Energy brokers and commissions: the honest guide
Last updated: August 2026
An energy broker arranges business gas and electricity contracts on your behalf. Most are paid by commission added to your unit rate, typically 2p to 5p per kWh on gas and less on electricity (2026 industry estimates). Since 1 October 2024, Ofgem rules require your supplier to disclose that commission on a cost-per-unit basis.
We should say this up front: Nettle is a broker. This page explains how our industry makes its money, including us. Nobody else on page one of Google publishes these numbers. Read it before you sign with anyone, us included.
What an energy broker does
A business energy broker, or third-party intermediary (TPI), sits between your business and the energy suppliers. You give them your usage and meter details, they collect quotes, and they handle the contract paperwork. A good one saves you an afternoon of phone calls and knows which suppliers to avoid. Thousands of brokers operate in a market that is only partly regulated, so quality varies from genuinely useful to actively expensive.
Brokers rarely send you a bill. That is the part most businesses misunderstand, and it is where the money hides.
How brokers get paid: the uplift, in numbers
The standard mechanism is called an uplift. The broker adds pence to the unit rate the supplier offered, the supplier collects it through your bills, and passes it back to the broker. You pay the commission, but it never appears as a line item. It looks like the price of your gas or electricity.
Industry figures put typical uplifts at 2p to 5p per kWh in the current market (Meet George broker-commission guide, updated August 2026; a gas-led blend, and an industry estimate, as no regulator publishes uplift data). The same guide describes 1p to 2p per kWh as reasonable for a small business when disclosed, and 5p or more as predatory. Smaller businesses pay more: micro businesses commonly see 3p to 5p per kWh, small businesses 2p to 4p, while large industrial users pay around 0.1p.
In pounds, that looks like this for a shop using 25,000 kWh of gas a year. The arithmetic is uplift times annual usage, so you can check it against your own bill.
| Uplift | Cost per year | Over a 3-year contract |
|---|---|---|
| 1p per kWh | £250 | £750 |
| 3p per kWh | £750 | £2,250 |
| 5p per kWh | £1,250 | £3,750 |
Figures: uplift × 25,000 kWh. Uplift ranges are industry estimates, correct as of August 2026.
Two contracts can therefore look identical and differ by £1,000 a year, with the gap going to whoever arranged the deal. Some brokers instead charge a fee billed directly to you. Worth knowing: Ofgem's disclosure rules cover commission collected through your supplier's bill. A fee you pay the broker direct sits outside them.
What a fair unit rate looks like before any uplift is a separate question, and it lives on our business gas prices page.
What a business electricity broker adds to your unit rate
The same uplift, in smaller pence. Electricity unit rates sit well above gas rates, so a broker takes fewer pence per kWh to earn the same money. Published electricity estimates run 1.0p to 2.5p per kWh for a micro business, 0.5p to 1.5p for a small or medium one and 0.1p to 0.5p for a large industrial site (Purely Energy, verified August 2026; an industry estimate).
One commercial electricity broker publishes its own arithmetic: a 30p per kWh rate plus 0.8p of commission, billed to you as 30.8p (Business Energy UK, updated October 2025). On a small business using 25,000 kWh of electricity a year (Bionic, January 2026), the pounds work out like this.
| Uplift | Cost per year | Over a 3-year contract |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5p per kWh | £125 | £375 |
| 1p per kWh | £250 | £750 |
| 2.5p per kWh | £625 | £1,875 |
Figures: uplift × 25,000 kWh of electricity. Ranges are industry estimates as of August 2026.
What we charge
Our commission is 1.5p per kWh, gas and electricity, every contract length. On a small business using 20,000 kWh of electricity a year, that is £300 a year. The exact pounds-and-pence figure for your usage is printed on your quote before you sign.
Every quote we send shows our commission in pence per kWh and in pounds per year for your usage, before you sign anything. If a deal only works for us and not for you, we will say so. Sometimes the honest answer is that your current supplier's offer is fine and you should stay put. We would rather tell you that than earn an uplift you would resent.
That holds on either fuel. Ask us for a business gas or electricity quote, and the commission is on it before you sign.
Questions to ask any broker, including us
How much are you paid on this deal, in pounds? Pence per kWh is easy to wave away. £750 a year is not. Any broker who won't answer in pounds has answered.
Is your commission in the unit rate, or a separate fee? If it is in the rate, ask to see the rate with and without it.
