Service
Electric service
A power line you can see from the road does not mean you can be served from it. That single fact is behind more wasted money on rural parcels than any other in this work.
Who is allowed to serve you
In Texas, utilities hold certificated service areas — a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, or CCN. The holder for your parcel is the entity that can connect you. Lines crossing your property on an easement may belong to a different provider serving somebody else entirely, and being able to see them changes nothing about who you call.
None of the counties we work in has a single provider. Every one has at least two certificated electric entities, and several have four or five, with genuine overlap at city fringes and in unincorporated areas. Two cities in this area run their own municipal electric utilities. One county in the group has no Oncor presence at all.
Before you assume
Confirm the serving entity for the specific parcel — not the road, not the subdivision, not the neighbor. On overlapping fringes, two addresses on the same street can be served by different utilities.
Retail provider, delivery utility, co-op, municipal
In the deregulated parts of this region you choose a retail electric provider for billing, but you do not choose the delivery utility. The delivery utility owns the poles and wire, sets the specification your service entrance has to meet, performs the connection, and determines what an extension costs. For your project, the delivery utility is the one that matters.
Outside deregulated areas, electric cooperatives and municipal utilities provide bundled service — they are both the wires and the bill. Their construction specifications and cost policies are their own, and they differ meaningfully from the investor-owned utilities and from each other.
The meter loop
The meter loop — the service entrance — is the pole or mast, the meter base, the conductors and the grounding that the utility connects to. On most rural manufactured home sites it is a separate structure set near the home rather than attached to it.
It is normally the property owner’s to build and own, and the utility’s to approve and connect. That split is why nobody can quote it accurately over the phone: height, conductor size, grounding, meter base type, disconnect requirements and clearances are set by whichever entity serves the parcel, and those specifications diverge across the utilities in this region.
Why the price range is wide
Distance from the existing line, whether the run is overhead or underground, whether rock has to be trenched or bored, the number of poles required, and the serving utility’s own extension cost policy. Two sites a mile apart can differ by a factor of ten.
Service size
Service size follows the home’s calculated load rather than its footprint. A single section home with modest electric appliances sits at the lower end; a larger multi-section home with electric heat, an electric water heater and a well pump sits higher. If there will be a well, a shop, an RV connection or a future addition, size for that now — upgrading later means rebuilding the service entrance.
Getting the meter set
Before a utility energizes a meter it generally wants the account established, the service entrance built to its specification and inspected by whatever authority has jurisdiction, a confirmed 911 address, and any easement or right-of-way paperwork completed. There is no single statewide electrical inspection authority in Texas — who inspects depends on where you are.
The sequencing that surprises people
In several counties in this region, a county order provides that a utility may not supply service — electric, water, gas or sewer — until the owner produces the county’s compliance documentation for the sewage facility. Where that applies, finishing septic is not merely good sequencing. It is a prerequisite to having power at all.
Line extension
If the nearest serving facilities are some distance away, the extension is usually the largest single line item on a rural project. Utilities typically provide an allowance and bill the balance to the applicant, with the calculation set by the utility’s own tariff or policy. Get the extension estimate in writing from the serving utility early — ideally before closing on land, because it is the number most likely to change a project’s viability.
Common questions
There are poles at the road. Doesn’t that mean I have power?
Not necessarily. Those facilities belong to whichever utility built them, and they may be serving other customers across your land under an easement without being able to serve you. What determines your options is which entity is certificated for your parcel, and what it would cost that entity to reach your building site.
Who installs the meter loop — me, an electrician, or the utility?
Generally the property owner is responsible for having it built, using a qualified electrician, to the serving utility’s published specification. The utility inspects and makes the final connection. Build to the wrong utility’s spec and it gets rejected, which is why identifying the serving entity comes first.
Can I get temporary power to work on the site?
Often yes, through a temporary service arrangement, though availability and requirements vary by utility and by county. Ask the serving utility early, because it can keep a project moving while permanent service is pending.
Why won’t anyone quote my electrical over the phone?
Because the two variables that drive the number — the serving utility’s specification and the distance and route from its existing facilities — are both site-specific. An honest quote follows a look at the parcel and a conversation with the utility.
Get your service priced
Send the address and what you’re setting. We’ll confirm the serving utility, build the meter loop to their specification, and price the run from their facilities to your home.