We collected 7,148 real bills from 4,478 Texans across the state and matched them against official data from ERCOT. The data paints a clear picture: loyalty isn't rewarded, your neighbors are paying wildly different rates, and even with electricity, brand comes at a premium.
85% of Texans have the right to choose their energy provider. It would benefit them to do so.
We hear people tell us — with pride — that they've been with the same provider for over a decade. The data suggests they may not be getting the best deal.
When we combine the submitted bills with historical switching patterns, we could see how each home had changed providers in the past 4 years. Then we compared their provided energy rate.
People who have switched at least twice pay 1.5¢ less per kWh. At average Texas usage*, that's about $307 per year. The first switch doesn't seem to help much — the real savings kick in once you've shopped around at least twice.
Source: Base Power Bill Comparison Data Set, ERCOT.
Here are 3 real homes that submitted their bills. They're on the same street in Dallas, connected to the same wires and same poles. The only difference is their energy provider — and the rate they pay.
Source: Base Power Bill Comparison Data Set.
Same street, same wires, same poles. The cheapest rate is 13.7¢. The most expensive is 25.3¢ — an 11.6¢ gap. At average usage*, that's over $2,000 per year in pure rate difference for identical electricity.
People on the same street are paying wildly different amounts, despite having access to the same plans.
P.S. If you can't find the addresses above, it's because we anonymized them.
We cross-referenced median rates from our bill data against official EIA 2024 customer counts for every retail energy provider in Texas. The correlation is hard to ignore: more popular brands often charge the highest rates.
Every dot is a Texas retail energy provider. The x-axis shows their actual market size from EIA data. The y-axis shows the median rate their members are paying calculated from the collected bill dataset.
Source: EIA, Base Power Bill Comparison Data Set.
Base is on a mission to fix the grid and bring affordable, reliable energy to everyone. We aim to combat market dynamics like above that we believe are unfair. We’ve designed a business model that uses technology effectively, so that we don’t have to leverage loyalty-penalizing pricing or complex plans.
This is why at Base:
We believe in transparency. No hidden fees. No nonsense. Go to basepowercompany.com/energy to see how much you can save with Base. Bring a bill to get the most accurate comparison.
Upload your bill and get an instant comparison against Base. No commitment.
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