Small Business Electricity
How Much Electricity Does a Food and Beverage Business Use in Texas?
Texas food and beverage businesses use between about 4,400 and 53,300 kWh of electricity per month, from a small coffee shop at the bottom of that range to an independent grocery at the top, as of September 2026. Restaurants, fast food and bars are measured against EIA CBECS 2018 food service intensity of 43.8 kWh per square foot per year, while convenience stores and groceries fall under food sales at 53.3, the most electricity-intensive commercial building type the survey publishes after accounting for size.
Food and beverage is the most energy-hungry corner of small business in Texas, and that cuts both ways. It means your electricity line is large enough that the rate you pay actually moves your P&L, which is exactly why it is worth shopping properly. Our marketplace is built to help you compare small business electricity rates against the load your kitchen or your cold aisle actually runs, and to lock a price before your next renewal window comes around.
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Prefer to talk it through? Call 855-798-9075.
Last reviewed September 1, 2026. Method and sources at the bottom of this page.
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How much electricity does each type of food business use?
Across Texas food service, monthly electricity use ranges from about 4,400 kWh for a small coffee shop to 53,300 kWh for a small grocery, a spread driven almost entirely by floor area and by how much refrigeration the business runs. Food sales buildings such as convenience stores and groceries are more electricity intensive per square foot than restaurants, at 53.3 kWh per square foot per year against 43.8, because refrigerated cases run around the clock while a kitchen runs on a schedule.
| Business type | Typical floor area | Monthly kWh | Estimated monthly cost | Largest electric load |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee shop | 1,200 to 2,200 sq ft | 4,400 to 8,000 | $365 to $670 | Espresso equipment and cooling |
| Bakery | 1,500 to 3,000 sq ft | 5,500 to 10,900 | $457 to $914 | Ovens, proofers and refrigeration |
| Bar or pub | 1,500 to 4,000 sq ft | 5,500 to 14,600 | $457 to $1,218 | Bottle coolers, ice and cooling |
| Fast food | 1,800 to 3,000 sq ft | 6,600 to 10,900 | $548 to $914 | Holding equipment and fryers |
| Full-service restaurant | 2,000 to 5,000 sq ft | 7,300 to 18,200 | $610 to $1,523 | Hood exhaust, cooling and walk-ins |
| Convenience store | 2,400 to 4,000 sq ft | 10,700 to 17,800 | $890 to $1,484 | Refrigerated cases and coolers |
| Small grocery | 5,000 to 12,000 sq ft | 22,200 to 53,300 | $1,854 to $4,451 | Refrigeration, by a wide margin |
Monthly kWh is annual CBECS electricity intensity multiplied by floor area, divided by twelve. Cost applies the EIA average Texas commercial price of 8.35 cents per kWh. Full method: Small Business Energy Use Index.
How much electricity does a full-service restaurant use?
A Texas full-service restaurant uses about 7,300 to 18,200 kWh of electricity per month, or roughly 11,000 kWh for a typical 3,000 square foot location, as of September 2026. Hood exhaust and make-up air, walk-in refrigeration, dish machines and air conditioning carry most of the electric load, while the cooking line itself often runs on natural gas and therefore does not show on the electric meter.
The detail that catches restaurant owners out is exhaust. A hood running at full speed pulls conditioned air straight out of the dining room, and the air conditioning replaces it all day long. That is why restaurants have the highest cooling intensity of any commercial building type in the country, and why a Texas summer hits a restaurant harder than almost any other small business on the block.
How much electricity does a fast food restaurant use?
A Texas fast food restaurant uses about 6,600 to 10,900 kWh of electricity per month in a 1,800 to 3,000 square foot building, as of September 2026. Fast food buildings run a smaller footprint than full-service restaurants but a much flatter load, because holding cabinets, fryers, frozen storage and drive-through equipment stay energized through the whole service day rather than ramping for two dinner rushes.
That flatness is worth money to you when you shop. A steady load is the easiest kind to price, and it means a straightforward fixed rate will usually beat anything clever. Fast food buildings made up about a quarter of all food service buildings in the 2018 federal survey, so this is a well-populated shape rather than an edge case.
How much electricity does a coffee shop use?
A Texas coffee shop uses about 4,400 to 8,000 kWh of electricity per month in a 1,200 to 2,200 square foot store, as of September 2026. Espresso machines and their boilers, grinders, refrigeration, pastry cases and air conditioning make up most of the load, and the daily peak arrives before most other businesses have opened, typically between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m.
