Texas Winter Utility Shutoff Rules

Q: Does Texas have a winter shutoff moratorium with dates?

Not in the form the question usually assumes. There is no season. The protection turns on when the forecast crosses a stated temperature and lapses when the forecast passes. The short form of it is: At or below 32F. Public Utility Commission of Texas, 16 TAC 25.483(j) (retail electric providers) and 16 TAC 25.29(i) (electric utilities outside competition) is the rule behind it.

Q: Is there help with the heating bill in Texas?

Texas runs Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program (CEAP) through Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. The heating assistance page for Texas covers the income test and the front door.

Temperature trigger

What the rule runs on

every residential account the rule covers, on the days the forecast qualifies and not on the others

32°F

The temperature bar

read off the forecast, not the calendar

Regulated only

Who the rule reaches

Regulated utilities only

Act first

The household must

the protection is not automatic

The answer

What Texas requires of a utility in winter

Temperature trigger

At or below 32F

Texas sets no calendar winter moratorium; instead the Public Utility Commission bars disconnection for nonpayment in any county where an extreme weather emergency is in effect, defined by a 32F temperature test read from National Weather Service reports.

What switches it on: Texas works off the forecast: the bar applies while the National Weather Service forecast is at or below 32F, and lapses when it is not.
Utilities named: electric
Who it reaches: The rule binds the utilities Public Utility Commission of Texas regulates. A household on a municipal system or a rural cooperative is covered by that system's own policy instead.
What the household must do: The protection itself is automatic once the county is in an extreme weather emergency, but the deferred payment plan for bills that come due during the emergency is offered on the customer's request.

That is Public Utility Commission of Texas speaking through its own rule, and the sentence below is the one the summary above was built from. The citation is Public Utility Commission of Texas, 16 TAC 25.483(j) (retail electric providers) and 16 TAC 25.29(i) (electric utilities outside competition).

(j) Disconnection during extreme weather. A REP having disconnection authority under the provisions of subsection (b) of this section must not authorize a disconnection for nonpayment of electric service for any customer in a county in which an extreme weather emergency occurs. A REP must offer residential customers a deferred payment plan upon request by the customer that complies with the requirements of §25.480 of this title (relating to Bill Payment and Adjustments) for bills that become due during the weather emergency. (1) The term "extreme weather emergency" means a day when: (A) the previous day's highest temperature did not exceed 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and the temperature is predicted to remain at or below that level for the next 24 hours anywhere in the county, according to the nearest National Weather Service (NWS) reports; or (B) the NWS issues a heat advisory for a county, or when such advisory has been issued on any one of the preceding two calendar days in a county.

Substantive Rules Applicable to Electric Service Providers, Section 25.483 Disconnection of Service, Public Utility Commission of Texas, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Do this first

The step that switches the protection on in Texas

Texas is one of the states where the rule does not arrive on its own. Households who assume the season protects them find out otherwise in the middle of it, and the difference between the two outcomes is the paragraph below.

The protection itself is automatic once the county is in an extreme weather emergency, but the deferred payment plan for bills that come due during the emergency is offered on the customer's request.

Do it before the disconnection date on the notice rather than after. Several states word the protection so that it stops a shutoff that has not happened yet and says nothing about restoring service that has.

Already off, or a notice has come

Who to call in Texas today

A household whose bill came due during an extreme weather emergency can ask its retail electric provider for a deferred payment plan, and the provider must offer one.

Who takes the complaint: Public Utility Commission of Texas
By phone: 512-936-7000

Public Utility Commission of Texas, how to file

For not paying your bill during an extreme weather emergency, and upon request, the REP must offer you a deferred payment plan for bills due during the emergency

Public Utility Commission of Texas, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

A commission’s consumer division is not a courtesy line. In most states a company must hold a disconnection while a formal complaint about that account is open, which is a different and stronger thing than asking the company to reconsider. Ring the utility first, then the commission if the answer is no.

The corner of a shingled house showing the mast and weatherhead where overhead lines land on the roof, and the round electric meter mounted on the wall below — The mast on the roof and the meter under it, on an ordinary house in Washington State. This is where an electric disconnection physically happens, and it is also why the rules are written by a public utility commission rather than a legislature in a good many states: the commission regulates the company that owns this wire. “Residence service drop”, Chetvorno, CC0

Who it covers

Does the Texas rule cover your utility

The rule binds the utilities Public Utility Commission of Texas regulates. A household on a municipal system or a rural cooperative is covered by that system's own policy instead.

That means a rural electric cooperative and a municipal light or gas department in Texas answer to their own board or their own city council on this, not to Public Utility Commission of Texas. Many adopt a winter policy of their own that is as protective or more so, and the place to find it is the cooperative's or the town's own tariff.

The rule names electric service.

Help with the bill

Texas pays part of the heating bill through Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program (CEAP)

A shutoff rule and a heating grant are separate things, and in several states an approved grant application is itself what satisfies the filing the shutoff rule asks for. Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs runs it. The income test is 150 percent of the federal poverty income guidelines.

The Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program (CEAP) is a utility assistance program. CEAP is designed to assist low income households in meeting their immediate energy needs and to encourage consumers to control energy costs for years to come through energy education. The CEAP involves integration of all LIHEAP-funded programs, thereby enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of services provided to clients and eliminating duplication of services. The CEAP is administered through subrecipients, which collectively cover all 254 counties of the state.

Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program (CEAP), Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The full Texas page, with the season, the income test and how to apply, is at heating assistance in Texas.

Texas winter shutoff questions

Can a utility shut off heat in winter in Texas?

Does Texas have a winter shutoff moratorium with dates?

What does a household in Texas have to do to be covered?

Does the rule cover rural co-ops and city utilities in Texas?

What can a household in Texas already shut off do?

Who handles a winter disconnection dispute in Texas?

Public Utility Commission of Texas takes consumer complaints about regulated utilities, on 512-936-7000. Its own words: "**Note: If your electric provider (the company that sends your bill) is municipally owned or an electric cooperative, the information below does not apply to you. The PUCT has jurisdiction over the disconnection practices of retail electric providers only. Please contact your utility using the contact information on your bill to see what options are available to you.**"

Is there help with the heating bill in Texas?

A residential natural gas meter with its regulator and shutoff valve, mounted against pale house siding — A gas meter, which is the other half of the question and frequently the other half of the answer. A state rule can reach a regulated gas company and not reach the electric cooperative next door, or the reverse, so the protection you have often depends on which company sends which bill. “Gas meter”, RadRafe, Public domain

Winter shutoff rules in other states

Texas heating assistanceTexas's energy assistance program, its season and its income test.Heating assistance by stateWhen each state opens applications, the income test, and where to apply.Heating oil and propane pricesWhat the fuel costs this week in the states that report it.Frozen pipe riskThe forecast that puts pipes at risk, by ZIP.Winter shutoff rules in every stateHow the fifty states differ on whether a window, a forecast or a filing decides it.

Texas read September 23, 2026 from Substantive Rules Applicable to Electric Service Providers, Section 25.483 Disconnection of Service, Public Utility Commission of Texas, linked above. A commission can order a company to do something its published rule does not require, and rules change between seasons, so the agency page is the one that governs. Every state is on the winter shutoff hub.