North American Power entered Connecticut in early 2010, positioning itself as a fast-growing energy supplier. But the company's compensation structure, led by co-founders Kerry Breitbart and Carey Turnbull, raises questions about its reliance on actual retail customers.
Breitbart, CEO, and Turnbull, Chairman, both came from the natural resources sector, with careers in crude oil and petroleum brokerage. This venture appears to be their first in network marketing. The company distributes electricity, gas, and wind energy services through third-party utility providers across the US.
On the surface, North American Power's commission system sounds direct. Representatives earn money for signing new customers and receive ongoing commissions based on those customers' energy usage. The problem emerges when one examines the membership requirements.
To become a Representative, one must enroll at least one "Accepted Customer," someone who passed a verification call and switched their utility. The rank structure then demands increasingly large downlines, which seem difficult to build with genuine retail customers alone.
A Referring Representative needs five accepted customers. To reach Director status, a representative needs five customers who have each built personal downlines of at least 25 customers. This totals 125 people in a direct line. Area Directors must maintain 500 accepted customers across their network. Regional Directors need 10 customers with Area Directors beneath them. National Directors hold the top ranks.
These numbers do not align with how a typical retail energy business operates. Electricity and gas suppliers generally compete on price and service. They do not use recruiting structures that require participants to build massive downlines just to advance in rank.
The compensation plan emphasizes recruitment and downline building over actual energy sales. Representatives do earn commissions from signing up customers. But the real money, and the real pressure, comes from building a network beneath them. This structure mirrors the multi-level marketing playbook.
Breitbart and Turnbull brought legitimate business experience to the company. That experience does not change the fundamental mechanics of what North American Power built. The company created a system where success depends less on whether average Americans buy their energy services and more on whether representatives can recruit others into the business.
For people considering joining North American Power, a core question remains: Can one make money just by selling energy to local customers? Or does making real money require building an ever-expanding downline of other representatives? The rank structure suggests the latter.