Reliant is one of the original incumbent electricity providers in Texas that was spun off from their generation assets when Texas deregulated their electricity market in 2002. They are one of the largest and most recognized electricity providers in Texas. In 2009 Reliant was purchased by NRG and has since expanded their service territories to include Illinois, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.
New Jersey based NRG, one of the largest energy conglomerates in the United States. NRG operates more than 25,000 megawatts of energy generation capacity, including nuclear, wind, solar, natural gas and coal assets.
In 1999, Houston Industries Inc, parent company of Houston Lighting & Power Co., reorganized itself into Reliant Energy Inc. When Texas deregulated its energy market, Reliant Energy again reorganized, separating out CenterPoint (distribution), Texas Genco (electricity generation), and Reliant Energy (energy retailer). In 2009, New Jersey-based NRG purchased Reliant Energy.
Since then, the company has grown to be one of the largest electricity providers in Texas, serving over 1.5 million customers. It has gone on to win several prestigious business awards, including the 2019 Smart Energy Innovation award, the 2018 Better Business Bureau Education Foundation Pinnacle Award for ethics, excellence and quality in the workplace, and several customer experience awards.
Reliant Plans
Reliant currently has 5 plans available on our site.
The overall score for Reliant is 3.93. Their best category was Communications where they earned a score of 5.00, while their worst rating came in at 3.46 in Market Perception. More detailed information on these ratings is available on our Reliant Rating Detail page.
Reliant earned a Silver Award in our most recent semi-annual rating process with an overall rating of 3.93
Texas Electricity Ratings's Silver Tier providers are tremendous Texas electric companies. They all combine great customer service, lots of different plan offerings, and great communication from their companies to their customers and communities. If you select a plan from one of these providers you can be confident that you're selecting a great company with a good track record.
Rating Overall
3.93
Communications
5.00
Community
5.00
Market Perception
3.46
Operations
4.31
Products
5.00
Frequently Asked Questions - Reliant
Texas electricity deregulation, and Retail Electricity Providers can be complicated.
To answer your frequently asked questions about Reliant read on.
What is the cheapest electricity plan that Reliant has?
The cheapest Reliant plan is Reliant Flextra Credits 12 plan with a rate starting at 17.8¢ per kWh. Customers of Reliant can expect their average bill to fall around $ per month on this plan.
This plan's early termination fee is $150. This is a 12 month plan.
The average customer review in Texas is 1.8.
The average Reliant customer review is 1.6 / 5 stars.
For a different take you can go on over to our company ratings page for Reliant
Why is my electricity rate higher than when I signed up?
The rate you see when you sign up is the average rate at that exact amount of usage in one billing cycle.
Some companies try to game the system by applying bill credits between certain usage thresholds.
It works great if you are within the margins, but as soon as you leave that band you no longer get that bill credit and your rate per kWh can double. The PUC only requires that companies disclose their average rates at 500, 1000, and 2000 kWhs. Companies can get around this by giving you a $50 bill credit if you use between 1000 and 2000 kWhs per billing cycle.
The only way to really know what you're getting into is to read your EFL.
A 10¢ rate at all usage amounts may end up being cheaper than that 8¢ rate at 1,000 kWh!
What are the cheapest natural gas plans that Reliant has?
This retailer does not offer any natural gas plans in your area at this time.
Does Reliant have no-deposit plans?
Unfortunately, Reliant does not offer any non-deposit plans at this time. Popular non-deposit plans from other
reps are:
Reliant has long been engaged in Texas community initiatives, supporting charitable causes from the Gulf Coast to the Panhandle that have included Junior Achievement, Literacy, scouting, and scholarships to name just a few. Reliant has also stepped up in times of trouble to help with relief for hurricanes, power for cooling centers, and other sorely-needed programs to help Texans rebuild after a disaster.
Begun in 2016, the Reliant Gives Vote Program lets Reliant Energy employees to support nonprofit organizations they feel are making a difference in their communities. In 2018, Reliant employees volunteered over 8,000 hours, and donated $3 million to more than 150 community programs across Texas. This year, 2019, has seen donations to Lunches of Love, Shriner's Hospital for Children, and Bo's Place, a bereavement center that helps children and families cope with the death of a loved one.
