NRG Energy
NRG Energy, Inc. is an American energy company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was formerly the wholesale arm of Northern States Power Company, which became Xcel Energy, but became independent in 2000. NRG Energy is involved in energy generation and retail electricity. Their portfolio includes natural gas generation, coal generation, oil generation, nuclear generation, wind generation, utility-scale generation, and distributed solar generation. NRG serves over 7 million retail customers in 24 US states including Texas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio; the District of Columbia, and eight provinces in Canada.
NRG Energy has acquired eleven other energy companies, both generation and retail, that include Reliant Energy, XOOM Energy, Green Mountain Energy, Stream Energy, GenOn Energy, Discount Power and Cirro Energy. As of 2018, they generate 23,000 MW of power from 40 power plants across the country. They incorporate a range of sales channels for retail customers, including call centers, direct sales, websites, brokers, and brick-and-mortar stores. Their wholesale generation services include plant operations, commercial operations, energy services, distributed generation services, and energy, procurement, and construction services.
History
1980s–1990s
NRG Energy was formed in 1989 as one of NSP's wholly owned subsidiaries. In 1997, NRG Energy, Inc. had 2,650 MW of generation and operational responsibility for a supplementary 5,374 MW. By 1998, the company began an aggressive acquisition campaign. It bought plants from Niagara Mohawk, San Diego Gas and Electric, Consolidated Edison, Montauk Electric, Rochester Gas and Electric, and Connecticut Light & Power. It continued to grow through acquisitions and in 2000, acquired Cajun Electric Power Cooperative's facilities.2000s
In 2001, NRG Energy had a net ownership of 24,357 MW of generation globally, with 19,077 MW in the United States. From 1996 to 2001, the operating revenue increased from $104 million to $3 billion, and the debt increased from $212 million to $8.3 billion. By 2002, the debt had reached $9.4 billion, and NRG Energy sold its power plants in Hungary and the Czech Republic. To avert default by NRG, Xcel sold $500 million in stock in July 2002. In 2003, Xcel Energy paid NRG Energy $752 million for the benefit of NRG Energy's creditors and took a $2 billion write-off.On May 14, 2003, NRG Energy filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. In the company's reorganization, Xcel Energy relinquished its ownership interest, and NRG Energy became an independent, public company after bankruptcy. David W. Crane joined NRG as the chief executive in December. The reorganized NRG Energy eliminated about $5.2 billion of corporate debt along with $1.2 billion of additional claims by giving equity and cash to unsecured creditors.
By 2005, NRG Energy expanded again and added 7,600 MW of domestic capacity to its portfolio. The company acquired Dynegy's 50% of 1,800 MW of generation in California. They also acquired Texas GenCo in 2006, Reliant Energy in 2009, and Green Mountain Energy in 2010. The company began to focus on domestic markets and retreated from international electricity markets.
2010s
By 2011, NRG Energy's generation portfolio had 25,135 MW, with only 1,000 MW outside of the United States. In 2012, they added GenOn Energy for $1.7 billion and in 2013, they added Edison Mission for $2.6 billion. This gave the company 46,000 MW total of generation capacity. In 2013, they also added a demand response company: Energy Curtailment Specialists, Inc. The business later became NRG Curtailment Solutions, Inc.During December 2015, NRG Energy released David Crane of his duty and Mauricio Gutierrez, the Chief Operating Officer at the time, was brought on as Chief Executive and President of NRG Energy. That same month, NRG's shares rose by 63% and closed at $17.90 after it had fallen by 60% in 2015. For the first three months of 2016, the company posted a net income of $47 million in comparison to the net loss of $136 million the first quarter of 2015. Gutierrez stated that paying down debt was a top priority.
NRG Energy announced in February 2018 the sale of the company's stake in NRG Yield, a tax-advantaged renewable energy investment pass-through vehicle, to Global Energy Infrastructure Partners and the sale of its Louisiana assets to Cleco Corporate Holdings. This included the 1,300 MW Cottonwood natural gas plant, the 1,500 MW Big Cajun II coal and gas-fired plant, and three other gas-fired peaking plants. In August, NRG Yield changed its name to Clearway Energy and began trading under the new name and ticker symbol in the New York Stock Exchange on September 17. These sales are estimated to reduce NRG Energy's debt by $7 billion and reduce their energy generation portfolio from 50,000 MW to 24,000 MW. In March 2018, the company planned to hasten its transition from an independent power producer model to a customer driven integrated power model that favored retail businesses. After GenOn's exit in 2018, the NRG fleet shrunk to 23 GW but retained 2.9 million retail customers. The new fleet has 11.5 GW of generation in Texas, 9.7 GW of generation in the East, and 2.6 GW of generation in the West. In March 2018, NRG Energy acquired XOOM Energy, a retail electricity provider, for $210 million. XOOM Energy served 300,000 customers in the East, which was added to NRG Energy's retail profile.
