Multi-Location Business Electricity in Texas: How to Run Every Site as One Portfolio

A business with several Texas locations can buy electricity for all of them at once, but not as one meter. Each location keeps its own meter IDs and its own utility delivery charges. What you can combine is the supply side: one supplier, one agreement, one renewal date and, if you ask for it, one summary bill. Getting there is mostly a matter of inventory and timing, and of negotiating a few contract terms before you sign, not after.

This guide is written for restaurant groups first, and for franchisees, retail and convenience store chains, multi-office medical and dental practices, and small property portfolios. It covers Texas's retail-choice areas. Opening a single new site is covered in our new-location electricity checklist.

What Buying Power for Every Location Means in Texas

In the Texas market, the unit you buy for is the ESI ID, the identifier "assigned to each point of delivery." Only one retail electric provider can serve an ESI ID at a time (16 TAC §25.5). A multi-location contract is a list of ESI IDs under one agreement. The supply price, term, start date and billing can be shared across that list. The utility's delivery charges can't, because every delivery tariff applies to "one Point of Delivery and measured through one Meter."

Start With Every ESI ID, Not Every Address

Most portfolios have more meters than locations. A restaurant may have a separate sign meter, a strip center has house and parking-lot meters, and a store can still carry a construction meter. CenterPoint's tariff, for example, requires "separate and distinct ESI IDs for temporary and permanent service." Build the list in three passes:

1. Pull the ESI ID from each site's latest bill. Our ESI ID lookup guide shows where it's printed.
2. Check the list against your utility or Smart Meter Texas. Smart Meter Texas keeps 15-minute interval data for two years for meters in the Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas and TNMP areas.
3. Flag every address with more than one ESI ID, and note which meter serves what.

Suppliers price each ESI ID on its usage. With a signed letter of authorization, a provider can request the most recent 12 months of usage, which the utility sends "within three Business Days." One authorization can cover sites in several utility areas (ERCOT Retail Market Guide). For each ESI ID, record at least:

That table is the backbone of everything below. Most multi-site problems start with a meter nobody listed.

Sort Sites by Utility: Four Delivery Price Books, and Some Cities Can't Join

Every competitive site pays its utility's regulated delivery charges on top of the supply price, and each utility sets its own. The line between the small and larger non-residential delivery classes also differs:

• Oncor and AEP Texas: 10 kW
• CenterPoint: 10 kVA
• TNMP: 5 kW

Above those lines, delivery is billed mainly on each meter's peak demand (see what a demand charge is). The class can stick: Oncor keeps a premise in the larger class until it completes 12 consecutive billing months at or below 10 kW, and CenterPoint keeps it there for at least twelve months. So the same supply price produces a different all-in cost in Houston than in Dallas, and a different one again at a high-demand store than at a quiet one.

Some Texas sites can't be on a competitive contract at all. Areas served by city-owned utilities and co-ops that haven't opted into retail choice, which ERCOT says "include Austin and San Antonio, and many small, non-urban communities," stay on their local utility's rates (ERCOT Grid Insights, November 2025). The PUCT also lists four utilities where state law delays competition: Entergy Gulf States, Southwestern Public Service, El Paso Electric and AEP SWEPCO (PUCT). Two former exceptions have opted in: Lubbock Power & Light customers moved to competitive providers in spring 2024, and Nueces Electric Cooperative has opted in. Leave the non-choice sites out of any bid so suppliers don't price meters they can't serve.

Can One Contract Cover All Your Locations?

Yes, for the competitive sites. Business supply agreements routinely list many ESI IDs. One published Texas agreement appoints the provider "for the ESI ID(s) served under this Agreement" and commits to "bill Customer on a consolidated basis for all ESI IDs upon Customer's request." That form was written for a public-sector buying group, but the structure is common.

One contract doesn't have to mean one price. Bundling locations mainly buys a real bid for sites too small to get much attention on their own, plus less paperwork. It doesn't automatically lower every site's rate, because suppliers still price each account's load and each utility's risk. Ask each supplier for two prices on the same day: one for the whole portfolio, and one per site or per utility group. A Houston-and-Dallas group, for example, may price better as a CenterPoint group and an Oncor group than as one bundle. Be wary of anyone promising a fixed percentage saving from aggregation. We haven't found a public source that measures one for Texas.

Get Every Site Onto One Renewal Date

Locations signed one at a time renew one at a time, and the ones nobody is watching drift onto month-to-month pricing. Aligning end dates ("co-terming") is usually the single biggest improvement a multi-site business can make. Pick a target date, then use one or more of these:

• Forward-start contracts. Sign now for service that starts the day each current contract ends, so there's no gap and no holdover.
• Fold sites in as they expire. Add each location to the anchor agreement when its current contract ends, if the agreement allows additions at contract terms.
• A short bridge term. Price a contract that ends on your target date for a site that would otherwise renew off-cycle. Not every supplier offers one, so treat it as an option to price, not a standard product.
• Blend and extend. Some suppliers will average your current rate with today's market in exchange for a longer term. It's more common for larger accounts, and small commercial sites may not qualify.