An early peak is the one thing that makes coffee genuinely different from the rest of this category, and it is the reason a free-nights plan is a poor match here. You are drawing your hardest during the hours those plans charge the most. A flat fixed rate keeps your morning from subsidizing somebody else's overnight.
How much electricity does a bakery use?
A Texas retail bakery uses about 5,500 to 10,900 kWh of electricity per month in a 1,500 to 3,000 square foot shop, as of September 2026. Deck and convection ovens, proofers, mixers, refrigerated dough retarders and display cases drive the load, and production usually runs overnight so the meter is busiest while the doors are still locked.
Bakeries are the one business in this category with a genuine case for a time-of-use or free-nights plan, because a real share of the work happens between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. It is worth pricing both structures side by side rather than assuming fixed is automatically the answer, and our marketplace will show you the difference at your own usage level.
How much electricity does a bar use?
A Texas bar or pub uses about 5,500 to 14,600 kWh of electricity per month in a 1,500 to 4,000 square foot venue, as of September 2026. Bottle coolers, draft systems, ice machines, air conditioning and sound and lighting carry the load, and the daily peak lands in the evening rather than at midday. Weekend nights typically drive both the monthly total and the monthly demand peak.
Read this one as a ceiling rather than a midpoint. The federal survey groups bars with coffee shops, ice cream shops and catering inside a single "other food service" subcategory and does not publish them separately. Because cooking is 40 percent of food service energy and a bar cooks very little, the category average probably overstates a bar that serves no food. If you run a bar, the number on your own bill is the one to trust, and the next section shows you how to read it.
How much electricity does a convenience store use?
A Texas convenience store uses about 10,700 to 17,800 kWh of electricity per month in a 2,400 to 4,000 square foot store, as of September 2026. Food sales buildings are more than four times as electricity intensive per square foot as the average commercial building, at 53.3 kWh per square foot per year against 12.6, and refrigeration is the single largest end use by a wide margin.
A convenience store's load is about as flat as small business gets, since the coolers never stop and many stores never close. Flat and predictable is the ideal profile for locking a long fixed term, and it also means a minimum usage fee will never bite you. Your exposure is on the demand side instead, which the section below covers.
How much electricity does a small grocery store use?
A Texas independent grocery or small market uses about 22,200 to 53,300 kWh of electricity per month in a 5,000 to 12,000 square foot store, as of September 2026. Refrigeration dominates: in food sales buildings it is the highest-intensity end use at 87.1 thousand Btu per square foot, ahead of cooling, lighting and ventilation combined in most stores.
At this size your electricity spend is large enough to justify treating procurement as a real line item rather than a chore. That usually means comparing several term lengths, watching the market for a window, and getting a human to check the delivery side of the bill as well as the supply side. Call our team at 855-798-9075 and we will do that with you.
Which equipment uses the most energy in a food service business?
In food service buildings, cooking is the largest end use at 40 percent of energy consumption, followed by refrigeration at 15 percent and space heating at 12 percent, according to EIA CBECS 2018. Every other end use accounts for 7 percent or less. Food service also has the highest cooling energy intensity of any commercial building type at 19.1 thousand Btu per square foot, because kitchen exhaust pulls conditioned air out of the building all day.
Read those shares carefully before you act on them. They cover all fuels together, and in a kitchen a large share of the cooking load is natural gas rather than electricity. On the electric meter specifically, cooling, refrigeration, ventilation and lighting move to the front, which is why the biggest electricity savings in a Texas restaurant usually come from exhaust controls and refrigeration maintenance rather than from the range.
| Equipment | Share of food service buildings |
|---|---|
| Walk-in refrigerators or freezers | 78% |
| Commercial ice makers | 74% |
| Packaged air conditioners | 72% |
| Refrigerated cases or cabinets | 66% |
| Packaged heating units | 62% |
| Large amounts of hot water, such as commercial dishwashers | 50% |
| Booster water heaters for sanitizing | 29% |
What is the average electric bill for a restaurant in Texas?
A Texas full-service restaurant's monthly electric bill runs roughly $610 to $1,520, using the EIA average Texas commercial price of 8.35 cents per kWh applied to 7,300 to 18,200 kWh of monthly use. A convenience store lands near $890 to $1,480 and a small grocery near $1,850 to $4,450. Your own bill depends on your supply rate, your delivery utility, and whether your account carries a demand charge.
Use those as yardsticks, not quotes. The EIA figure is average revenue per kWh across every commercial account in Texas, which blends freshly contracted rates with accounts nobody has repriced in years. It is useful for comparison and trend direction and useless as a target. The number that matters is the one on your own bill, and it takes five minutes to work out.