In a partnership with Cypress Creek Renewables, NRG is offering a long-term, fixed price, consumer solar energy project in June 2018. The first customer of the project is Sysco, who has signed a 10-year renewable energy agreement. Cypress Creek Renewables will build, own, and operate three solar gardens in Texas that will have a combined power capacity of 25 MW. NRG Energy will buy the energy and schedule, distribute and manage the energy for Sysco. The solar project is expected to come online by the first quarter of 2019. The solar installations are expected to provide 10 percent of Sysco's electricity nationwide by generating 25 megawatts of power. NRG Energy is offering solar renewable program contracts for 7–10 years, with the ability to customize the program. The company also assumes the risk of wholesale pricing fluctuation.
In July 2018, NRG and GenOn consummated the NRG settlement resulting in NRG Energy paying GenOn Energy $125 million in a net payment during GenOn's chapter 11 bankruptcy agreement. The deal would help GenOn revamp its capital structure and reemerge with new debt instruments.
2020s
In November 2023, Mauricio Gutierrez resigned from his role as CEO. Larry Coben was named Interim President and CEO.Acquisitions
When the state of Texas deregulated the electricity market, Houston Industries, the parent company of Houston Lighting & Power, was broken up. In 2003, Houston Industries was split into three companies. The power plants went to Texas Genco, CenterPoint Energy took over the distribution system, and the retail and wholesale electricity business became Reliant Energy.In 2006, NRG Energy bought Texas Genco from a group of private equity firms for roughly $5.9 billion. Afterwards, in May 2009, NRG Energy acquired the retail operations of Reliant Energy. With those two moves, NRG's holdings represented most of the former HL&P and today serve 1.6 million customers in Texas. The retail operations continue to operate under the Reliant Energy name, while old Reliant's wholesale operations became RRI Energy.
Following the acquisition of Reliant, NRG extended its retail footprint with the acquisition of Green Mountain Energy in November 2010. In doing so, NRG also became the largest retailer of green power in the nation, providing all of its Green Mountain and many of its Reliant customers with energy derived from 100% renewable resources.
NRG Energy completed its acquisition of GenOn Energy in December 2012 for $1.7 billion in stock and cash. The GenOn name was retired in the merger, but the combined company retained GenOn's Houston headquarters to coordinate operations. That company, in turn, had been formed out of the merger of RRI Energy and Mirant Corporation in 2010.
In August 2013, NRG acquired Energy Curtailment Specialists, a Buffalo, New York-based Demand response company. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In March 2014, NRG Energy acquired Roof Diagnostics Solar, a residential solar power installation company, for an undisclosed amount. RDS headquarters remained in Wall Township, New Jersey while they operated under NRG Residential Solar Solutions. That same month, NRG also acquired the retail power business of Dominion Resources Inc., which included Texas-based Cirro Energy and added 600,000 customer accounts to NRG Energy's retail business. Cirro Energy has continued to operate under the Cirro name. In September 2014, NRG acquired Goal Zero, a manufacturer of personal solar power products. The following month, NRG Energy acquired the residential solar company Pure Energies Group, which focused on web-based customer acquisition. This provided a simplified solar adoption process as well as a sales channel for Goal Zero.
In March 2018, NRG acquired XOOM Energy, a mainly residential-focused, retail energy supplier with 300,000 RCE customers. The sale price was $210 million, which includes working capital and $6 million in transaction costs. It was an all-cash transaction that was funded with $75 million from excess cash and $135 million in debt. NRG Energy stated that the acquisition would serve to balance NRG's generation portfolio in the east. In May 2019, NRG agreed to purchase Stream Energy for $300 million. The deal was finalized that August.
In July 2020, NRG Energy and Centrica entered an agreement under which NRG would acquire Direct Energy for $3.625 billion in an all-cash transaction. The deal was approved in January 2021, adding more than 3 million retail customers across 50 US states and 6 Canadian provinces.
In December 2022, NRG announced the acquisition of Vivint Smart Home for $2.8 billion in cash, adding home security and automation to its vast product offer, expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.
In May 2025, NRG announced the acquisition of the natural gas generation facilities and a commercial and industrial virtual power plant from LS_Power at a value of approximately $12 billion.