The start date itself isn't the obstacle. With a smart meter, a provider can request a switch on a specific date, and CenterPoint's tariff charges $0.00 for that self-selected switch and nothing for changing providers. What matters is that every current contract's end date and termination terms are known before you sign. For single-site timing, see when to renew and what happens when a contract expires.

When Bundling Small Sites Changes Your Protections

This is the Texas detail most multi-site guides miss. The PUCT's customer protection rules give extra protections to "small commercial" customers, defined as those with peak demand under 50 kW "unless the customer's load is part of an aggregation program whose peak demand is in excess of 50 kilowatts" (16 TAC §25.471(d)(11)). The same rule lets "a non-residential customer whose load is part of an aggregation in excess of 50 kilowatts" agree in writing to lower protections than the rules otherwise require (§25.471(a)(3)).

For a single small site, those default protections include (§25.475):

• at least three expiration notices, the last at least 14 days before the contract ends;
• a month-to-month product afterwards that you can cancel "at any time without a fee";
• no early termination fee when you move out of the location and give a forwarding address;
• a ban on indexed products, so small sites can only be offered fixed-rate products.

Twenty 15 kW cafés are each small commercial on their own. Grouped into one agreement that peaks above 50 kW, they can fall outside that class, and then the master agreement's own terms on notices, holdover pricing and closures apply instead. We haven't found PUCT guidance on whether a company's own multi-site contract counts as an "aggregation program," so don't assume either way. Ask the supplier directly and get the answers in the contract:

1. What notice will you send before the agreement expires?
2. What price applies if it expires before we renew?
3. What happens, and what do we owe, when a location closes?

Your own renewal calendar is the real safeguard either way. Individual sites at 50 kW or more, which includes many full-service restaurants and refrigeration-heavy convenience stores, never had those default protections, so their contract terms apply from day one. Our guide to commercial electricity contracts in Texas goes through each of those clauses.

Adding or Closing a Location After You Sign

Groups change during a two- or three-year term: stores open, close, relocate or get sold. How the contract handles that is negotiated, and it's easier to negotiate before you sign. The published Texas agreement mentioned above uses an "ESI ID Change Notice" to add or remove sites. It adds smaller sites on the contract's terms, reprices additions above a set demand threshold, and excludes "the closure of a facility associated with an ESI ID" from termination damages. Other forms set a band on how much usage you can add or drop and charge a termination payment outside it. The band varies by contract, so check it in each offer rather than relying on a "typical" figure.

Operationally, when a store closes, make sure a move-out is submitted (or, for a landlord, that a continuous service agreement is in place) so the closed site stops billing your business. Closed accounts that keep generating charges are a common multi-site billing problem. For a small commercial site that relocates, the rules waive the early termination fee if you give a forwarding address. For larger or aggregated sites, the closure clause is your whole protection.

One Bill or Many: Summary Billing in Texas

Many guides on "consolidated billing" describe markets where the utility sends the bill. In Texas's competitive areas, your retail electric provider sends it, so the question is which invoice format your provider offers. NRG's published guide for business customers describes three:

• Individual billing: "one invoice per meter (ESI ID)," each on its own read cycle.
• Collective billing: one invoice covering several ESI IDs.
• Summary billing: each site's invoice plus a summary statement.

The same guide notes that collective invoices wait until 80% of the usage data arrives, so some meters' usage "may get bumped to the next month's invoice," and that reconciling cancelled or re-billed data on one combined invoice can be hard for larger customers (NRG billing options). If you run store-level P&Ls, ask for a summary bill that keeps per-ESI ID detail.

Franchisees, Landlords and Who Signs

The customer is whoever receives service in its own name, and an authorization "is not valid unless it is signed and dated by the customer" (§25.474). No PUCT rule speaks to franchises specifically, so here's how it usually works in practice:

• Franchisees normally hold their stores' ESI IDs through their own companies and sign their own enrollments. A multi-unit franchisee can pool its own stores, but each signing entity must be the customer on its accounts.
• A brand program means the franchisor negotiates terms and each franchisee signs its own confirmation or authorizes a representative. Corporate-owned units can sit directly on the brand's agreement.
• Tenants with their own meters contract directly. Landlords hold house, common-area, sign and parking-lot meters. A tenant in a master-metered space has nothing to shop. The lease tells you who holds which meter.

Two ERCOT mechanics matter when leases change. A landlord can set up a continuous service agreement so a vacant space rolls to the landlord's provider instead of going dark. And a new tenant blocked by a previous occupant's switch hold can clear it with documents such as a signed lease, a notarized landlord affidavit or a certificate of occupancy (ERCOT Retail Market Guide).

