Reliant Energy Retail Holding, LLC is an American energy company based in Houston , Texas. It serves the state of Texas .
94-486: Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Reliant Energy, a subsidiary of NRG Energy , is one of the largest Texas electricity providers serving over 1.5 million Texans. Reliant provides over 23 million megawatts of power annually to residential and business customers. Reliant Energy was founded in 2000. In June 2009, NRG Energy purchased Reliant Energy's retail electricity business. At the time, Reliant had 1.8 million customers and
188-578: A green energy producer in the United States and started investing money in clean energy projects. They include onshore and offshore wind power, solar thermal energy , photovoltaic , and distributed solar power facilities, and repowering of some of their traditional coal plants with biomass . In late 2010, NRG launched the EVgo network, the first completely private public car charging station network for electric power vehicles. In 2016, NRG sold
282-447: A centralized electricity market obtains the cost information (usually three components: start-up costs, no-load costs, marginal production costs ) for each unit of generation ("unit-based bidding") and makes all the decisions in the day-ahead and real-time ( system redispatch ) markets. This approach allows the operator to take into consideration the details of the configuration of the transmission system. The centralized market normally uses
376-468: A compensation for these costs to the producer (so called make-whole or uplift payments ), financed in some way by the market participants (and, ultimately, the consumers). Inflexibility of the centralized market manifests itself in two ways: Market clearing algorithms are complex (some are NP-complete ) and have to be executed in limited time (5–60 minutes). The results are thus not necessarily optimal, are hard to replicate independently, and require
470-581: 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
564-642: 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
658-724: A non-discriminatory basis. Following the deregulation of the market, Reliant Energy began competing with other large energy companies in the state, including Direct Energy and TXU Corporation . Reliant Energy offers service to some of the largest cities in Texas including the Dallas/Fort Worth area in northeastern Texas, Houston and surrounding cities on the Gulf of Mexico including Corpus Christi and Galveston, and as far west as Midland. Reliant Energy provides solar and wind turbine renewable energy options for its customers. The renewable energy options are only available in areas where
752-495: A number of customers from Pioneer Energy of Sugar Land and Stat Energy of Richardson, as well. In July of that year, a heat wave caused the day-ahead pricing spike to $ 2,172 per MW hour, compared to $ 28 per MW hour the previous summer. NRG Energy partnered with Cummins in December 2017 to offer backup generators to run as part of an asset-backed demand response system. The Cummins natural-gas-fired genset would be used when
846-434: A peak capacity of 400 kW and provide enough power during the year to offset the cost of power consumed at 49ers home games. NRG Energy provided sustainable energy for Super Bowl LI in 2017 at NRG Stadium . The stadium received power from 600 solar panels and used only LEDs to light up the field, using 60% less energy than previously. NRG Energy also agreed to provide renewable energy credits for any venue associated with
940-529: A pioneer in deregulation in the early 1980s (the law of 1982 had codified the changes that were started in 1979). Only few years later the new market approach to electricity was formulated in the US, popularized in the influential work by Joskow and Schmalensee, "Markets for Power: An Analysis of Electrical Utility Deregulation" (1983). At the same time in the UK, Energy Act of 1983 made provisions for common carriage in
1034-554: A proposed turbine replacement project which would represent a total proposed capacity of 579 MW. The turbine upgrades listed in the filing are new simple-cycle turbines. The filing states that since the proposed capacity is not 25 MW greater than the existing facility, Article 10 regulation is not required. As of November 2018, no ruling has been issued by the NYSPSC. JPMorgan Chase announced their plans in 2017 to power all their facilities in Texas through 100% renewable power by 2020. By
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#17327929540431128-494: 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
1222-694: A two-year agreement beginning in January 2011 to provide 100% renewable energy for the Empire State Building . In 2012, NRG Energy partnered with the DLR Group to design an open-air, solar system for Patriot Place in Massachusetts. The solar array produces an estimated 30% of the power for Patriot Place and provides renewable energy education for visitors at kiosks, electric vehicle charging stations, and off-grid solar “Helios” at
1316-437: Is a relatively recent phenomenon. Buying wholesale electricity is not without its drawbacks (market uncertainty, membership costs, set up fees, collateral investment, and organization costs, as electricity would need to be bought on a daily basis), however, the larger the end user's electrical load, the greater the benefit and incentive to make the switch. For an economically efficient electricity wholesale market to flourish it
1410-685: Is an American energy company, headquartered in Houston , Texas . It was formerly the wholesale arm of Northern States Power Company (NSP), 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;
