What is An ESID?
Your home’s electricity “ESID” (or ESIID, ESI ID, ESI-ID or ESI Number) number stands for Electric Service Identifier. It is a unique 17 or 22-digit number that tells utility companies that your residence has a meter and can receive electricity.
How to Find My Number Using an ESID Lookup?
It’s important to know your ESID when moving to a new home or switching electricity providers so that the utility company sends your electricity to the right place. Home Electricity Club’s look-up tool is simple and secure.
Input your address below to instantly find your ESID.
Who Uses ESIDs and Why?
Electric Service IDs allow Retail Electricity Providers (REPs) to identify which transmission utility company services your home. REPs buy electricity wholesale in the market and transmission utilities distribute it. REPs are the companies that customers interact with a majority of the time, as they are the ones that offer electricity plans and send you an energy bill.
The utility companies are called Transmission and Distribution Utilities, or TDUs. You’ll also see them referred to as Transmission and Distribution Service Providers, or TDSPs. These are the folks that are actually delivering the electricity to your home, and they maintain the power lines.
Texas has multiple TDUs, all of which service different regions of the state. The largest ones are Centerpoint, which services the Houston area, and Oncor, which services the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
When Do I Need To Know My ESID?
Generally, the only time consumers need to look up the ESID is when they relocate or enroll in an energy plan with a new provider. Whether a residential or commercial address, the provider will need to know where the electricity they sell you is going.
Where Do I Find My ESID?
Finding your ESID is easy. While the ESID is essentially the electricity meter’s virtual identification, it is not a physical serial number that you can find on the meter like a VIN on your car.
The Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, tracks who is serviced by which utility company through an online database of ESIDs. While it is possible to look up your ESID on this database, the easiest way is to use our lookup tool that is updated every day.
Some electricity providers will include the number in their customers’ monthly bill or list it in customers’ online accounts.
How Do I Get an ESID for My New Residential Address?
Say you move into a new home and want to set up your electricity plan (that you found at a great rate because you shopped with Home Energy Club), but upon entering your address in our ESID lookup tool, you see a message that says your address wasn’t found. This usually just means that you are the first occupant of the place and need to get your meter set up.
Newly constructed homes get new electricity meters. Consequently, they also require new ESIDs. Because TDUs are the ones who technically own all of the meters in their area of service, they are the ones that set the ESID. It is up to the new occupants to contact the TDU in their area to get the new meter set up.
Not sure which TDU services your area? Home Energy Club can help you get in contact with the right people.
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