Find Your Electric Utility

Why you may see multiple utilities for one ZIP code

The lookup above draws from EIA Form 861 service-territory data published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It maps every electric utility in the country — investor-owned, municipal, cooperative, and federal — to the ZIP codes they serve.

Because ZIP codes are postal routes, not precise geographic boundaries, a single ZIP can overlap several utility service territories. This is especially common in rural and semi-rural areas. For example, a Tyler-area ZIP might return Oncor (the deregulated TDU), several rural electric co-ops, and SWEPCO (a regulated investor-owned utility). All of them genuinely serve portions of that ZIP — your specific street address determines which one delivers your power.

The utility profiles below are a separate, curated directory of major distribution utilities in deregulated electricity markets — the Texas TDUs, Pennsylvania EDCs, Ohio EDCs, and others. These are the utilities where customers can shop for competitive electricity rates. The search is comprehensive (every utility in the US), while the profiles are editorial (focused on utilities in markets where you have a choice of supplier).

What TDUs & distribution utilities do

In deregulated electricity markets, utilities (called TDUs in Texas, EDCs in other states) build and maintain the physical grid: power lines, substations, transformers, and metering infrastructure. They are distinct from retail suppliers (REPs), which sell electricity plans.

• Maintain infrastructure — repairs, upgrades, and vegetation management.
• Restore outages — crews and dispatch for the local distribution system.
• Read meters — usage data flows to your supplier for billing.
• Regulated by state commissions — delivery rates are set under regulatory oversight.

Utility vs retail supplier

Think of the utility as the "delivery company" and the supplier as the "retailer" on your statement.

Moving in, ESI-ID, and your utility

In Texas, when you start service your supplier submits a move-in request to the TDU. The TDU identifies your meter point by its ESI-ID (Electric Service Identifier) — a unique number assigned to every service address in the ERCOT market. You can find it on a prior bill or use our ESI-ID lookup tool. The first digits of your ESI-ID indicate which TDU territory you are in. ESI-IDs are specific to Texas; other states use different meter-point identifiers.

Safety & non-outage issues

Report downed power lines to your utility or 911. Also contact your utility for sustained area flicker, damaged equipment (e.g. broken poles, pad-mount transformers), or trees in contact with primary lines — your supplier cannot dispatch line crews.

Frequently asked questions