What is the standing charge, before and after your commission? Commission can also sit in the daily standing charge, where it stays invisible to anyone checking the unit rate. Business electricity standing charges are high enough that an inflated one looks normal. Ask for both figures.
How many suppliers did you check? Some brokers work from a panel of three. Ask for the list.
What does your letter of authority cover? A letter of authority should let a broker fetch your usage data and collect quotes, nothing more. Some versions grant the broker power to sign contracts on your behalf. Cross that part out before you sign, or find another broker.
Are you registered with a redress scheme? Ofgem expects brokers serving micro and small businesses to belong to a Qualifying Dispute Settlement Scheme. No scheme, no recourse.
Will you put the quote in writing before I agree anything on the phone? Business energy contracts have no cooling-off period, even when agreed verbally. Never agree on a call. Get it in writing, every time.
The rogue-broker problem, and what changed in 2024
The uplift model created an obvious temptation, and parts of the industry gave in to it. The Energy Ombudsman's 2026 broker report recorded 980 broker cases accepted during 2025, down 38% on the year before, with 36% upheld in the customer's favour, down 22 points. That was the first full year after the new disclosure rules landed. In 2025 the Court of Appeal ruled in Expert Tooling v Engie, now the leading case on undisclosed broker commissions in business energy contracts.
Ofgem's response was the Non-Domestic Market Review. From 1 October 2024, suppliers must disclose broker commission to all non-domestic customers on a cost-per-unit basis, in the contract's Principal Terms and on request. It will not appear on your invoice, so ask for it in writing instead. A separate change on 1 July 2024 extended Ofgem's Standards of Conduct to businesses of every size. Micro businesses (under 10 employees, or under 100,000 kWh of electricity or 293,000 kWh of gas a year) also get the figure as a lump sum. From December 2024, small businesses (under 50 employees, or under 200,000 kWh of electricity a year) gained the right to take complaints, including broker disputes, to the Energy Ombudsman, a route previously reserved for micro businesses. Suppliers must also check that brokers working with those customers are registered with a redress scheme. One limit worth knowing: Ofgem does not cap what a broker can charge. The rules force disclosure of the commission, not a ceiling on it.
Translation: since December 2024, most UK businesses can ask what their broker was paid, and escalate if the answer smells wrong. If a broker stung you before those rules landed, you may still have a claim; the Citizens Advice consumer helpline (0808 223 1133) is the free first call.
If a broker signed you into a bad deal that has now lapsed, you may be on out-of-contract rates. Our business gas renewal and business electricity renewal pages cover how to get off them.
Questions people ask us
- Do energy brokers charge a fee?
Usually not directly. Most earn a commission built into your unit rate and collected by the supplier, typically 2p to 5p per kWh on gas and less on electricity (2026 industry estimates). Some charge an upfront or annual fee instead. Either way, ask for the cost in pounds before you sign.
- How much commission do energy brokers make?
On a typical small-business gas contract of 25,000 kWh a year, an uplift between 1p and 5p per kWh works out at £250 to £1,250 a year. On the same usage of electricity, estimates of 0.5p to 2.5p work out at £125 to £625. Ranges are industry estimates as of August 2026; no regulator publishes uplift figures, which is rather the point of this page.
- Is a business electricity consultant different from an energy broker?
No. Same job, different business card. Ofgem does not license third-party intermediaries, and that covers consultants too (Ofgem TPI guidance, still live August 2026). The Government said in October 2025 that Ofgem will take the job on, with a registration scheme, but nothing is in force yet.
- Are energy brokers worth it?
A disclosed broker who checks the whole market can beat the renewal offer sitting in your inbox and save you the legwork. An undisclosed one can cost more than doing nothing. The test is one question: will they tell you what they earn, in pounds, in writing? If yes, useful. If no, walk.
Sources: Meet George, energy broker commission rates guide (industry estimates, updated August 2026); Purely Energy, energy broker commission explained (electricity ranges and standing-charge commission, August 2026); Business Energy UK, how we get paid (worked electricity example, updated October 2025); Bionic, average business energy consumption (January 2026); Ofgem, Non-Domestic Market Review decision factsheet (April 2024; disclosure from 1 October 2024, Ombudsman and definition changes from December 2024); Ofgem, guidance on complaints handling standards (September 2024); Ofgem, third-party intermediaries microbusiness guidance (October 2022); Energy Ombudsman Broker Annual Review 2026 (calendar year 2025); DESNZ, regulating third-party intermediaries government response (October 2025); Expert Tooling and Automation Ltd v Engie Power Ltd 2025 EWCA Civ.