Oncor Electric Delivery and CenterPoint Energy ranked among the nation’s worst for power shutoffs in 2024, according to federal data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that offers the most detailed look yet at which electric utilities cut service the most often when customers fall behind on their bills.
Oncor, based in Dallas, led all investor-owned utilities in the country in total residential electric disconnections, reporting 1.24 million shutoffs in 2024. CenterPoint’s Texas subsidiary, which serves the Houston area, among other areas in the country, ranked third nationally with 954,139 disconnections.
When measured by disconnection rate—the number of shutoffs relative to customers served—CenterPoint reported roughly 38 disconnections for every 100 customers, while Oncor reported about 36 per 100 customers. Both ranked in the top three nationally among investor-owned utilities, trailing only Oklahoma’s Public Service Company of Oklahoma.
Texas-New Mexico Power also appeared in the top five, reporting roughly 27 disconnections for every 100 customers in its Texas territory. Its parent company, TXNM Energy, was recently acquired by real estate and private equity firm Blackstone after the Public Utilities Commission (PUCT) of Texas approved the deal in February despite staff testimony warning customer rates could increase.
Taken together, six of the 10 highest disconnection rates among investor-owned utilities nationwide were reported by utilities operating in Oklahoma or Texas.
Augusto Bernal, CenterPoint’s director of communications, told Courier Texas those numbers don’t paint the full picture, and that the company is a transmission and distribution utility—overseeing “the poles and wires”—not a retail electricity provider, and that the company does not initiate disconnections on its own.
“We really don’t disconnect our electric customers,” Bernal told Courier Texas. “We operate under the guidance of those retail electric providers, and that’s regulated by the Public Utility Commission here in Texas.”
In Texas’ deregulated electricity market, customers choose from competing retail energy providers—companies like NRG, TXU Energy, Green Mountain Energy, and Octopus Energy to name but a few of the over 120 companies—who generate and sell power directly to consumers. When a customer falls behind on their bill, it is the retail provider, not CenterPoint, that initiates the disconnection order. Companies like CenterPoint and Oncor—transmission and distribution service providers—then execute said order.
“We take care of the meters and the wires,” Bernal said.
Bernal said CenterPoint does maintain a critical customer list for residents who rely on medical equipment at home, and that the company follows state mandates restricting disconnections during dangerous heat. “We don’t disconnect when we are under extreme heat,” he said, though he could not specify the temperature threshold that triggers the protection.
That distinction—between who orders a disconnection and who carries it out—points to a significant transparency gap at the heart of Texas’ex deregulated electricity market. State rules require retail electric providers to file quarterly reports with the PUCT disclosing how many disconnect notices they sent and how many disconnections they requested, broken down by month and by utility territory. But the commission does not publish that information in any format accessible to consumers or researchers, meaning Texans have no way of knowing which retail provider is cutting off the most customers. Courier Texas has filed a public information request with the PUCT seeking those records. Oncor did not respond to a request for comment.
That lack of transparency became a legislative flashpoint in 2025. Democratic state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (TX-20th District) introduced legislation that would have required all Texas utilities and electric market participants to report disconnection data to the PUCT, with the agency publishing weekly updates from June through September. The bill did not receive a hearing. Hinojosa represents customers in American Electric Provider Texas’s territory in South Texas—one of the few utilities that did not report data to the EIA at all.
The issue has also surfaced in this year’s Texas governor’s race. Democratic nominee Gina Hinojosa has made utility costs a central campaign argument, telling voters on the trail Texas has “the most people who are being disconnected from their electricity of any other state.” The federal data puts hard numbers behind that claim.
These disconnect numbers land at a moment of rising financial pressure on Texas electricity customers. According to a report from the Texas Energy Poverty Center, average residential retail electricity prices rose 30 percent between 2021 and 2025, with rates projected to climb another 29 percent by 2030.
Meanwhile, these companies are bringing in massive profits. Oncor reported $968 million in net income in 2024, which rose about 10 percent to more than $1 billion in 2025. CenterPoint Energy recorded $1.019 billion in net income in 2024, rising to $1.052 billion in 2025.
