Houston Daily

Texans are facing increasing challenges with energy costs and grid reliability, according to a new survey conducted by the University of Houston (UH) and Texas Southern University (TSU). The study, led by UH’s Hobby School of Public Affairs and TSU’s Executive Master of Public Administration program, highlights that nearly 45% of Texas households pay more than $200 per month on average for summer electricity. About one-third of Texans spend at least 7% of their income on energy, surpassing the high energy burden threshold set at 6%.

The survey found that low-income, minority, and rural communities are disproportionately affected by rising utility costs due to factors such as aging homes and inefficient infrastructure. Urban households tend to have lower energy burdens because they generally benefit from newer housing stock and higher incomes.

Pablo Pinto, director of UH’s Center for Public Policy and professor at the Hobby School, stated: “One of the main things that we’ve been finding in our surveys is that people are concerned about cost of living, and energy costs have become an important component of that because they are expenses that households cannot easily reduce. It’s no surprise these issues are front of mind for so many families.”

Michael O. Adams, director of TSU’s Executive Master of Public Administration graduate program, said: “The report highlights the growing concern among many Texans about their rising electricity bills, which are consuming a larger and larger share of their household income, especially during the peak-use summer months.”

The report also notes regional differences across Texas. Counties in large urban centers like Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio show moderate energy burdens ranging from 3% to 6% of monthly income. In contrast, some southern and western counties experience summer bills exceeding 11% of household income. Planned grid upgrades by CenterPoint Energy through 2028 may further increase consumer costs.

Gail Buttorff, associate director at UH’s Center for Public Policy and research associate professor at the Hobby School added: “In an already-strained system, an increase in demand from these new users, particularly data centers, is going to have an impact on consumers.”

Additional findings from the survey include:

- 39.1% reported difficulty paying energy bills over the past year.

- 19% had to choose between paying for utilities or other necessities like food or rent.

- Black (24.4%), Hispanic (29.8%), and other non-white respondents were more likely to struggle with payments compared to white (13.1%) or Asian (11.7%) respondents.

- While nearly 59% rated their homes as somewhat or very efficient energetically, almost one-fifth considered them inefficient.

- Households earning less than $30,000 annually were less likely to view their homes as efficient compared to those earning $100,000 or more.

Electricity use patterns shift during disasters; refrigeration remains a top priority both in normal times (74.7%) and emergencies (58.4%), followed by air conditioning.

Maria P. Perez Arguelles from UH noted: “We found in our previous Texas Trends surveys that people heavily rely on electricity for preparedness and for mitigating the effects of natural disasters.”

Public opinion remains divided along party lines regarding clean energy solutions’ effectiveness in improving finances or efficiency—50.6% support among Democrats versus just 18.9% among Republicans.

Pinto emphasized potential steps forward: “It’s really hard to ask households to reduce consumption when you have these new and big actors whose electricity consumption are really high,” he said. “But there’s always room for this idea of changing our consumption habits both as consumers and businesses to lower the burden on the system.”

He also suggested public officials encourage changes such as limiting appliance use during peak hours or unplugging idle devices—actions that could address what is known nationally as "idle loads," accounting for up to 22% percent of household usage.

The full report can be accessed via the Hobby School website. The survey included responses from 1,650 registered voters across Texas between September 19th and October 1st.