If your home gets its power lines from Oncor, going solar works differently than it does anywhere else in the Austin area. Your payback depends on choosing a solar oncor retail electricity plan you select yourself, because Oncor delivers the power but never sets your rates or your export credits. This guide explains how that split works, how buyback plans differ, and how to size a system that fits the plan you actually sign. You will also find links to deeper articles that walk through the details step by step. By the end, you should know exactly which questions to ask before you accept a quote.

What You'll Find in This Guide

Solar With Oncor and a Retail Electricity Plan in Austin, TX

Prefer to have a pro handle it? Solar with Oncor and a retail electricity plan is one call away.

Why Oncor Delivers Your Power but a Retailer Sets Your Solar Math

Oncor is a transmission and distribution utility that owns poles, wires, and meters, restores power after storms, and charges a delivery fee. However, Oncor never sells electricity—you buy energy from a retail electric provider who sets your rate per kilowatt-hour and determines what you earn for solar exports.

This split matters significantly once solar panels go on your roof. Without solar, picking a retail plan is mostly about finding a low rate. With solar, the plan choice becomes the single biggest lever in your payback. Two identical houses in Pflugerville with identical systems can see payback periods differing by years based solely on which buyback plan each owner chose.

Compare Austin Energy, which pays a fixed Value of Solar rate of 9.91 cents per kWh for exports, with Pedernales Electric Cooperative, which credits exports at $0.06/kWh under net metering for roughly 375,000 customers. Those customers get one published rate with no choice. In Oncor territory, you get dozens of choices, and the spread between best and worst is wide.

Your job as a homeowner has two parts. First, evaluate the solar quote itself. Second, evaluate the retail plan you'll pair with it. The cluster article on solar with Oncor and a retail electricity plan covers that pairing in detail, including interconnection and Oncor's role during installation. Read it before signing anything—installers rarely explain the retail side well, and many quote tools assume full retail-rate net metering, which doesn't exist by default in Oncor territory.

Navigating Solar Oncor Retail Electricity Plan Buyback Options

Buyback plans fall into a few broad families, and knowing them helps you cut through marketing fast. Some retailers offer one-to-one credits, where each exported kWh offsets one purchased kWh. Others pay a fixed export rate that sits below your purchase rate. A third group pays the real-time wholesale price, which swings wildly and can look great in a heat wave and terrible in mild weather. Finally, some plans offer no export credit at all, which turns your midday surplus into a gift to the grid.

That said, the headline buyback rate never tells the whole story. You also need to check the energy charge, the monthly base fee, any caps on credited exports, and whether credits roll over month to month. For instance, a plan with a generous export rate but a high energy charge can cost more overall than a modest plan with cheap power. Additionally, contract length matters. Buyback plans change often, so a plan you love today may not exist at renewal.

How to Compare Plans Without Getting Burned

Start with your projected production and consumption, hour by hour if your installer can provide it. Then model each candidate plan against those numbers rather than trusting the retailer's summary page. The state's official shopping site, Power to Choose, lists plans and their Electricity Facts Labels, and those labels reveal fees that marketing pages hide. Beyond that, re-shop every year. Loyalty rarely pays in the Texas retail market, and solar owners who set a renewal reminder consistently do better than those who let plans auto-renew.

One more caution deserves emphasis. Stale numbers dominate the search results for this topic, and suburb guides still quote buyback rates from 2022 that no longer exist. Consequently, always verify the current rate on the retailer's own Electricity Facts Label before you build your payback math around it. The deeper guide to solar in Oncor territory on a retail plan explains which plan features matter most for typical Austin-area usage patterns.

Sizing, Batteries and Backup When Your Export Rate Is Uncertain

System sizing works differently when you cannot count on a permanent, published export rate. Under Austin Energy or PEC, you can size against a known credit and feel confident. In Oncor territory, however, the plan you sign today may vanish in twelve months. With this in mind, many experienced installers size Oncor-territory systems closer to actual daytime consumption rather than maximizing exports. Every kWh you use directly is worth your full retail rate, while every exported kWh is worth only whatever your current plan pays.

This uncertainty is also why batteries earn their keep faster here than almost anywhere else in Texas. A battery lets you store your midday surplus and burn it in the evening, which shrinks your dependence on the buyback rate entirely. To put it simply, a battery converts uncertain export credits into guaranteed avoided purchases. Popular options include the Tesla Powerwall, Enphase batteries and Generac PWRcell, and each pairs differently with time-of-use retail plans. Some free-nights plans even let battery owners charge from the grid overnight at little or no cost, then run the house on stored power during expensive hours.

Backup Power Is a Separate Question

Solar panels alone will not power your home during an outage, because grid-tied inverters shut down for line-worker safety. Therefore, if outage protection is your real goal, you need either a battery configured for backup or a whole-house standby generator. Generators cost less upfront for whole-home coverage, but batteries also improve your daily economics on the right plan. Many Oncor-territory homeowners end up choosing based on outage frequency in their neighborhood and their tolerance for fuel storage.

The broader context favors acting sooner rather than later. Texas installed 2.7 GWdc of solar in the first quarter of 2025, 92% more than second-ranked Florida, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Additionally, Go Solar Texas reports the state had 34,907 MW installed as of Q2 2024, enough to power more than four million homes. That growth keeps pushing retailers to compete on buyback plans, but it also means the plan landscape shifts fast. Staying current is half the battle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which electric company is the best in Pflugerville, TX?

Most of Pflugerville sits in Oncor territory, so you choose your own retail electric provider rather than getting assigned one. For solar owners, the best company offers the strongest combination of energy rate and export credit for your usage pattern. Compare Electricity Facts Labels on current plans rather than relying on past recommendations, as offers change frequently.

What is the best solar plan in Texas?

There is no single best plan—retailers change buyback offers frequently and your usage pattern shifts the math. Generally, plans with one-to-one or near-retail export credits and low base fees perform best for solar homes. Model each candidate against your projected production before signing and re-shop at renewal.

Who has the best solar buyback plan in Texas?

The leader changes every few months as retailers adjust rates. Instead of chasing a brand, look for high export credits, low energy charges, no export caps and reasonable contract terms. Verify current numbers on the retailer's official Electricity Facts Label before you commit.

What is the best solar plan for homes with batteries?

For most solar homeowners in Oncor territory, plans crediting exports at or near retail rate without inflating base charges work best. Homes with batteries sometimes do better on time-of-use or free-nights plans. Run your own hourly numbers, as the right answer depends on when your home produces and consumes power.

Why don't rankings stay current?

No retailer holds the top spot for long. Check current plan lineups on Power to Choose and retailer sites directly, comparing export rates, fees and caps. A plan ranked best in 2022 may pay nothing today. Shop annually rather than hunting for a permanent answer—treat your retail plan like your solar system, reviewed regularly.

Ready to Get Started?

You now know the single most important fact about going solar in Oncor territory: the retail plan you pick shapes your payback as much as the panels themselves. Start with the in-depth guide linked above, gather your last twelve months of usage, and compare current buyback plans before you compare installer quotes. When you are ready, get multiple quotes and evaluate each one against the plan you actually intend to sign.