Wholesale prices are zone and node prices — not your bill.
Houston, North, South and West are ERCOT load zones. A live map shows wholesale prices on the grid. It does not turn wholesale into the number on a residential bill.
Answer first: ERCOT wholesale prices change every few minutes and can spike in heat waves or cold snaps. On a fixed-rate residential plan, your price per kWh stays the same for the contract term, so those swings do not hit your energy rate directly. Your bill can still change with usage, delivery charges and what happens when the contract ends.
See Texas wholesale electricity prices right now
ERCOT publishes an official real-time locational price map. We cannot embed it here (ERCOT allows framing only on its own sites), so it opens in a new tab.
Official ERCOT map
View the live ERCOT wholesale price map
Opens ERCOT’s real-time LMP contour in a new tab. If the map is down, this page still explains what wholesale prices do and do not mean for your home.
Source: Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Real-Time Locational Prices contour. Not Power Hopper data.
For context: ERCOT’s real-time average for Oct 10–Oct 16, 2026 was $38.89/MWh in the Houston zone, $29.85/MWh in the North zone, $35.81/MWh in the South zone, $21.12/MWh in the West zone. $30/MWh works out to $0.03 per kWh, before delivery, provider costs and fees, which is why wholesale and retail numbers look so different.
Wholesale prices move. A fixed rate doesn’t.
Retail providers buy and hedge wholesale power ahead of time and sell it to homes at a price set in your contract. That is why a fixed-rate plan’s energy price holds steady when the wholesale map turns red. Power Hopper focuses on fixed-rate residential plans for that reason.
That is not a promise of the lowest rate, and it does not mean your total bill cannot rise. Usage, delivery charges, fees and the price you roll onto when a contract ends still matter.
Want the retail side? Compare the latest fixed-rate medians by delivery utility.
How to read wholesale vs your home
Why do wholesale prices vary across Texas?
The grid is not one price. Transmission limits, the generation mix and demand can split prices by node and by load zone. That variation is wholesale geography, not a ZIP code retail price. ERCOT does not settle wholesale electricity by ZIP code.
Can wholesale prices spike?
Yes. Prices can jump during heat waves, cold snaps or when generation is short. February 2021 (Winter Storm Uri) is the historical extreme and stays in Power Hopper’s history data; we do not smooth it away.
Big bill after a heat wave? Find out what drove it.
Live map vs Power Hopper history
The live ERCOT map is what the wholesale market is doing now. Our rate history is a statewide 12-month fixed-plan benchmark at 1,000 kWh, labeled as a benchmark and not as any provider’s ZIP code quote.
Latest Texas rate medians · Market dashboard · High bill? · Moving?
City guides: Dallas · Carrollton · Grand Prairie · Mesquite & Sunnyvale · Mid-Cities · Houston · Katy · West Texas · Lubbock · Killeen–Temple · Round Rock, Pflugerville & Hutto · Corpus Christi · Rio Grande Valley · Cross Timbers & North Central Texas · All cities
Updated Oct 18, 2026 by Power Hopper (BJW Ventures LLC d/b/a Power Hopper), a Texas electricity broker registered with the PUCT, BR260201.
Sources: ERCOT real-time price map · 16 TAC §25.475 (contracts, early termination, expiration notices).
Common questions
What is ERCOT’s real-time wholesale electricity price map?
It is ERCOT’s official map of real-time locational marginal prices (LMP) across the Texas grid it operates. Power Hopper did not create it and does not control it.
What does LMP mean?
Locational marginal price: the wholesale price of energy at a point on the grid at a moment in time, including energy, congestion and losses as ERCOT calculates them.
Are wholesale electricity prices the same as residential rates?
No. A wholesale price is what generators and retail providers trade energy for. A residential rate adds delivery charges, provider costs and fees, and on a fixed-rate plan it does not move with the hourly wholesale price.
Can a Texas home be on a plan that passes wholesale prices straight through?
Not anymore for new offers. Texas rules have prohibited retail providers, brokers and aggregators from offering wholesale-indexed products to residential customers since September 1, 2021.