Plano Business Electricity Rates
ElectricChoice Energy Research · Updated
- Plano is on the same Oncor grid as Dallas. Same rates and providers.
- Most Plano businesses end up paying 10–12¢ per kWh all-in.
- Rates drop with higher usage. Comparing providers gets you custom pricing.
How Plano Offices Are Metered
Plano’s Collin County corridor is one of the largest concentrations of leased office and retail space in Texas. Most of it is in multi-tenant buildings where the electricity arrangement falls into one of three patterns, and the pattern determines everything else.
Check the lease, not the building
The metering arrangement is written into the lease. If you are about to sign a new Plano office lease and electricity cost matters to you, ask about the meter before you negotiate rent. A direct meter gives you control. A submeter gives you visibility. A bundled arrangement gives you neither.
Pass-Through Rates in Leased Space
In a submetered building, the landlord buys electricity for the whole building and allocates the cost to each suite. The rate they charge you includes the energy they bought, the Oncor delivery charges, and usually an administrative fee. The question is whether that fee is reasonable.
What is inside a submetered pass-through rate
Typical for a Plano Class A office building, October 2026
| Component | Rate | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Energy supply | 5.80¢ | Landlord’s contract with a retail provider |
| Oncor delivery | 5.1227¢ | State-regulated, same for everyone |
| Fixed charges, spread across building | ~0.30–0.50¢ | Depends on building size and occupancy |
| Fair pass-through | 11.32¢ | Sum of the above, no markup |
| With admin markup | 12.12¢ | 0.5–1.0¢ administrative fee added |
A pass-through rate in the 12 to 13 cent range in Plano right now is within the normal band. If you are seeing 14, 15, or more, either the landlord negotiated a bad contract, the building is on an expired contract rolling at a penalty rate, or the markup is higher than standard. You are entitled to ask.
At 6,000 kWh a month, the gap between the direct-meter rate and a marked-up pass-through is roughly $72 to $150 a month. On a five-year lease that adds up. It is not always worth fighting over, but it is always worth knowing.
After-Hours HVAC Charges
In many Plano office buildings, the central HVAC system shuts down at 6 or 7 p.m. If your team works late, you request after-hours cooling, and the building charges you per hour. This is not an electricity rate — it is a building services charge — but it shows up on your utility recap and it can dwarf the actual electricity cost.
Building HVAC runs on the standard schedule. Electricity cost is embedded in operating expenses or the submetered pass-through. No surprise charges.
Per-zone or per-floor hourly charge, with a one- or two-hour minimum. Varies by building. Some pass the raw cost, others round up generously.
Saturday or Sunday HVAC requests may carry a higher minimum. If your business runs every Saturday morning, this adds hundreds a month and should be in the lease.
Negotiate it before you sign
If your team routinely works past 7 p.m. or comes in on Saturdays, build a set number of after-hours HVAC hours into the lease at no incremental charge. This is a standard negotiation point for tech companies and professional services firms in Plano and landlords expect it.
Supplemental cooling as an alternative
Some tenants install a supplemental mini-split or PTAC unit on their own meter for server rooms or spaces that need cooling outside building hours. The electricity cost is a fraction of the per-hour charge, and it runs on your schedule, not the building’s.
Track it separately
After-hours charges often appear on the same invoice as your electricity pass-through and get mentally lumped together. Break them out. The electricity portion may be reasonable while the HVAC surcharge is where the money actually goes.
What Plano Commercial Electricity Costs Right Now
Plano is on the Oncor grid, same as Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington. The delivery charge is identical. The energy rate comes out of the ERCOT North zone, also the same. The city name on the bill does not change the price. Your usage level and your metering arrangement do.
| 5.1227¢ | Oncor delivery, per kWh | Same rate as every other Oncor city. Non-negotiable, set by the state. |
| 5.15–6.40¢ | Energy rate range | Depends on usage volume, contract length, and load factor. Office loads fall in the middle of this range. |
| 11.0¢ | Typical office all-in at 6,000 kWh | Energy plus delivery plus fixed charges on a standard-sized Plano office suite. |
| $662 | That same office, monthly bill | Before after-hours HVAC, before any landlord markup, before taxes. |
By business type in Plano
Estimated monthly bills with current Oncor delivery and a market energy rate
| Business | kWh/mo | Bill | All-in rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small office suite (2–3 people) | 2,200 | $260 | 11.83¢ |
| Mid-size professional office | 6,000 | $662 | 11.03¢ |
| Retail storefront at a Plano center | 8,500 | $935 | 11.00¢ |
| Medical or dental practice | 9,200 | $1,021 | 11.10¢ |
| Large corporate floor (full building) | 42,000 | $4,321 | 10.29¢ |
Notice the effective rate drops as usage goes up. This is the fixed-charge effect: the $6.70 monthly Oncor fee gets spread across more kWh. A 2,200 kWh office is paying over a third of a cent just for the fixed charge. A 42,000 kWh floor pays a sixteenth of a cent. Same fee, very different impact.
