REP vs. broker vs. energy consultant in Texas: who actually works for you?

Three job titles, three different paychecks

If you manage energy for a Texas business, you've had the calls. Someone from a "power company" with a rate that expires Friday. A broker with "exclusive pricing" from suppliers you've never heard of. A consultant offering to "audit your bill for free."

All three want the same thing — your electricity load. But they're paid in three different ways, and the way someone is paid tells you far more about the advice you'll get than anything on their business card. Here's how the three roles actually work in the deregulated parts of the ERCOT market.

The REP: the company that actually sells you power

A Retail Electric Provider (REP) is the company on your contract and on your bill. REPs are certified by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), buy power in the wholesale ERCOT market, and package it into the retail products you sign — fixed-rate, index, block & index, and the variations in between.

The REP's margin lives inside your rate. That's not a criticism; it's how retail works. But it means a REP's sales team has one job: sell you that REP's product. A quote from one REP tells you what one supplier will charge one customer on one day. It tells you nothing about whether that's a good price, whether the contract language is fair, or whether this is even the right week to be buying.

The broker: paid by the supplier, usually per kWh you use

Most Texas energy brokers don't charge you anything directly. Instead, the REP pays them a commission that is added into your rate — typically quoted in mils or fractions of a cent per kWh. You pay it; you just pay it invisibly, inside your unit price, for every kilowatt-hour of the contract.

That structure creates two incentives worth understanding:

• The commission is earned at signature. A broker gets paid when you sign, which rewards closing deals — not necessarily timing the market, negotiating contract language, or showing up in year two when a billing error appears.
• Bigger adders and longer terms can mean bigger commissions. A broker who controls the size of their own adder is, in effect, setting part of your price.

None of this makes brokers bad actors — many are diligent and transparent. But you should never have to guess. Ask what the adder is, in writing, in ¢/kWh. A professional will tell you. Evasion is an answer too.

The consultant: paid to manage your energy, not just your signature

An energy consultant works the customer's side of the table, and procurement is only one part of the job. The work that actually moves the number on your income statement mostly happens outside the signature moment:

• Competitive bids from a broad panel of suppliers, with the raw offers on the table — not a single "exclusive" quote.
• Market timing: watching forward prices and going to market when conditions favor buyers, not when a commission cycle does.
• Contract review: swing tolerances, bandwidth clauses, material-change language, holdover terms.
• Bill auditing in-life: checking that what you're invoiced matches what you signed, including the regulated TDSP delivery charges that most sales conversations never mention.
• Renewal strategy: starting the next negotiation 12–18 months out, when you have leverage, instead of 30 days out, when you have none.

Consultants are compensated in different ways — some fee-based, some through a disclosed supplier-paid commission, some a mix. The structural difference isn't the existence of compensation; it's that the engagement is built around the customer's total cost over the life of the contract rather than a single transaction.

Five questions to ask anyone who wants your load

1. How are you compensated — and will you put the amount in writing? The only wrong answer is a refusal to answer.
2. How many suppliers will you actually price, and can I see the raw offers? "We work with everyone" should be demonstrable.
3. What happens after I sign? Who finds the billing error in month 14? Who watches my renewal window?
4. Will you review my delivery (TDSP) charges, or only the energy rate? A surprising share of overcharges sit outside the commodity price.
5. Is now the right time to buy — and are you willing to tell me to wait? Anyone paid only at signature has a hard time saying "not yet."

Where UPG sits

United Power Group works as an energy consultant on the customer's side of the table. We take Texas commercial loads to market across 30+ suppliers, negotiate the contract language as hard as the rate, audit bills in-life — including TDSP delivery charges — and manage the renewal calendar so you're never buying under deadline pressure. We're not a REP, we don't own generation, and we're happy to put our compensation in writing. That's the standard we think you should hold anyone to, including us.

Bottom line

REPs sell power. Brokers sell contracts. Consultants manage energy cost over time. All three can have a place — but only one of them is structurally built to answer to you. Before you sign anything, find out how the person across the table gets paid. Their incentives are the small print behind the small print.