Reliant Customer Assistance Service
Reliant is very sensitive to customers having financial difficulties or are facing a serious illness. Under certain circumstances, they allow extra time for customers to pay their bills, provided the customers discusses their situation with an agent in advance. Reliant also established their Community Assistance from Reliant Energy (CARE) program to provide payment assistance to qualified customers who have experienced an emergency or temporary hardship impacting their financial status. The program is funded in part by contributions from Reliant customers who can donate to it on their monthly bills.
Reliant's Apartment 9 plan offers a fixed rate for 9 months. The energy charge for 0-1,000 kWh averages about 8.5 cents per kWh. Anything over 1,000 kWh comes in roughly at 10.5 cents per kWh. Including TDU charges, the average rate across Texas for this plan comes to about 13.8 cents per kWh for 1,000 kWh usage. The term length makes it well suited for students or other renters who don't expect to be staying in their residence for a full year.
Plans for Texas Sport Fans
NRG Stadium in Houston Texas
Reliant offers several energy plans to attract Texas sports fans. Reliant offers sports-themed 12 month fixed rate plans, each one with its own incentive to appeal to football, basketball, and rodeo fans.
Signed Football Jersey or $100 Visa Incentive Plans Customers in Dallas and Houston get a signed jersey an invitation to an autograph session with the Dallas Cowboys or Houston Texans. The $100 Visa plans offer prepaid Visa cards and invitation to an autograph session, too. Both plans are essentially identical. They offer a 12 month fixed rate with no usage charge per billing cycle if usage is equal to or over 800 kWh. However, if customer's usage falls below 800 kwh, it incurs an additional $9.95 charge per billing cycle. The plan sports an early termination fee of $150.
Rockets Secure Advantage 12 plans Houston customers can choose a plan that offers an authentically signed Clint Capela basketball and an invitation to an autograph session with the Houston Rockets. Or customers could chose the $100 Adidas gift card version of the plan which also includes invitation to an autograph session. Both plans are 12 month fixed rates with no usage charge per billing cycle when the usage is equal to or over 800 kWh. However, if the customer's usage falls below 800 kwh, there is an additional $9.95 charge per billing cycle. The early termination fee is $150.
Reliant Rodeo plan For those who like horsing around, there's even a plan offering discounts on rodeo wear. Like the other sports plans, this plan is a 12 month fixed rate with no usage charge per billing cycle if usage is equal to or over 800 kWh. Again, when a customer's usage falls below 800 kwh, it incurs an additional $9.95 charge per billing cycle. The early termination fee costs $150.
Security Plans
Reliant home security bundle plans.
Around 2015, Reliant moved into the home security ecosystem with plans and devices for Texas electricity customers. Reliant's security plans offer home security and comfort whether you're there or across town via the Reliant Connect app. You can lock doors, adjust lights, and receive notifications via email or text. Reliant's security plans are available only to Reliant Energy customers. There are three different packages, all with 24/7 professional monitoring:
The Essential package offers baseline home security; one motion detector, three door/window sensors and a control panel that operates and monitors the sensors. The control panel communicates by cellular signal and can be controlled remotely through an app on your phone.
The Basic Video package mostly adds video monitoring and record capability to the Essential package. You get the same motion detector, three door/window sensors, and app-compatible control panel, plus choose between an indoor video camera or a video doorbell.
The Video Plus package comes with the same basic equipment as the Essentials package and includes your choice of two additional options:
Choice of two indoor cameras, or one indoor camera and WiFi doorbell camera, or one outdoor camera.
Choice of two thermostats, or 1 garage opener, or two smart plugs, or one door lock, or one image sensor.
Since every home has somewhat different security requirements, Reliant wants customers to call for a quote. However, according to Reliant, the basic Essential package starts at $24.99/month. Compared to similar home security services such as ADT and Vivint, Reliant offers competitive pricing. Customers can buy additional sensors, cameras, smart locks, smart outlets, smart LED bulbs, and other additional devices for the price of the hardware Reliant installs. Meanwhile, all package contracts begin at 36 months (3 years).
Google Nest Plans
Bundled Reliant Google Nest electricity plans.
By turning your home into a Google Nest Home, think of how you can stay informed, save time, save energy on your usage.
Reliant Learn & Conserve Both 24 month and 12 month plans are available. These offer a Google Nest Learning Thermostat or the Google Nest Thermostat E. Both smart thermostats can be controlled via your smartphone or tablet and can help reduce your energy usage by 15%. There is no base charge nor usage charges, just a straight energy charge and TDU charges. Early termination fees are high. The 12 month plan is $150, the 24 month plan is $295.
