How Texas Electricity Brokers Get Paid, and What It Means for Your Rate
Texas electricity brokers are paid by the electric supplier, not the customer, through a commission built into the supply rate and quoted in mils per kWh (tenths of a cent). PUCT rules require brokers to disclose that they receive this compensation and to reveal the basis if asked. You never see a separate broker invoice.
Say a light-industrial account uses 35,000 kWh a month and signs a 7-cent supply contract. That's $2,450 a month in energy charges. Add a broker commission of 3 mils per kWh, three-tenths of a cent, and the broker earns $105 that month, or $1,260 over the year. Example numbers to show the math, not a live quote. The account never sees a separate invoice for it: the commission is already folded into the 7-cent rate on the contract.
How Your Broker Actually Gets Paid: The Mil
In Texas commercial electricity, a mil is one-tenth of a cent: $0.001 per kWh. Brokers don't charge a consulting fee or send a monthly invoice. Instead, the supplier you sign with agrees to pay the broker a set number of mils on every kWh you use for the life of the contract. If your usage runs high some months and low in others, the broker's pay moves with it. The broker never touches your money directly. The supplier collects your payment, keeps its margin, and remits the broker's cut out of what's left. Your all-in supply rate, the number printed on the contract you sign, already has that commission built into it before you ever see the paperwork.
What PUCT Requires Brokers to Disclose
A PUCT-registered broker has to tell a customer in writing, before the contract is signed, that it may receive compensation from the supplier on that account. If you ask for the basis of that compensation, in mils per kWh, in a flat fee, in a percentage, the broker is required to give you a straight answer. What PUCT doesn't require is disclosure by default. Nobody hands you the number unless you ask for it. That gap is where undisclosed compensation and other problems can hide.
- What's the commission on this specific contract, in mils per kWh?
- Are you bidding my account to more than one supplier, or just the one or two you work with most?
- Does your commission change depending on which supplier I choose?
- Can I see the underlying wholesale or index price before your markup is applied?
- Is there any fee beyond what's built into the rate, an admin charge, a separate broker fee, anything at all?
The riskiest brokers work with a short list of suppliers, the ones paying the richest commission, and steer clients toward them regardless of how that supplier's rate compares to others available for the account that month. A 24-month or 36-month term can carry a bigger built-in commission than a 12-month term on the same supplier. If a broker pushes you hard toward the longest term available without explaining why, ask what's in it for them.
Before you sign anything, ask your broker for the mils per kWh on the deal and get quotes run across at least three ERCOT suppliers side by side. A transparent broker answers both questions without hesitating. One who won't is telling you something.
Voltcheckr's Model, Stated Plainly
We get paid exactly the way every PUCT-registered Texas broker gets paid: a commission from the supplier, built into the mils per kWh of your quoted rate. We're not a nonprofit and we're not going to pretend otherwise. What we do differently is answer the question when you ask it. We'll tell you the commission on your specific deal, we bid your account across the ERCOT retail market instead of one or two preferred suppliers, and we don't push a 36-month term just because it pays better than a 12-month one. Our registration number is BR260102. Look it up on the PUCT site if you want to confirm it yourself.
- The energy charge and the TDU delivery charge broken out separately, not blended into one number
- The contract term, and whether the rate is fixed or index-based
- Any demand charge structure, since most commercial accounts above a few thousand kWh a month carry one, billed on the highest 15-minute interval of the cycle
- A broker willing to state the commission on the deal without making you ask twice
- No evergreen or auto-renew clause buried in the fine print
Compare your current commercial rate against competitive ERCOT supply offers, with the commission structure disclosed up front.
Get My QuoteFrequently asked questions
No. Texas brokers are paid by the electric supplier out of the contract rate, not by the business. The commission is measured in mils per kWh and built into your quoted supply rate before you ever see it.
A mil is one-tenth of a cent, or $0.001. Broker commissions in the Texas commercial market are expressed in mils per kWh and added to the supplier's base cost to build your quoted rate.
Yes. A PUCT-registered broker has to tell you in writing that it earns compensation from the supplier on your contract, and disclose the basis of that pay if you ask for it.
It happens. Some suppliers pay richer commissions to move volume, and a broker working with only one or two suppliers has an incentive to push you there. Ask for a multi-supplier bid sheet before you sign anything.
The same way every PUCT-registered Texas broker is paid: a commission from the supplier built into the mils per kWh of your rate. We disclose that structure on request and bid your account across the ERCOT retail market instead of steering to one preferred supplier.