Most energy consultants know exactly what a supply contract renewal is worth to them. Solar tends to be the bit of the conversation that hasn’t been priced up yet. Once you look at it, it’s often the stronger opportunity of the two. A renewal pays once. A PPA can pay every year for the length of the contract, which typically run for around 25 years.
Here’s how it works, and why it’s more straightforward than it might look from the outside.
For a full overview of how the consultant partnership model works and what makes solar a strong addition to an energy proposition, see How Energy Brokers Add a Solar PPA to Their Proposition.
Recurring share is the default, but you don’t have to take it
UrbanVolt pays a recurring revenue share for the life of the PPA as standard. That’s the structure most TPI partners end up on, but it’s worth understanding properly before you decide.
If you’d rather have the cash sooner, you can elect for an upfront incentive instead when the deal closes. That’s a completely legitimate choice, particularly if near-term cash flow matters more to your business than a longer income tail.
But it’s worth assessing the recurring option for a moment before defaulting to the fee. A share paid out over 25 years isn’t one payment, it’s a stream, and every deal you place adds to it. Do three or four a year for a few years running and you’ve built a base of income that keeps arriving without you needing to do anything further.
Why it keeps paying without more work from you
Once a PPA is signed, UrbanVolt takes over the installation, the maintenance, and the performance monitoring for the whole term. If you’ve taken the revenue share, it keeps coming regardless of how involved you are in the account after that point. The work was the introduction. Everything after is UrbanVolt’s job.
A supply contract doesn’t work this way. The commission is tied to the renewal event, and if the client moves the contract elsewhere, it stops. Solar doesn’t have that cliff edge. It runs its term, and so does your share of it.
It also protects the business you already have
There’s a second effect that’s easy to miss, which can matter more than the commission itself.
A client who’s had a genuinely good outcome from you – a fixed rate for the next couple of decades – has a reason to trust your judgement on everything else, including their supply contract at the next renewal. This is significant goodwill. The TPI who found them the PPA is the consultant they think of first when the next renewal comes around, rather than one of several names in an inbox.
Adding solar to a relationship isn’t only a new income line. It’s protection for the one you’ve already got.
What it takes
None of this needs you to become a solar expert. You’ve already got the two things that matter – the relationship and the energy data. Put a handful of site details into UrbanVolt’s partner portal and you get an indicative PPA estimate back in seconds, which is enough to open the conversation properly. If the client wants to go further, UrbanVolt puts together a full proposal in your branding and takes it from there.
The clients worth starting with are the ones using more than 250,000 kWh of daytime electricity, sitting on a decent roof, with ownership or a long lease – construction, manufacturing, food and beverage, logistics, retail. If your book has a few of those, there’s income sitting in it that a short conversation could open.
Interested in partnering with UrbanVolt? Take a look at our partner page, or contact us to talk through the process.