. These are pass through charges from the utility, with no markup by your provider.
What Is Gexa Energy’s Role?
In the equation of energy supplier vs. utility, Gexa fills the role of electricity supplier or provider. We purchase electricity and then handle the sale of power to residents. While we do work together with Texas electric utilities in some ways, Gexa is not responsible for maintaining transmission equipment or fixing the root causes of power outages. But we are the ones to turn to for information about how to pick an electricity plan and your chosen plan itself, including questions about your payments and fees.
Our customer service representatives are more than happy to make sure you’re satisfied with any of the diverse Gexa Energy electricity plans and the way you purchase your electricity.