Want a range rather than a single figure? TruBill™ estimates your bill across mild, average and peak-summer conditions instead of quoting one number that only holds for one month of the year.
How do you find your restaurant's actual electricity rate per kWh?
You find your restaurant's actual electricity rate by dividing the total dollars on your bill by the total kilowatt-hours billed for the same period, then multiplying by 100 to get cents per kWh. That all-in number is the only figure worth comparing against a quote, because it already contains your delivery charges, your base fees, and any credit or penalty your current plan applied that month.
- Take the total amount due on your most recent electricity bill, before any late fee or prior balance.
- Find the total kilowatt-hours billed for that same service period, usually printed near the meter read dates.
- Divide the total dollars by the total kilowatt-hours, then multiply by 100 to get your all-in rate in cents per kWh.
- If your bill shows a charge billed in kW rather than kWh, note that figure separately, because a lower supply rate does not reduce it.
- Repeat the calculation for one summer month and one winter month, because bill credits, minimum usage fees, and tiered rates make a single month misleading.
- Check the contract end date on the bill or your signed agreement, since a lapsed term often rolls to a month-to-month holdover rate.
Do those six steps before you shop anything. Plenty of Texas food businesses are running on a fixed rate signed in a high-price year, on a variable rate that has drifted since it was signed, or on a holdover rate that started the day a term quietly expired. You cannot tell which one you are on from the rate you remember agreeing to. You can tell instantly from the division.
Line by line walkthrough: Understand Your Texas Electricity Bill.
Do restaurants pay demand charges in Texas?
Most Texas food service businesses are on a demand-metered delivery rate, because kitchen equipment, refrigeration, ventilation and air conditioning all run at once and push measured demand past the threshold in the delivery utility's tariff at a fairly small building size. Demand is billed in kilowatts based on your highest sustained draw in the month, it is charged by the delivery utility rather than your retail provider, and it appears as a separate line from your kWh charges.
This is the part of the bill a cheap advertised rate does nothing about, so it is worth knowing which side of the threshold you sit on. If you are demand metered, you have two levers rather than one: a competitive supply rate on the energy side, and sequencing your heaviest equipment so your monthly peak comes down. Send us a bill and we will tell you which lever is worth more at your store.
Delivery charges and thresholds vary by utility: Oncor, CenterPoint Energy, AEP Texas Central, AEP Texas North, TNMP.
Which electricity plan is best for a restaurant?
A fixed-rate contract of 12 to 36 months fits most Texas food service businesses best, because the load is large, runs every day, and cannot be shifted to a cheaper hour without changing when you serve customers. Plans built around usage thresholds or free hours fit poorly, since a restaurant's usage swings with the season and with how busy the room is, and the threshold is only met part of the year.
| Plan structure | Fit | What happens on a food service load |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed rate, 12 to 36 months | Best fit | Locks a large, daily, non-shiftable cost and makes menu pricing something you set rather than react to |
| Bill credit at a usage threshold | Poor fit | Pays in busy summer months and vanishes in slow ones, so your true average price bears no relation to the advertised rate |
| Minimum usage fee | Low risk | Food service usage clears typical minimums comfortably every month, so this one rarely costs you anything |
| Free nights or free weekends | Depends on the type | Wrong for a coffee shop peaking at 7 a.m., worth pricing for a bakery producing overnight or a bar running late |
| Indexed or wholesale-linked | Only if managed | Can win in a soft market, but exposes a business with printed menu prices to Texas summer volatility |
Every plan on our marketplace carries a Safe-Rate™ score, which measures how much your effective price moves as your usage moves. For a restaurant that is the quickest way to spot a plan whose headline number only works at one usage level. Filter for the strong scores and you are already looking at the plans that suit a kitchen.
Get a business electricity quote
Prefer to talk it through? Call 855-798-9075.
How do you compare small business electricity rates in Texas?
You compare small business electricity rates in Texas by pricing every offer at your own monthly kWh rather than at the advertised usage level, then reading the Electricity Facts Label for the term, the early termination fee, and any charge that only applies above or below a usage threshold. Two offers quoted at the same cents per kWh can produce different annual costs once your real usage, your delivery utility, and your contract length are applied.