1504-580: Is deployed, it can then monitor the operations and the performance of the building. NRG Energy mapped 24 different utility territories outside of SCE. By 2018, NRG Energy no longer owned SpaceTag as Station A became a standalone company. NRG Energy owns a minority stake in the company and is a customer of Station A. After the GenOn merger in 2012, NRG had 47,000 MW of total generation capacity, enough to power approximately 40 million homes. Its nearly 100 power plants were located in 18 states in
1598-688: Is essential that a number of criteria are met, namely the existence of a coordinated spot market that has "bid-based, security-constrained, economic dispatch with nodal prices". These criteria have been largely adopted in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Markets for power-related commodities required and managed by (and paid for by) market operators to ensure reliability, are considered ancillary services and include such names as spinning reserve, non-spinning reserve, operating reserves , responsive reserve, regulation up, regulation down, and installed capacity . Wholesale transactions (bids and offers) in electricity are typically cleared and settled by
1692-588: Is popular in Latin America: in addition to Chile, it is used in Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, and countries in Central America. A system operator performs an audit of parameters of each generator unit (including heat rate , minimum load, ramping speed, etc.) and estimates the direct marginal costs of its operation. Based on this information, an hour-by-hour dispatch schedule is put in place to minimize
1786-444: Is possible (e. g., Chile with its preponderance of hydro power, in the US when the local market power is sufficiently high, some European markets ). A less-obvious issue is the tendency of market participants under these conditions to concentrate on investments in the peaker plants to the detriment of the baseload power . One of the advantages of the cost-based market is the relatively low cost to set it up. The cost-based approach
1880-444: Is sometimes dealt with by carbon pricing . Electricity market is characterized by unique features that are atypical in the markets for commodities or consumption goods. Although few somewhat similar markets exist (for example, airplane tickets and hotel rooms, like electricity, cannot be stored and the demand for them varies by season), the magnitude of peak pricing (peak price can be 100 times higher than an off-peak one) sets
1974-616: The NRG Astrodome , NRG Stadium , NRG Arena and NRG Center . NRG Energy also holds the naming rights for a NRG Station (formerly AT&T Station), a rapid transit station in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . NRG Energy has multiple products and services, including generation facilities, operations, management services (O&M), retail electricity, commercial industrial backup generators, and an internal data analytics engine called SpaceTag. In 2014, NRG Energy helped restart
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#17327929540432068-611: The independent transmission system operator or ITSO model). While some operators in Europe are involved in structuring the day-ahead and intra-day markets, the other ones are not. For example, the UK market after the New Electricity Trading Arrangements in UK and the market in New Zealand let the markets sort out all the frictions before real-time. This reliance on financial instruments leads to
2162-449: The megawatts of power while reducing emissions. As of 2018, of the 19 Astoria facilities listed in the 2018 NYISO Gold Book as being owned by NRG, 7 of the facilities are on the deactivated list (at a total of 140 MW of capacity rights), and 12 of the facilities (at a total of 558 MW in nameplate capacity) have each consistently produced less than 15 GWh a year since 2011. This is equivalent to running at full capacity for less than 4% of
2256-406: The utility frequency (either 50 or 60 hertz ) to increase or decrease. However, the frequency cannot deviate too much from the target: many units of the electrical equipment can be destroyed by the out-of-bounds frequency and thus will automatically disconnect from the grid to protect themselves, potentially triggering a blackout . There are many other physical and economic constraints affecting
2350-430: The vertically integrated and tightly regulated "traditional" electricity market with market mechanisms for electricity generation , transmission , distribution , and retailing . The traditional and competitive market approaches loosely correspond to two visions of industry: the deregulation was transforming electricity from a public service (like sewerage ) into a tradable good (like crude oil ). As of 2020s,
2444-475: The Aspen Power plant, the first wood-based biomass plant in Texas. The plant is overseen by InventivEnergy LLC, but NRG operates and maintains the facility, including hiring the management team and operating staff. The plant consumes 525,000 tons of logging debris and municipal wood waste annually and can produce 50 MW of power. Aspen Power uses a stoker-type boiler that is made to reduce the air pollution from
2538-1065: The Carlsbad Energy Center natural gas project (527 MW) and the Buckthorn Solar project (154 MW) from NRG Energy. Cleco Corporate Holdings purchased NRG's South Central business for $ 1 billion in price and cash proceeds. The South Central business had 3,500 MW generation capacity, including the natural gas facilities Bayou Cove plant (225 MW), Sterlington plant (176 MW), and the Cottonwood plant (1,263,000 MW). NRG Energy also sold 1,891 MW of coal-fired capacity to Cleco from their Big Cajun-I and Big Cajun-II plants. In July 2018, NRG Energy released GenOn and paid $ 125 million in net payment during GenOn's bankruptcy settlement. In 2018, NRG Energy reduced its generation capacity to 23,000 MW. They also reduced their power plants from 100 to 40, but they retained 2.9 million retail customers. Beginning in 2009, NRG began an initiative to become
