Tiered Rate Plan Calculator

Tiered rate plans look simple on paper. Use less electricity, pay a lower rate. Use more, pay a higher rate. Seems fair, right? Here’s what they’re actually doing.

These plans divide your monthly usage into tiers or blocks. The first chunk of kilowatt-hours costs one price, the next chunk costs more, and so on. Providers pitch this as rewarding efficiency, but the reality is different: the tier thresholds are set so that most households end up in the higher-priced tiers for a significant portion of their usage.

The math gets tricky fast. A plan might advertise a great rate for the first 1,000 kWh, but if you use 1,500 kWh in a month, you’re paying that higher rate on 500 kWh. In Texas summers when the AC is running constantly, you can blow through those lower tiers in the first week and spend the rest of the month paying premium rates.

This calculator uses your actual Smart Meter Texas data to show you exactly how much of your usage falls into each tier and what you’d actually pay. No marketing estimates. Just your real consumption broken down by tier, compared to a standard fixed rate so you can see if the “savings” are real or just clever pricing.

You can find the terms in the EFL(Electricity Facts Label) for the specific plan you are comparing- AKA Facts Label from Power To Choose

You will also need your data usage file from SmartMeterTexas. See instructions here