Texas electricity prices - 15.94¢/kWh (June 2026)
Residential price, average bill, and the data-center story
- Residential electricity in Texas costs 15.94¢/kWh as of - +4.5% year over year, per U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
- The average Texas home used 1,309 kWh that month and paid an average bill of $208.75 (+5.7% vs a year earlier).
- Texas has the 28th-highest residential electricity price of the 50 states and DC - 13% below the U.S. average of 18.34¢/kWh.
Price by sector
| Sector | ¢/kWh (June 2026) | 1-yr change |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | 15.94¢ | +4.5% |
| Commercial | 8.66¢ | +2.9% |
| Industrial | 6.58¢ | +3.5% |
Data centers & Texas's electric bills
Texas enacted Senate Bill 6 in June 2025, imposing new interconnection, fee, and emergency-curtailment rules on grid loads of 75 MW or more, and the PUCT's implementing rulemaking is underway in 2026. ERCOT's large-load interconnection queue reached 233 GW by December 2025 - more than 70% of it data centers - and ERCOT's preliminary forecast shows demand reaching roughly 367,790 MW by 2032, a figure its own CEO says is likely higher than actual future growth.
- 2025-06 - Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 6 in June 2025, giving ERCOT authority to curtail loads of 75 MW or greater during firm load-shed emergencies, creating a voluntary large-load demand-response program with at least 24 hours' notice, and setting a $100,000 minimum initial interconnection fee for large-load customers. Source: Utility Dive
- 2026-03-12 - On March 12, 2026, the Public Utility Commission of Texas voted to publish draft rule 16 TAC §25.194 implementing SB 6's interconnection standards for new loads of 75 MW or more, including transmission screening study fees of $100,000 for 75-250 MW projects and $300,000 for projects over 250 MW, with comments due April 17, 2026. Source: Greenberg Traurig
- 2025-12-09 - ERCOT's large-load interconnection queue stood at 233 GW as of its December 9, 2025 board meeting - up nearly 300% from year-end 2024 - with more than 70% of the requests coming from data centers, according to ERCOT vice president Kristi Hobbs. Source: Utility Dive
- 2026-04-15 - ERCOT's preliminary long-term load forecast released April 15, 2026 projects roughly 367,790 MW of demand in the ERCOT region by 2032 - versus an all-time peak of 85,508 MW set August 10, 2023 - while ERCOT's CEO said the organization believes the forecast is higher than expected future load growth. Source: ERCOT
Each item above is dated and linked to its primary source; entries are reviewed quarterly. See the large-load tariff tracker and the who-paid-what ledger for the cross-state picture.
Water
Electricity delivered in Texas carries 1.23 liters of water per kilowatt-hour consumed at the power plants supplying it (0.80 L/kWh excluding hydropower reservoir evaporation), against a national average of 4.28. That is below the national figure, and it is a property of the grid here rather than of any one building: a data center drawing 100 GWh a year in Texas accounts for about 32.5 million gallons of power-plant water before it cools anything. All states ranked →
A data center's water use is roughly twelve times larger once the water evaporated at its power plants is counted. The Colorado River arithmetic → · how the water numbers work →