That is the whole job our marketplace does for you. Enter your ZIP code, put in the monthly usage from the table above or from your own bill, and every plan is priced against your load instead of against a generic 1,000 kWh benchmark that no food business has ever matched.
| What to check | Why it changes the answer |
|---|---|
| Price at your own kWh | Advertised rates are quoted at one usage level, and food service usage sits nowhere near it |
| Whether delivery charges are included | An energy-only quote hides the TDU charges that make up a large share of a Texas business bill |
| Contract term and end month | A term ending in summer forces you to renew into the most expensive quarter of the year |
| Threshold conditions | Bill credits and minimum usage fees only apply above or below a set kWh, so they move your effective price |
| Early termination fee | Determines what it costs to leave if a better rate appears mid-term |
| Demand charge exposure | Billed in kW by the delivery utility, and a lower supply rate does not reduce it |
Compare small business electricity rates
Prefer to talk it through? Call 855-798-9075.
How do you find cheap business electricity in Texas?
You find cheap business electricity in Texas by comparing the all-in cost of each offer at your own monthly usage, not by sorting on the advertised rate. The lowest headline number in a Texas ZIP code frequently belongs to a plan with a bill credit, a minimum usage fee, or a short introductory period, and any of the three can leave a food business paying more across twelve months than a plainer plan with a higher sticker price.
The cheapest genuine rate available to you depends on your ZIP code, your delivery utility, your monthly kWh, and the term length you pick, and all four move. That is why we refresh marketplace pricing hourly and show the plan's effective price at your usage rather than at a benchmark. Set a free price alert and we will tell you when cheaper business electricity shows up in your area instead of leaving you to check.
- Sort on effective cost at your own kWh, not on the advertised rate.
- Read the Electricity Facts Label for every plan you shortlist, since that is where thresholds and fees are disclosed.
- Check the Safe-Rate™ score, which shows how much a plan's effective price moves as your usage moves.
- Price more than one term length, because the cheapest twelve-month offer and the cheapest twenty-four-month offer rarely come from the same provider.
- Work out your own current effective rate first, using the six steps above, so you know what you are comparing against.
More on timing the market: Texas Electricity Shopping Guide.
What is the best electricity company for a small business in Texas?
There is no single best electricity company for a small business in Texas, because the provider offering the best price in one ZIP code, at one usage level, for one contract length is frequently not the best in another. The practical answer is to judge providers on four things: the effective price at your own monthly kWh, the plan structure, the contract terms including the early termination fee, and how the provider handles a business account when something goes wrong.
That is the gap our marketplace exists to close. We list plans from established Texas retail providers, we score each plan for price stability, and we keep a phone number staffed so a business owner can talk to a person rather than work it out alone. Browse the Texas electricity providers we work with, or compare their business plans side by side by ZIP code.
| Criterion | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Effective price at your load | The cost of the plan at your actual monthly kWh, delivery charges included |
| Price stability | A plan whose effective rate holds steady as your usage moves through the year |
| Contract terms | Term length, renewal month, early termination fee, and what happens when the term ends |
| Business account handling | Whether there is a commercial desk, and how deposits and credit checks are handled |
| Renewal practice | Whether the provider notifies you before a term expires or rolls you to a holdover rate |
Several established Texas providers offer business plans, including Reliant Energy, TXU Energy, Constellation, Gexa Energy, and Direct Energy. Which of them is best for your restaurant depends on your ZIP code and your load, so compare them at your own usage rather than on reputation.
Request a free business electricity quote
Prefer to talk it through? Call 855-798-9075.
When should a restaurant lock in an electricity contract?
A Texas food service business should aim for a contract that expires in a shoulder month such as October, November, March or April, rather than in the June-through-September stretch when Texas wholesale prices are seasonally highest. A term that ends in August forces you to renew into the most expensive quarter of the year, and a business that lets a term lapse usually rolls onto a month-to-month holdover rate until somebody notices the bill.
In practice that means choosing the term length that lands the end date where you want it, not just the term with the lowest quoted number. A 13-month or 18-month contract expiring in spring can be worth more than a 12-month expiring in the heat. We show the renewal month on every plan before you order, and our free price alerts will tell you when better pricing appears in your area.
Term strategy in depth: Texas Electricity Shopping Guide.
Can a restaurant switch electricity providers in Texas?
Yes. A restaurant in the deregulated part of Texas, served by Oncor, CenterPoint Energy, AEP Texas or TNMP, can choose any licensed retail electric provider. Switching changes who bills you for supply and nothing else: the same delivery utility owns the wires, reads the meter and sends the repair crew. Service is not interrupted and there is no equipment to change.
You can move at the end of your current term with no early termination fee, and most operators start shopping 30 to 60 days out so the new contract begins the day the old one ends. If you are inside a term, your contract states the early termination fee, and comparing it against what a new rate would save over the remaining months is straightforward arithmetic. Call 855-798-9075 and we will run it with you.
