Career guide
How to become an energy broker
Everything you need to start selling commercial electricity and natural gas contracts — licensing, commissions, supplier access, and your first 90 days.
Commercial energy brokering is one of the few B2B sales careers where a single signed contract can pay for years. Businesses in deregulated states must choose an electricity supplier, and most of them do it badly. A broker's job is to bring competitive supplier pricing, explain the contract terms, and get paid a margin by the supplier — at no direct cost to the customer. Here's exactly how to start.
Understand the market
Learn which states are deregulated, how ERCOT, PJM, NYISO and ISO-NE pricing differs, and how a unit rate is built from energy, capacity, transmission, and ancillary components.
Get licensed or partner up
Some states require broker registration. Partnering with a licensed advisory firm lets you write business immediately while your own registrations are processed.
Get supplier access
Suppliers only quote through approved channels. Partnering gives you instant access to 25+ retail suppliers, live pricing, and back-office contract support.
What an energy broker actually does
A commercial energy broker sits between a business and the retail suppliers competing for its load. You collect a utility bill or letter of authorization, pull the meter's usage history, run a competitive tender across suppliers, and present the customer with an apples-to-apples comparison.
The value you deliver is not just a lower price. It is contract structure: fixed versus indexed, pass-through versus fully bundled, bandwidth tolerances, early termination language, and renewal protection. Most overpayment happens in the fine print, not the headline rate.
- Collect the bill and a signed letter of authorization (LOA)
- Pull historical usage and load profile from the utility
- Tender the account across multiple licensed suppliers
- Present a plain-English comparison and recommendation
- Manage enrollment, contract execution, and renewal timing
How energy broker commissions work
Broker compensation is expressed in mils — thousandths of a dollar per kilowatt-hour. If you place a 2,000,000 kWh per year account at a 1.5 mil margin on a 36-month term, gross commission is 2,000,000 × 0.0015 × 3, or about $9,000.
Keystone pays 100% upfront — the full contract commission is delivered as a lump sum at contract execution rather than trickling in monthly. Commission is split 50/50 with partner agents.
Licensing requirements by state
Broker licensing is state-by-state. Texas requires PUCT broker registration, New York requires ESCO/broker compliance under the PSC, and Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey each maintain their own registration regimes. Other deregulated states have no broker license at all.
The fastest legal path for a new agent is to write business through an already-licensed advisory firm. Keystone Energy Advisors is licensed across the deregulated states we serve, and our partner agents operate under that umbrella.
Your first 90 days
New agents who succeed do the same three things: they build a target list, they get bills, and they follow up on a schedule. Our AI prospecting engine builds the target list for you by industry, city, and estimated usage, and our Close My Deal AI reviews each opportunity like a sales manager would.
- Days 1–14: onboarding, handbook, scripts, supplier training
- Days 15–45: prospecting and bill collection — the only metric that matters early
- Days 46–90: quoting, closing, and building your renewal calendar
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a license to become an energy broker?
It depends on the state. Texas, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts and several others require broker registration or licensing; others do not. Keystone Energy Advisors is licensed across deregulated markets, so agents can write business under our license while they build their own book.
How much do energy brokers make?
Broker income is measured in mils — fractions of a cent per kWh sold. A 1 mil ($0.001/kWh) margin on a 2,000,000 kWh per year account paid over a 36-month term is roughly $6,000 in gross commission. Keystone splits commission 50/50 with agents.
How long does it take to start earning?
Most new agents write their first deal within 30–60 days. Payments are released upfront, 3–5 days after the supplier confirms enrollment.
Do I need energy industry experience?
No. We provide the agent handbook, phone and in-person sales scripts, AI prospecting, quoting tools, and supplier relationships. Most successful agents come from insurance, telecom, merchant services, solar, or commercial real estate.
What does it cost to join?
Nothing. There are no fees, no desk costs, and no minimum volume requirements to become a Keystone Energy Advisors partner agent.
Start your energy broker career with Keystone
No fees, no minimums, 50/50 commission splits, 100% upfront commission payments, and a full AI-powered sales toolkit.