Reliant Speak & Play 12 Plan is also a simple fixed rate. It that gives customers a Google Home smart speaker and voice assistant. Use it to surf the web, find out weather reports, play music, or even pay your Reliant bill. There is no base charge nor usage charges, just a straight energy charge and TDU charges. Early termination fee is $150.
Reliant Truly Free Weekends 12 Plan offers customers a free Google Nest Hub. The Google Nest Hub lets customers use their voice to control lights, outlets, video cameras, even doorbells via. Meanwhile, the plan is a 12 month with a high fixed weekday rate. However, from 8:00 PM Friday to 12:00AM Monday, there is no energy charge or TDU charge. On average, customers can get 32% of their usage for free. Early termination fee is $150.
AC Warranty Plans
Reliant home warranty electricity bundles.
Reliant electricity customers get a 10% discount when they sign up for one of Reliant's AC/Heating home maintenance plans. Services include better system efficiency with duct sealing, air filter delivery, tunes up, and smart thermostat installation as well as convenient inspections for leaks, worn parts, and poor performance.
Plans available include AC Services and Repair, Heating Services and Repair, AC/Heat Protection, Nest Thermostat, Indoor Air Quality, and Air Filter Delivery. Customers in Dallas and Houston with single family homes can also sign up for a Home Energy Check Up to learn about their home's energy efficiency.
AC, Heating, and Indoor Air Quality service requires customers set up an appointment for a $49 initial diagnoistic fee to come and assess your system before any repairs or maintenance can be made.
Reliant's AC/Heat Protection program covers your home's central cooling and heating systems (up to two complete systems) and ductwork. Reliant offers three levels of claim coverage Basic costs $9.99/month, Premium is priced $19.99/month, and Elite which costs $29.99/month. Per claim limits run from $500/claim to $1500/claim. Each service call costs $60. Customers can avoid heating and air conditioning breakdowns by catching the small problems before they become big, expensive headaches.
Solar Plans and Programs
NRG 100% solar plans.
Reliant Energy has supported renewable energy for years. It's one of the few Texas electricity providers that buys energy from its customers. It also offers its customers ways to participate in carbon offsetting through its EcoShare Program and solar-charging battery power accessories from Goal Zero.
The Reliant Simple Solar Sell Back 12 plan gives you credit for the electricity your solar panels generate and return to the grid for the same price of the electricity you buy. As a fixed rate 12 month plan, the credit for your excess generation is applied automatically to your monthly Reliant bill. The plan is available only in the Oncor and Centerpoint TDU territories. Because potential customers would be acting as power producers, they must call Reliant to discuss their system capacity and enroll in the program.
The Reliant 100% Solar Plans are for customers who don't own solar panels but still want to support renewable energy. Reliant offers fixed rate solar powered electricity plans from 2 local solar farms in Houston and Dallas to a limited number of homes. Terms run from 12 months to as long as 60 months. Plans include a $12 monthly membership fee. An added perk is that customers can leave the plan at any time; there are no cancellation fees.
With over 1.5 million customers, Reliant is one of the biggest retail electricity sproviders in Texas. The Texas PUC Sorecard rates the company 4 of 5 circles. It recently reported a total of only 178 complaints about Reliant between March and August, 2019.
Reliant has maintained a high standard for many years, rating a 723 out of 800 in the J.D. Power 2016 Retail Electric Provider Residential Customer Satisfaction Study. This put them 7 points below the study's average Texas score but within the survey's “pleased customer” scoring range. Reliant also maintains an A+ rating on the BBB. Other reviews for Reliant Energy from Consumer Affairs and Yelp score the company low due to complaints involving customer service issues. However, Texas Electricity Ratings gives Reliant Energy 5 stars for their community outreach and plan innovation, and 4 stars for their complaint resolution efforts. Most TER customer reviews give high marks to billing and account management as well as order experience, plans and promotions, and price.
Save money the easy way this spring on your Texas electricity rates! Find out what happened to one of our bloggers when he went shopping on TER for a new plan!
As a writer for Texas Electricity Ratings (or TER), I’m comfortable discussing rates, discounts, contract terms, and the energy news of the day. My confidence was put to the test a few weeks ago. And I’m happy to report the knowledge I’ve gained through writing about Texas electric power saved me money when shopping TER.
