How are brokers and agents for electric power and natural gas classified in ISIC Rev. 5?

Brokers and agents for electric power and natural gas in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, are intermediaries who arrange the sale of power or gas without themselves generating or distributing it through a network. They bring buyers and sellers together, negotiate terms or arrange transactions, and earn a fee or commission for that arranging work. The classification recognises intermediation as a distinct activity because the intermediary does not take on the supply operation itself. Readers should confirm any code with the national statistical institute or business register that holds the record, since national practice can vary.

What does arranging a power or gas deal actually involve, day to day?

Picture the work in sequence, not as a label. A broker hears what a business buyer needs, talks to sellers who can supply power or gas, compares the terms on offer, and helps the two sides reach a contract. An agent does similar work, but more often on behalf of one side, acting for a buyer or a seller through the negotiation. In both cases the payment is for the match and the negotiation: a fee or a commission tied to the transaction being arranged. The broker does not fire up a plant, does not run wires or pipes, and does not take responsibility for keeping the lights on hour by hour. That absence is the point. The arranging job ends, in statistical terms, where the operating job begins.

Take the business buyer example further. Suppose a factory wants a new power supply contract and hires a broker to find one. The broker gathers offers, checks contract lengths and terms, and presents options. The factory picks a seller. From that moment the seller supplies power through the grid, while the broker steps back, paid for the introduction and the negotiation. If you filmed only the broker’s week, you would see calls, documents, and meetings. You would not see turbines turning or meters being read. A statistical description built on observed work would therefore put the broker’s week in a different place from the seller’s week, even though both weeks concern the same electricity.

Where does arranging end and supplying begin?

Three neighbouring jobs help mark the edge. Operating a power station is one. Running a distribution network is a second. Selling power as a supplier, with the ongoing duty to deliver through that network, is a third. Each of those jobs carries an operating responsibility that arranging does not carry. A firm can, of course, do more than one of these things. It might arrange deals for others in one part of its business and supply power in another, or it might grow from a pure brokerage into a supplier over time. Statistical practice handles such mixed units with a principal activity rule, which weighs the whole unit, but this guide does not run that weighing for any reader. A short guide cannot see turnover, staffing, or the balance of work inside a firm, and pretending otherwise would turn a description into a verdict.

Which arranging jobs belong in this description?

The table keeps the same arranging work that ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, places in this grouping, with a short note on what each row turns on.

Activity	Note
Arranging sales of electric power between parties	The match and the terms, not the delivery through the grid
Arranging sales of natural gas between parties	The match and the terms, not the operation of a gas network
Brokerage of power and gas supply contracts	Negotiation and arrangement of the contract itself
Agency work on behalf of buyers or sellers	Acting for one side in arranging a sale
Intermediation without operating a supply network	Arranging while another unit operates the network

Why does keeping brokers separate matter for the numbers?

If brokers were counted as suppliers, supply statistics would swell with units that never generated or moved a unit of energy. If suppliers were counted as brokers, the arranging market would look far larger than the fee earning work it really is. Keeping the two apart lets a reader of the statistics ask two different questions and get two different answers: how much arranging work is being done, and how much supply work is being done. That separation also protects comparisons over time. A rise in brokerage activity then reads as a rise in intermediation, not as a phantom rise in generation, and a change in supply reads as a change in operation, not as a change in deal making.

The UN Statistics Division classification detail and the ISIC Rev. 5 publication in the frontmatter support every code statement about brokers and agents for electric power and natural gas in this guide.

For anyone reading this as background rather than as a ruling, remember what it is and what it is not: a statistical classification only, offered as general information. It does not settle your code, your principal activity, or your registration, and the body that can settle those things for you is the national statistical institute or business register that holds your record, so confirm there before acting on any description here.