Credit follows the signing entity too. For business customers, providers set their own nondiscriminatory credit criteria and may ask for a deposit, which must be refunded after 24 consecutive on-time bills (§25.478). A newly formed store LLC may face a deposit even when the parent company is strong. One portfolio-level deposit or a parent guarantee is worth asking about, but it's a negotiation, not a right.

Comparing Offers Across Sites Fairly

Suppliers' quotes usually expire quickly, so have the site list, usage authorization, signing authority and credit documents ready before bid day. An ESI ID discovered after you sign may be added at a different price. Then hold every supplier to the same specification:

• the same start date and term for every bid;
• the same product and the same list of pass-through charges;
• the same add-and-delete, closure and termination terms, or at least the differences in writing.

An "all-in" price hides a different delivery cost at every site, because delivery differs by utility and rate class. The fair way to compare an all-in offer with a pass-through offer is to model each ESI ID on its actual kWh and kW. Load factor is a big part of why two stores that look alike price differently.

A Restaurant Group Example: Getting Six Stores to One Date

Here's a hypothetical, simplified example. It isn't a client and uses no rates. A group runs six quick-service stores: four in Houston (CenterPoint) and two in the Dallas area (Oncor).

• Stores 1 and 2 (Houston) are on a contract ending next March.
• Stores 3 and 4 (Houston) end in September.
• Stores 5 and 6 (Dallas) were opened by a previous owner and are on month-to-month pricing.

The group picks next March as its anniversary. Assuming stores 5 and 6 are small commercial accounts, they can move now, because a month-to-month product for small commercial customers carries no termination fee. They go on a contract ending in March. Stores 1 and 2 sign a forward-start renewal that begins when their contract ends. Stores 3 and 4 get priced two ways: a bridge term to March, or joining the new agreement in September at its terms. From the following March onward, all six renew together, with both a portfolio price and CenterPoint and Oncor group prices requested on the same day, and one summary bill with per-store detail.

Elite has served approximately fifteen restaurants. For more on restaurant loads, see Texas restaurant electricity costs, how restaurants cut electricity costs and our restaurant and food-service page. The same approach works for convenience store chains, retail centers, multi-office practices and office portfolios. If your sites also buy natural gas, the same inventory-and-calendar approach applies to commercial natural gas.

What a Multi-Site Broker Should Do for You

Multi-location businesses don't need a broker, but most don't have time to run the calendar themselves. If you use one, expect it to:

• build and maintain the ESI ID inventory and one renewal calendar;
• take bids from several suppliers on the same day, on the same specification;
• negotiate the add-and-delete, closure, billing and credit terms before signing;
• handle openings, closures and ownership changes during the term;
• check bills against the contract and the current delivery tariff.

Texas brokers must be registered with the PUCT and must tell you how they're paid and by whom (§25.486). See what energy brokers cost in Texas and why Texas businesses use brokers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get one electricity contract for all of my business locations in Texas?

Yes, for every location in a competitive-choice area. A supply agreement can list many ESI IDs, one per meter. Each site still pays its own utility's delivery charges, and sites served by a city-owned utility, a co-op that hasn't opted in, or a utility outside the competitive market can't be included.

Can I add a location to my commercial energy contract after signing?

Usually, through the contract's add-and-delete or change-notice clause. Smaller additions often join at the contract's terms, while larger ones may be repriced. What a new site pays depends on the wording you negotiated, so settle it before you sign.

What's the best electricity contract for a small business with several locations?

If each site peaks under 50 kW, Texas rules allow only fixed-rate products for them, so the choices are mostly an all-in fixed price or a fixed price with delivery charges passed through, the term length, and whether every site shares one end date. For most small chains, getting every location onto one renewal date matters more than the product.

Our locations have different contract end dates. How do we get to one renewal date?

Pick a target date, usually the latest current end date or a date you choose. Then sign forward-start contracts that begin as each current contract ends, add sites to the anchor agreement as they expire, or price a short bridge term for sites that would otherwise renew off-cycle.

Do franchisees or the franchisor sign the electricity contract?

Whoever is the customer of record for each meter, which is usually the franchisee's own company. A brand can negotiate a program that franchisees join, but each franchisee entity normally signs for its own stores, or authorizes someone to sign for it. Corporate-owned stores can sit directly on the brand's agreement.

Can we get one bill for all our Texas locations?

Often, yes. In Texas the retail electric provider sends the bill, so ask it for collective or summary billing. Keep per-site detail on the invoice so you can still track each store, and expect some meters to land on the next month's bill because utilities read meters on different days.

Why do two identical locations get different electricity rates?

Because they're rarely identical to a supplier. Different utilities charge different delivery rates, the stores may sit in different rate classes, their load factor and peak demand can differ, and they may be signed by different legal entities with different credit.

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