Electric Companies

Hello. We're moving to the Houston area for work for four years, so we bought a house. I've never traveled or lived in Texas before, so it should be stressful and fun navigating everything it has to offer. One of those things I'm dealing with now are these electric companies. I've never been in a situation like this before, as everything was always one provider, and you paid that bill. This is just complicated, going through each one on www.powertochoose.com with all my options.

Anyway, I've been looking at it, trying to understand how I should pick one over another. I have searched through multiple posts on the r/houston, trying to learn about it. I've also seen people talk about energyogre.com . It seems like it's a 50/50 proposition with that service. We are zoned for TNMP and Centerpoint, with each apparently having its pros and cons. TNMP is smaller but more expensive and more reliable, with the opposite said for Centerpoint.

I was thinking of just taking the cheapest 12-month option to see how it goes. If it goes well, then maybe I should continue to shop that way each year. If it goes bad, then maybe I should just lock in a 3- or 4-year option to get me through before I move again. Nothing special about the plan, maybe the more I use, the cheaper the rate gets but that's it, but fixed rates. It will be hard to give details when we won't know until we move in and start living and using the electricity.

Anyways, I'd like to know the following:

Are you using TNMP or Centerpoint?

Who are you using currently?

How many months is your contract for?

Cents per KwH? I see Centerpoint does like $4.90 monthly and $0.0432 cents through them.

Do you try to shop just the lowest price or one of the "special" plans (free nights, credits, etc)?