Also useful: How to switch electricity providers. By market: Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth.
Restaurant and food service electricity questions
Why is a restaurant's electric bill so high compared to other small businesses?
Food service buildings are among the most energy-intensive commercial buildings in the country, using 263 thousand Btu per square foot against 70 for the average commercial building, according to EIA CBECS 2018. Cooking accounts for 40 percent of end-use consumption and refrigeration another 15 percent, and food service also has the highest cooling intensity of any building type at 19.1 thousand Btu per square foot.
Are bill credit electricity plans good for a restaurant?
Usually not, because a bill credit pays only when monthly usage clears a fixed threshold, and a restaurant's usage swings with the season and with how busy the dining room is. The credit tends to arrive in the heavy summer months and disappear in the slow ones, so the average price you actually pay across the year is nothing like the advertised rate.
How much electricity does a coffee shop use compared to a restaurant?
A Texas coffee shop uses roughly 4,400 to 8,000 kWh per month against 7,300 to 18,200 kWh for a full-service restaurant, mostly because a coffee shop occupies less floor area and runs a much smaller cooking line. Espresso machines, grinders, refrigeration and air conditioning carry most of a coffee shop's load.
What is the cheapest business electricity rate in Texas?
There is no single cheapest business electricity rate in Texas, because the lowest available price changes with your ZIP code, your delivery utility, your monthly kWh, and the contract length you choose. The lowest advertised rate in a given ZIP code often carries a bill credit, a minimum usage fee, or a short introductory period, so the cheapest headline number and the cheapest twelve-month cost are frequently two different plans.
Sources, method, and refresh schedule
Monthly kWh figures on this page are modeled, not measured. The method multiplies the EIA CBECS 2018 electricity intensity for the relevant principal building activity by a floor-area band for each business type, then divides by twelve. Floor-area bands are stated in the comparison table so any figure on this page can be recalculated independently.
Two CBECS activities apply. Food service covers restaurants, cafeterias, fast food, bars, pubs, lounges, coffee shops, donut shops, ice cream shops and catering. Food sales covers convenience stores, groceries and markets. CBECS reported food sales electricity intensity directly at 53.3 kWh per square foot per year, against 12.6 for all commercial buildings. CBECS did not publish an electricity intensity for food service, so the 43.8 kWh per square foot figure used here is derived from published totals: 207 trillion Btu of electricity, converted at 3,412 Btu per kWh, divided by 1.386 billion square feet of food service floorspace, which is itself derived from 365 trillion Btu of major fuels at 263.3 thousand Btu per square foot.
Three limitations apply to the type-level figures. First, CBECS publishes only three food service subcategories: restaurant or cafeteria, fast food, and a combined "other food service." Coffee shops, bakeries and bars all fall inside that combined subcategory, so the intensity applied to them is the food service average rather than a measured value for that type. Because cooking accounts for 40 percent of food service energy, this method probably overstates a bar or a coffee shop that does little cooking. Second, CBECS figures are national and are not adjusted here for Texas climate, which raises cooling load relative to the national average. Third, CBECS 2018 predates the pandemic and any subsequent change in operating hours or equipment.
The Texas commercial price benchmark comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, average retail price to commercial customers. EIA calculates this as average revenue per kilowatt-hour across all reported commercial sales. In a competitive market such as Texas, that average blends recently contracted accounts with accounts that have not been repriced for years, so it should be read as a bill-level benchmark rather than as a rate available for purchase.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey 2018, Food Service and Food Sales building type reports.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, CBECS 2018, Table C14, electricity consumption and expenditure intensities.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A (monthly release).
- Delivery utility tariffs: Oncor, CenterPoint Energy, AEP Texas Central, AEP Texas North, TNMP.
- Power Choice Texas marketplace plan data, refreshed hourly.
Refresh procedure: the EIA price benchmark is updated monthly when Electric Power Monthly posts, and the review date at the top of the page is advanced at that time. CBECS intensity is updated when EIA publishes a new survey cycle. Delivery utility thresholds are rechecked when a TDU files a revised tariff.
Power Choice Texas is a registered Texas electricity broker, PUCT registration BR190365. We are compensated by the retail electric providers whose plans appear on this site. See how we make money. This page is general information about electricity usage and plan structures. It is not a rate quote, a recommendation to switch, or advice about any specific account. PowerChoiceTexas.org is not affiliated with Power To Choose, powertochoose.org, or the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
