CET Energy Solutions, the Broad Sky Partners–backed electrical and energy services platform that began as Commonwealth Electrical Technologies, announced on October 28 that it has acquired four companies: Direct Electric Services of Mount Airy, Maryland; JDL Electric Company of Halethorpe, Maryland; New Horizons Technologies of Sterling, Massachusetts; and Vanguard Building Solutions of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The deals take CET into the Mid-Atlantic for electrical contracting and add a national energy-efficiency business. CET says it has now completed six acquisitions and has more than 400 employees. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The assets.
The release groups the four deals into two buckets.
Electrical contracting. Direct Electric Services, founded in 2003, is a full-service commercial electrical contractor licensed in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Washington, D.C. It focuses on commercial interiors, institutional projects and service contracts, and the release points to long-standing relationships with major general contractors in the region. JDL Electric Company, founded in 1993 and based outside Baltimore, focuses on new construction and property management services and is known for large tenant fit-out work; it is licensed in Maryland and Delaware. Both keep their names and operate as "a CET Energy Solutions Company." New Horizons Technologies, founded in the early 2000s, provides integrated technology solutions, electrical construction and on-call field service to commercial customers across Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. It will operate as Commonwealth Electrical Technologies.
Energy solutions. Vanguard Building Solutions, founded in 2013, sells turnkey energy-efficiency projects to facility owners in healthcare, industrial and warehouse, commercial real estate, hospitality, senior living, higher education, religious institutions and multifamily. It takes a customer from the energy audit through the upgrade (HVAC, LED lighting, indoor air quality, building controls and solar) and offers project financing. Vanguard will move to the CET Energy Solutions name.
The platform.
Commonwealth Electrical Technologies was founded in Worcester in 2008 as a regional electrical contractor. Broad Sky Partners became its majority investor in February 2025. On October 21, the company launched CET Energy Solutions as the parent of Commonwealth Electrical Technologies, Horton Electric and NuWave Energy. That release cited more than 300 employees and six locations across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and West Coast. CET describes itself as delivering energy efficiency, electrical construction, solar, battery storage EPC and EV charging for commercial and industrial customers. John J. Duquette is CEO.
CET's acquisitions to date:
- NuWave Energy Solutions (Massachusetts; energy-conservation design/build, with operations in California and Colorado): October 2025
- Horton Electrical Services (Connecticut; wastewater, solar, generator and civil electrical): September 2026
- Direct Electric Services (Mount Airy, Maryland): announced October 28, 2026
- JDL Electric Company (Halethorpe, Maryland): announced October 28, 2026
- New Horizons Technologies (Sterling, Massachusetts): announced October 28, 2026
- Vanguard Building Solutions (Cherry Hill, New Jersey): announced October 28, 2026
Selling the project and doing the work.
The structural point is in Duquette's own description of the platform: energy-services firms that "identify, engineer, and finance efficiency projects," paired with "a network of self-performing electrical contractors that can execute them." Vanguard and NuWave find the work. They audit a building, design the upgrade and arrange the financing. Direct Electric, JDL, New Horizons, Horton and the original Commonwealth business have the licensed electricians to install it.
Most electrical roll-ups buy contractors and grow by adding more contractors. CET is also buying the front end of the sale. Done this way, an efficiency developer can steer its projects to electricians the platform owns, and the electrical contractors get work their general-contractor relationships would not otherwise bring them. Vanguard's scope (HVAC, lighting, controls, indoor air quality, solar) also takes CET past pure electrical into mechanical and building-systems work, even if some of that is subcontracted.
The geography follows the same idea. Two of the three contractors are in the Baltimore–Washington corridor, a new market for CET's electrical business, and both keep their names, which suggests the platform is buying local general-contractor and property-manager relationships it plans to keep. In New England, where CET already has a brand, New Horizons takes the Commonwealth name.
What it means.
For commercial electrical contractors in the Mid-Atlantic and New England, this is a sponsor-backed buyer that has now bought six electrical and energy businesses in about 13 months, four of them in a single announcement. The release lists the things CET paid for: licenses across multiple states, general-contractor relationships, recurring service and property-management work, and tenant fit-out capability.
It also means a buyer like this may look at your business in two ways. One is as a standalone contractor with its own backlog and customers. The other is as installation capacity for projects its energy-services side originates. If your company already does lighting retrofits, controls, solar or service-contract work for institutional and commercial owners, that second view could matter. If you own a small energy-services or efficiency-consulting firm, Vanguard shows electrical platforms may want the origination side too.
Own an electrical or energy services business?
Schryver & Co. advises trades owners with roughly $5 million to $100 million of revenue and $1 million to $5 million or more of EBITDA, depending on the vertical. If a sponsor-backed electrical or MEP platform has reached out, or you just want a clear read on who would compete for your business, we are glad to talk.
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