Public | |
Traded as | : NRG S&P 500 Component |
Industry | Electric utilities |
Founded | 1992 |
Headquarters | West Windsor, New Jersey (financial), Houston, Texas (operations) |
Area served
|
USA, 11 states |
Key people
|
Mauricio Gutierrez (President and CEO) |
Products |
Electricity generation Electric power transmission distribution |
Revenue |
|
Number of employees
|
10,468 (2015) |
Website | www.nrg.com |
NRG Energy, Inc. is a large American energy company, dual-headquartered in West Windsor Township, New Jersey, and Houston, Texas. It was formerly the wholesale arm of Xcel Energy, and was spun off in bankruptcy in 2004.
When the state of Texas deregulated the electricity market, the former Houston Lighting & Power (HL&P) was split into several companies. In 2003 HL&P was split into Texas Genco (which got the power plants), CenterPoint Energy (which got the distribution system) and Reliant Energy (which actually provided the electricity to business and individuals).
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 acquiring the retail operations of Reliant Energy. With those two moves, NRG's almost reunited the what was the former HL&P and currently serves 1.6 million customers in Texas. The retail operations continue to operate under the Reliant Energy name while the remainder of the former Reliant Energy 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.
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 September 2014, NRG acquired Goal Zero, a manufacturer of personal solar power products.
NRG Energy holds the naming rights to the NRG Park campus in Houston, Texas, home to the NRG Astrodome, NRG Stadium, NRG Arena and NRG Center.