If You Have Your Own Meter, Here Is What to Do With It
A direct Oncor meter with your own ESI ID means full access to the deregulated market. For a typical Plano office that is an opportunity worth a few hundred dollars a year on a small suite and several thousand on a large one. The process is straightforward if you approach it right.
Pull twelve months of bills
You need to know your annual usage pattern, not just one month. Plano offices are cooling-dominated, so summer bills can be double winter. Suppliers quote off the annual shape, and you need to see it before they do.
Compare energy-only rates
Ask every supplier for the energy component in cents per kWh, separately from Oncor delivery. That is the only number that differs between offers. Everything else is the same.
Set a calendar reminder at month 10
Most commercial contracts auto-renew at a much higher rate if you miss the cancellation window. Mark the date the day you sign. For a 12-month Plano office contract, the notice window is typically 30 to 60 days before expiration.
Read the EFL
The Electricity Facts Label is a standardized one-page disclosure that every Texas retail provider is required to give you. It shows the all-in price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh. For a Plano office using 6,000 kWh, those breakpoints are too small to reflect your real cost, but the EFL also discloses fees and early termination charges.
Aggregate if you have multiple sites
If your company runs several Plano or DFW offices with separate meters, one contract covering all of them usually gets better pricing than shopping each individually. One renewal date, one provider, higher volume discount.
Skip the door-to-door rep
Commercial electricity sales reps who walk into Plano office parks are usually representing one provider at an inflated rate. They are not comparing the market for you. A legitimate broker or a direct comparison does that.
Getting the Landlord to Shop the Building’s Rate
If you are submetered and stuck with the landlord’s rate, you can still influence it. The approach is not to complain about the cost. It is to show the landlord that the building’s contract is above market and that fixing it benefits them too.
More on Oncor delivery charges and how to read a commercial quote: Dallas commercial electricity. For how load factor affects pricing on larger accounts: Fort Worth business electricity.
Questions We Hear From Plano
Who pays the electricity bill in a Plano office lease?
It depends entirely on the lease structure. In a gross lease, electricity is wrapped into rent or operating expenses and the landlord pays the utility. In a net lease, the tenant has their own meter and their own contract. In a modified gross, it varies. Most Plano Class A and B office buildings use either a master meter with submetered pass-through, or individual meters per suite. Check your lease before you call a provider.
Can I shop for my own electricity if my Plano office is submetered?
Not directly. If the landlord owns the meter and submeters your suite, the electricity contract belongs to the landlord. You pay whatever rate they pass through, plus any administrative markup. If you have your own Oncor meter and your own ESI ID, you can shop. The distinction is which name is on the meter, not which name is on the lease.
What is a fair electricity pass-through rate for a Plano landlord to charge?
Somewhere between the all-in rate the landlord pays and a few percent above it for administrative cost. If the landlord is passing through 14 or 15 cents for space in Plano where the market all-in rate is 11 cents, the markup is excessive. Ask for the EFL or a copy of the building's electricity invoice to see the actual rate.
How much does commercial electricity cost in Plano?
Oncor delivery is 5.1227 cents per kWh plus $6.70 a month — the same as Dallas, Fort Worth and every other Oncor city. The energy rate for office-type loads in October 2026 is running about 5.15 to 6.40 cents. Most Plano offices land around 10 to 12 cents all-in.
Why is my after-hours electricity so expensive?
In many Plano office buildings, HVAC outside normal operating hours is charged separately per hour per floor or zone. This can add $50 to $150 per after-hours session depending on the building and the system. It is not the utility doing this — it is the building management. If your team works late regularly, negotiate after-hours HVAC into the lease rather than paying per occurrence.
Does Plano have different electricity rates than Dallas?
No. Both are Oncor territory, same delivery rate, same ERCOT North load zone for energy pricing. The difference is in the building stock. Plano has a higher concentration of office and retail leases with shared or master-metered configurations, which means more tenants are paying a pass-through rate rather than shopping their own meter.
Should I ask my landlord to switch to a different electricity provider?
You can ask, and if the building is on an expired contract rolling month to month, the landlord may not even realize they are overpaying. Come with information: current Oncor-area commercial rates, a copy of the EFL from a competitive provider, and a rough estimate of building usage. Landlords respond to numbers better than requests.
Oncor delivery charges are from the Public Utility Commission of Texas monthly TDU rate report effective September 1, 2026. Energy rates reflect competitive offers in the Oncor North zone during October 2026. Pass-through and after-hours estimates are representative of Plano Class A and B office buildings and will vary by property.
