Why am I paying both an electric bill and a solar bill in Dallas–Fort Worth?
Short answer
Because of how DFW electricity is split. Oncor — the wires company for most of the metroplex — sells no electricity and buys back no solar. Your retail provider (TXU, Reliant, or another) does the billing and sets the credit for the power your panels send back, and Texas has no statewide net-metering rule requiring that credit to equal what you pay. When the buyback is small, both bills survive — the electric bill shrinks, the solar bill stays.
Oncor moves the power. It does not sell it — and it does not buy yours
Oncor is the transmission and distribution utility — the wires company — for most of Dallas–Fort Worth: Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Arlington, Irving, Denton, McKinney, and surrounding cities, roughly four million customers. Oncor owns the lines and the meter and charges for delivery. It sells no electricity, and it buys back no solar power.
So the sentence homeowners hear at the door — “your electric bill goes away” — runs into a company that was never going to pay them anything. Delivery charges appear on the bill no matter who you buy power from, and they apply whether or not the sun shines. The buyback decision sits somewhere else entirely: with the retail provider you chose.
Your retail provider sets the buyback — and it is rarely one-for-one
The retail electric provider — TXU Energy, Reliant, or one of dozens of others — sells you power and sets the credit for the power your panels export. Texas has no statewide net-metering law, so nothing requires that credit to match the rate you pay for power coming in. Plans credit exports at a fixed low rate, at a wholesale-based rate, or under rollover rules that expire — structures buried in the plan’s solar buyback terms, a document separate from your solar contract.
That gap is the mechanical reason the promise fails. One Texas homeowner on a solar lease described the result to CBS Texas as “$300 electric bill + $320 solar bill = $620 a month” — the electric bill shrank, the solar payment never moved, and the two together cost more than the single bill the panels were sold to replace.
Not all of DFW is Oncor — check who delivers yours
Parts of the metroplex are served by other delivery systems, each with its own buyback rules: CoServ (Denton and Collin county areas), Tri-County Electric Cooperative, Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative, and Denton Municipal Electric. In co-op and municipal territory there is no retail choice — the same utility delivers and bills — and its solar credit policy is the one that applies to you.
Your bill names both halves: the delivery company on the delivery-charge lines, and your retail provider as the biller. Those two names, plus your plan’s buyback terms page, explain most of a DFW solar bill before the solar contract is even opened.
The Dallas front-door sales case federal prosecutors brought
In the Northern District of Texas, a federal grand jury in July 2026 indicted a Dallas solar salesman, Andres Jesus Linares-Rea, on two counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft, over more than $128,000 in solar loans. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (justice.gov), he sold solar at homeowners’ front doors for solar contractors from September 2022 to December 2024, and prosecutors allege he electronically signed customers up for solar loans without their knowledge or consent, added unauthorized co-borrowers, and told customers their panels were “free” because of government subsidies. The FBI’s Dallas division investigated.
An indictment is an accusation, not a conviction. But the alleged pattern — a loan the homeowner never agreed to, justified by a “free” promise — is the fact pattern to compare against your own paperwork if a front-door sale produced documents you do not recognize.
Two names that are not the same company
Check exactly which name is on your contract, because two are routinely mixed up. Freedom Forever is the national installer that sold heavily in the metroplex, was named in the Attorney General’s April 2026 investigation, filed Chapter 11 in April 2026, and saw its case converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation in August 2026. Freedom Solar Power is a different, Texas-based solar company. They are not the same business, and a complaint, a warranty claim, or a bankruptcy notice addressed to the wrong one goes nowhere.
What decides a DFW case: two contracts, not one
A metroplex solar complaint usually lives in two documents at once. The solar contract and loan papers govern the panels and the payment. The retail electric plan’s buyback terms govern what the exported power was ever worth. A savings promise has to survive both documents to have been true — and the statewide contract law, cancellation windows, and complaint routes are on the Texas page. The promise-versus-paperwork method itself is in the solar promises guide.
Documents to gather
- A recent electric bill showing the delivery (Oncor or TDU) charges and the solar buyback credit lines side by side
- Your retail plan’s solar buyback terms — the Electricity Facts Label or buyback addendum from TXU, Reliant, or your provider
- Your solar contract and the loan or lease papers
- The proposal and savings estimate — especially any “no more electric bill” claim
- Loan or lease statements, oldest to newest
- Anything from the sale itself: tablet screenshots, texts, emails, the salesperson’s card
Questions to ask a licensed attorney
We are not a law firm, and this page is general information, not legal advice. These are the questions your paperwork raises that a licensed attorney in your state can answer for your situation:
- A loan was signed in my name — what do I do if I did not agree to it?
- My buyback credit is a fraction of what the salesperson described — what claims does that gap support?
- Which of my two contracts — the solar deal or the electric plan — controls the credit I actually receive?
Questions people also ask
Is Oncor my electric company?
Oncor is the delivery company: it owns the lines and the meter and charges for delivery, and those charges appear on your bill whoever you buy power from. It does not sell electricity and it does not buy back solar power. The company you chose — TXU, Reliant, or another retail provider — sells you the power and sets the credit for what your panels export. Both names are on your bill; a buyback complaint belongs with the retail plan’s terms, not with Oncor.
Why is my electric bill still high with solar panels?
Three mechanical reasons cover most DFW cases. Your retail plan credits exported power at less than the rate you pay for imported power — often much less. Delivery charges and plan fees apply whether or not the sun shines. And your usage peaks — evenings, August air conditioning — rarely match your production peaks. Add a solar loan or lease payment on top, and the two bills together can exceed the old single bill: the gap the workbooks document from your own bills and statements.
Who sets my solar buyback rate in Texas?
Your retail electric provider, in the plan you chose — the Electricity Facts Label and the plan’s solar buyback terms state the credit, and it can change when the plan renews. Texas has no statewide net-metering law requiring a one-for-one credit. In the metroplex’s co-op and municipal territories — CoServ, Denton Municipal Electric, and others — the utility itself sets the buyback instead.
A salesperson signed me up at my front door and the paperwork is wrong. What now?
Save everything — the screens you were shown, texts, the proposal — and write down what was said while it is fresh. Federal prosecutors in Dallas have charged exactly this fact pattern as fraud; an indictment is an accusation, not a conviction, but a written complaint to the Texas Attorney General and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau puts the sale on the record. Your cancellation window and your loan papers decide your contract position in the meantime.
How the workbooks help
Your Actions starts a DFW case with the two documents that decide it — the solar paperwork and the retail electric plan’s buyback terms — and puts the promised savings next to the bills you actually received, month by month. The In-Depth Version documents every mismatch in full.
The Package — Your Actions + The In-Depth Version. Both books always included. Each book is delivered by email within 3–5 business days of purchase; delivery occurs after the 3-day cancellation window closes.
Read a sample workbook (PDF) More homeowner questions