This is actually the second time I’ve shopped for a new plan since blogging here. The first go-round, I wanted to get out of the cycle of selecting a plan in the summer when rates are highest. So I rode out a variable rate plan for a few months after my contract expired and then picked an 18-month plan. That plan expired earlier this month. That means I shopped for power when rates are typically lowest in shoulder months.
I was very happy with my last plan from Reliant Energy. The rate was low, and the pricing had no gimmicks. I didn’t contend with free nights, free weekends, tiered rates, or bill credits. Reliant Energy offered me a few plans for renewal, but the prices were much higher, and the terms weren’t like what I had. I wanted something exactly the same. And I found it using the information from shopping TER.
My new plan has almost the exact same terms as my old plan, and the rate is just a fraction of a penny higher. Not bad given the inflation over the past two years! Energy Texas is my new provider, and I look forward to low prices for the next three years. At the end of those three years, I’ll go right back to shopping TER to switch power plans.
Knowledge From Shopping TER
I only needed a few bits of information to make shopping Texas Electricity Ratings a breeze. I pulled up my Reliant Energy account to see my bills for the past year and my average usage. From there, I used the handy tools on TER to compare plans based on my usage. Finding out how my bill might change was a piece of cake!
The Best Electric Shopping Experience
Take it from someone who studies the Texas power market on a regular basis. Shopping TER is the best way to find the right power plan for your home at the best price. Other sites claim to be easy to use, but none of them stack up to https://www.texaselectricityratings.com. So shop here for the best experience.
What’s Not To Love With Free Weekend Houston Electricity?
If you can shift your highest energy use to when it cost less, then you could save more on your monthly bills. We've sort through and found the best free weekend plans in Houston.
Getting something for free always feels great, but sometimes there’s a nagging sensation that what’s free isn’t always free. With free weekends electricity, there’s an inherent trade-off. You pay more for weekday electricity in exchange for cheaper weekend electricity. Free weekend Houston electricity means you don’t have to pay retail energy charges for electricity you consume over the weekend. But you do still have to pay CenterPoint Energy utility charges.
These plans are great for people who can shift their energy consumption. Say you only do laundry once a week. If you do it on Saturday instead of Thursday, you can save money on that energy consumption. Or perhaps your home is empty during the normal work week, but your house is filled on the weekends. In that case, a free weekend Houston electricity plan could be great for you.
Free Weekend Houston Electricity From Pulse Power
The best free weekend Houston electricity plan available right now is the Free Energy Weekends 36 plan from Pulse Power. This three-year plan offers power without retail charges from 8 p.m. on Friday to 5:59 a.m. on Monday. With such a generous definition of weekend hours, Pulse Power estimates customers use 40% of their power in the free electricity window.
This plan’s $123 average bill is not the lowest among free weekend plans. However, the Friday and Monday hours offer customers extra time to push their consumption to times when they save money. If you forget to run your dishwasher Sunday night, you have time to get in a quick cycle before 6 a.m. on Monday. The plan's advertised rate is 12.2 cents.
Pulse Power also offers 24-month and 12-month versions of this plan. Unfortunately, those plans have slightly higher prices. Therefore, the 36-month plan is the best option from this retail electricity provider.
Lowest Average Bill For Free Weekends
The cheapest free weekends plan is the Free Weekends-12 plan from Champion Energy Services. Running only the 48-hour period of Saturday and Sunday, this plan’s free window is 10 hours per week shorter than the Pulse Power plan. This means customers tend to use only 30% of their consumption during the free weekend hours. But the plan’s average bill is $120 because the weekday rate (12.5 cents) is significantly lower than the Pulse Power plan (13.3 cents). The Champion plan's advertised rate is 13.0 cents.
So the choice you’re left with is whether you want longer free hours with a higher weekday price or shorter free hours with a lower weekday price. Your decision depends on what you predict your energy consumption pattern will be. Can you cram your high power consumption activities into Saturday and Sunday? Or do you need a little wiggle room on Friday night and early Monday morning? Either way, you could save some money.
Free Weekends and More
The best place to shop for Houston power is https://www.texaselectricityratings.com/electricity-rates. It doesn't matter whether you want a free weekend plan or something completely different. You can find just the right plan to suit your power consumption needs.
Zip Codes with the Cheapest Reliant Rates in Texas
© 2023 Texas Electricity Ratings — Rates as of
