Texas Electricity Guide
What Is Smart Meter Texas? A Simple Guide
Published by HitMyCredit.com · Updated July 2026 · 6 min read
If you have a smart meter on your house in deregulated Texas, your daily electricity usage is already being recorded and made available through a platform called Smart Meter Texas. Most people never interact with it directly — but if you have ever been asked to "authorize" a service to access your electricity data, this is the system behind that request.
What Smart Meter Texas actually is
Smart Meter Texas (SMT) is the official data-access platform for residential and commercial customers in the parts of Texas served by smart meters. It is jointly owned and operated by the four regulated transmission and distribution utilities in deregulated Texas: AEP Texas, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, Oncor Electric Delivery, and Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP).
That ownership matters. SMT is not run by a retail electric provider (REP) trying to sell you a plan, and it is not a private startup. It is neutral infrastructure — the utilities that physically read your meter also run the system that lets you, or anyone you approve, see that data.
Through Smart Meter Texas, an account holder can view daily and 15-minute interval usage, meter attributes, and premise information going back up to two years. The same data can be shared with a retail electric provider, a competitive service provider, or an authorized third party — but only with the customer's permission.
Do you need your own account?
Not necessarily. You only need to register at smartmetertexas.com if you want to view your own usage data directly, or if you want to end a third party's access yourself rather than asking that company to do it on your behalf.
If your only goal is to let a service — like a bill-credit tracker — read your usage automatically, that can happen entirely through an authorization request sent to your email. You approve or reject it, and that is the extent of your interaction with the platform. No password, no separate login to maintain.
If you do decide to register directly, you will need three things, all printed on your electricity bill: your retail electric provider's name (or their PUCT certificate number), your ESI ID, and your meter number.
How third-party authorization works
When a company asks to access your Smart Meter Texas data, you get a confirmation request by email. It will name the company, state how long the access is being requested for, and list exactly what it covers — typically your electricity usage, meter attributes, and premise information.
A few things are worth understanding before you confirm one of these:
The authorization has a time limit. Residential and small commercial authorizations last up to 12 months; larger commercial customers can authorize up to 36 months. Smart Meter Texas sends reminder emails 30 days and 15 days before an authorization expires, so nothing lapses without warning.
You can end it whenever you want. Either by asking the company itself to release access, or by logging into your own Smart Meter Texas account and revoking it directly. After access ends, the company keeps whatever historical data it already pulled for up to 45 days, but receives nothing new after that.
It is free to grant, reject, or ignore. Smart Meter Texas itself never charges you anything for managing an authorization. Any separate costs would come from your actual agreement with the company requesting access — not from Smart Meter Texas.
Smart Meter Texas is not a party to your agreement with that company. It is only the data pipe. Disputes about how a company uses your data, bills you, or honors its side of an agreement are between you and that company — Smart Meter Texas can revoke a company's platform access if it violates the terms and conditions, but it cannot resolve billing or service disputes on your behalf.
Why HitMyCredit uses Smart Meter Texas
Your usage data is the only reliable way to know whether you are on pace to hit a bill credit threshold before your provider bills you for the cycle. Smart Meter Texas is the authoritative source for that data in deregulated Texas — it is the same information your retail electric provider itself uses.
HitMyCredit offers two ways to connect: authorize a direct data-sharing agreement through Smart Meter Texas (no SMT account required on your end), or read the daily usage emails Smart Meter Texas already sends you. Either way, the underlying source is the same official platform described above.
Track your credit automatically — free
HitMyCredit connects to Smart Meter Texas, calculates your pace every day, and alerts you the moment you are trending toward missing your bill credit.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns and runs Smart Meter Texas?+
Smart Meter Texas is jointly owned and managed by the four regulated transmission and distribution utilities in deregulated areas of Texas: AEP Texas, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, Oncor Electric Delivery, and Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP). It is not owned by any retail electric provider or third-party app.
Do I need to create a Smart Meter Texas account myself?+
No. You only need your own account if you want to view your data directly, or if you want to revoke a third party's access yourself instead of asking them to do it. If you only want a service like HitMyCredit to read your data on your behalf, you can authorize that without ever logging into smartmetertexas.com.
How long does an authorization last?+
Up to 12 months for residential and small commercial customers, and up to 36 months for larger commercial customers. Smart Meter Texas emails you a reminder 30 days and again 15 days before an authorization expires, so you can choose to renew it or let it lapse.
Can I revoke access after I authorize it?+
Yes, at any time — either by asking the company you authorized to remove itself, or by logging into your own Smart Meter Texas account and ending the authorization directly. After you revoke access, the company can still see data from while the authorization was active for up to 45 days, but gets no new data going forward.
Is there a fee to use Smart Meter Texas?+
No. Smart Meter Texas itself does not charge a fee to grant, reject, or end an authorization. Any fees would come from a separate agreement you have with the company you authorized, not from Smart Meter Texas.
What information do I need to register on smartmetertexas.com?+
Your current retail electric provider's name (or their PUCT certificate number), your ESI ID, and your meter number. All three are printed on your electricity bill.