Texas electrician marketing for generators and batteries under the 2025 permit laws

Your ads and paperwork have to show your license, and in Texas that means two licenses. The state licenses the electrical contractor and its master electrician separately. Texas's electrical contractor rule ties a shop's marketing to both. The basics sit in the rules list further down this page and on our electrical marketing page. They run from the TECL on every ad and post to the "Regulated by" notice on paperwork.

Of the 38 Texas electrician websites in our October 2026 study, 30 showed a contractor license number on the homepage. Check that yours does too. Four other parts of the rule apply to electrical work alone, and each one shapes what a backup-power offer can say:

• The design is a master's job. Only a licensed master electrician, or a design professional the statute authorizes, may design an electrical system. The design may not be handed to anyone unlicensed. A "free whole-home backup design" offer should name the master who draws it.
• The master of record changes on paper first. The contractor tells TDLR when a new master electrician of record is assigned. When one leaves, the contractor tells TDLR within 30 business days. An About page or Google profile that names your master should change the same week.
• Only your own license. The rule bars a contractor from using a license that is not assigned to it. A partner's or a former employer's number never goes on your van or your ads.
• The van has a type size. Name and number go on both sides of every vehicle used for electrical work. The letters must contrast with the paint and stand at least two inches tall, with "TECL" before the number.

Not legal advice; confirm with counsel before you reletter a van or reprint a template. TDLR's guide prints the notice's web address as www.tdlr.texas.gov/complaints. The rule itself says www.tdlr.texas.gov, so keep the rule's text unless TDLR tells you otherwise.

A master's license is hard to earn, and that is worth saying on your page. TDLR's fiscal 2025 exam figures show 771 of 3,472 master NEC exams passed.

Masters licensed in other states are arriving too. On October 6, 2026 TDLR added Tennessee to its master electrician reciprocity agreements. It already had them with Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa and Louisiana. Nebraska, North Carolina and Ohio are on the list too. Under these agreements, an out-of-state master can qualify for a Texas master license through a shorter process. That master needs a home license held for a year and earned by that state's exam, and each state's prerequisites still apply. A new competitor may look established quickly. What it cannot bring is Texas reviews, so put yours on each city page, next to the form.

Sell a generator on the outages Texans actually had. Most of the hours lost in 2024 came from a few big storms, not from the grid.

On the IEEE measure in EIA's Electric Power Annual, the average Texas customer went 1,614 minutes without power in 2024. That is about 27 hours. In 2021, the year of Winter Storm Uri, it was about 25 hours. Take out the major event days, the worst storm days, and 2024 drops to about 2.6 hours.

EIA's summary of the year credits major events with 80% of the hours US customers went without power in 2024. Beryl, Helene and Milton were among them. Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 near Matagorda. At its peak, Texas had about 2.8 million customer outages, per the Department of Energy's situation report.

Uri was a grid event, and it is not the usual case. At its worst point, ERCOT was cutting 20,000 MW of firm load. The cuts ran nearly three days in a row, per the FERC and NERC review.

When a single town loses power, the cause is much more likely to be local. The Texas Tribune reported that, citing an ERCOT spokesperson. On September 6, 2023, ERCOT declared an Energy Emergency Alert level 2. Even then, its release said no power outages were associated with the grid at that time.

That difference shapes the copy as well as the sale. The state's electrical contractor rule bars misrepresenting "the need for services." It also bars a false statement made to win a contract. "The grid will fail this summer" overstates the need. A generator page that holds up opens on what happened:

• The hours an average Texas customer lost in 2024, and that most fell on major event days such as Beryl.
• What the unit does when the line drops: how it starts, what the transfer switch carries and how long the fuel lasts.
• The permit route for the customer's city, from the permit section.
• The HOA rule, for the buyer whose neighborhood has one.

Built that way, a first screen might read: "About 27 hours without power in 2024, most of it on storm days like Beryl. Here is what a standby generator carries when the line drops."

A homeowners association in Texas can shape where a standby generator goes, but it cannot keep one out.

Texas's HOA generator law, on the books since 2015, bars an association from prohibiting or restricting a permanently installed standby generator. It protects a unit that passes four tests:

• Fuel. It runs on natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas or diesel. Biodiesel and hydrogen count too.
• Enclosure. It sits fully enclosed in the maker's sound-attenuating enclosure.
• Transfer switch. It connects to the main panel through a manual or automatic transfer switch.
• Size. It is rated at 7 kilowatts or more.

The association can still set some rules. It may require code compliance and licensed contractors for the electrical, plumbing and fuel connections. It may also require screening where the unit is visible from the street, and test times that follow the manufacturer.

Its location rules have limits. Under the same law, a location rule is unenforceable if it adds more than 10% to the install cost or more than 20% to the electrical and fuel lines. The application may not ask for more detail than one for any other improvement. Whoever claims a violation carries the burden of proof.

On a generator page, that becomes one short block for HOA neighborhoods: the four tests, the two cost caps and an offer to prepare the application. We found no matching protection for battery-only systems, so a battery page should not claim one.

Solar-plus-battery jobs bring a second law. Since September 1, 2025, Texas's residential solar sales law, SB 1036, has covered a home solar sale or lease that includes installation. The contract must say a licensed electrical contractor will do the work. It must name that contractor and its license number conspicuously, or list the contractors it may use. The buyer may cancel through the fifth business day after signing, and the agreement prints that last date.

Solar retailers and their salespeople have had to be registered with TDLR since September 1, 2026. From November 1, 2026, TDLR enforces its rules on what their contracts disclose and on their educational material. An electrical contractor that sells solar through its own employees is exempt from registration. Its own contracts still carry the license and cancellation terms.

The law's chapter 1806 also bars falsely implying a tie to a utility or a government agency. SB 1036 sets civil penalties of up to $2,500 a violation, or $10,000 where someone over 65 was harmed. Nothing we read settles whether a battery-only sale falls under chapter 1806. So have counsel check your contract against both laws.

Every retailer contract now has to name an installing electrician. That makes retailers a referral source worth a page of their own and a phone call.

Texas has more electric cars every year, and what a utility pays toward charging depends on the city.

By the Alternative Fuels Data Center's 2025 table, Texas had 387,400 electric vehicles registered through 2025. That counts cars, SUVs and pickups, and puts Texas third behind California and Florida. The count was 294,700 through 2024 and 52,200 through 2020. That is more than seven times as many in five years.

Match each charger ad to its city:

• Austin. Austin Energy pays 50% of a qualified home station's cost, up to $500. The customer must own or lease a plug-in car and enroll in Power Partner EV. The station must be new, compatible and listed by UL, ETL or cETL. The application asks for the account number, the station's make and model, the VIN and a paid receipt. Licensed electricians who install chargers can ask by email to join its installer list. The utility says the list is not an endorsement. So an ad may mention the list but not imply Austin Energy vouches for the shop.
• San Antonio. CPS Energy offers bill credits rather than a charger rebate. EV Smart Rewards pays $30 on enrolling and $10 a month more for charging on schedules managed by WeaveGrid. CPS Energy's Off-Peak Rewards pays $30 and $5 a month, with peak hours from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays.
• Everywhere else. Quote no rebate until the utility's own page is open in front of you.

An Austin charger page can lead with the utility's terms and link its application. Then the buyer checks eligibility before the quote. A garage charger is wired under your TECL like any other circuit. Public stations are different. Texas's charging station law sets connector standards for public stations paid for through public grants or state rebates. Before you bid a public station, ask TDLR or counsel what else in that chapter applies.