2632-475: 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
2726-534: 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
2820-895: 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 (EPC) services. NRG Energy
2914-687: The EVgo charging network to Vision Ridge Partners, a Colorado-based sustainable - energy investment firm, for an undisclosed amount. In December 2019, LS Power signed an agreement to acquire EVgo. In January 2021, EVgo announced its plans to go public via a SPAC merger , which was completed in July 2021 with the "EVGO" ticker on the Nasdaq. In March 2021, EVgo announced plans to install chargers at midwest retail chain Meijer's superstores. Green Mountain Energy, one of NRG Energy's retail subsidiaries, signed
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3008-547: 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
3102-543: The Hudson Valley. In January 2019, NRG Community Solar became Clearway Community Solar under the parent company Clearway Energy Group. Electricity market An electricity market is a system that enables the exchange of electrical energy , through an electrical grid . Historically, electricity has been primarily sold by companies that operate electric generators , and purchased by consumers or electricity retailers . The electric power industry began in
3196-451: The LMP, and the dispatch goal is minimizing the total cost in each node (which in a large network count in hundreds or even thousands). The centralized markets use some procedures resembling the vertically integrated electric utilities of the era before the deregulation, so the centralized markets are also called integrated electricity markets . Due to the centralized and detailed nature of
3290-506: The NRG fleet shrunk to 23 GW but retained 2.9 million retail customers. The new fleet has 11.5 GW of generation (46% natural gas generation, 31% coal generation, and 15% oil 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
3384-802: The Northeast, Chicago area, Gulf Coast, Southwest, Nevada, and California. Generation facilities include mostly fossil fuel power plants powered by natural gas, oil, and coal; plus four wind farms (in Texas) and six solar farms (in California, Arizona, and New Mexico). NRG also has a 44% ownership stake in the South Texas Nuclear Generating Station and a 37.5% stake in a coal power plant in Gladstone, Queensland , Australia. Some facilities use cogeneration and
3478-494: The O&;M business, and the development business for $ 1.375 billion in cash proceeds. NRG Yield had a diverse portfolio of energy generation including wind, solar, and natural gas, with a total operating capacity of 5,100 MW. The O&M platform managed 2,400 MW of renewable energy in 17 different states, and the development business had 6,400 MW of renewable generation opportunities in the project pipeline. GIP and NRG Yield purchased
3572-695: The Super Bowl, such as the George R. Brown Convention Center and the hotels where the teams were staying. NRG Energy installed 11,000 solar panels and 14 wind turbines at the Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field stadium. These renewable energy installations made the stadium the largest solar power plant in the NFL. The solar power plant produces 40% of the Eagles’ own energy and feed the energy back into
3666-556: The TDUs offer the service. Reliant provides sell back options for excess energy generated by an individual. In June 2013, the City of Houston signed a renewable energy agreement with Reliant, as part of Houston’s dedication to improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of solar and wind power as energy sources. This deal included the purchase of 140 MW of wind energy output from 2013 to 2015. NRG Energy NRG Energy, Inc.
3760-428: 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,
3854-513: 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
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3948-540: The additional names for the decentralized markets: exchange-based , unbundled , bilateral . The system price in the day-ahead market is, in principle, determined by matching offers from generators to bids from consumers at each node to develop a classic supply and demand equilibrium price , usually on an hourly interval, and is calculated separately for subregions in which the system operator's load flow model indicates that constraints will bind transmission imports. The theoretical prices of electricity at each node on
4042-399: The agreement with another producer to provide the actual energy). Centralized markets make it easier to accommodate non-convexities, while the decentralized allow intra-day trading to correct the possibly suboptimal decisions made day-ahead, for example, accommodating improved weather forecasts for renewables. Due to the difference in the grid construction (US had weaker transmission networks),
4136-415: The amount of electricity that can be transmitted from one tighly-coupled area ("node") to another, so a generator in one node might be unable to service a load in another node (due to " transmission congestion "), potentially creating fragments of the market that have to be served with local generation (" load pockets "). After its first few years of existence, the electricity supply industry was regulated by
4230-984: 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 . By 2011, NRG Energy's generation portfolio had 25,135 MW, with only 1,000 MW outside of
4324-549: The best combination of distributed resources for every building in a given territory and showed what it was worth to each customer. NRG tested SpaceTag to gather "60 megawatts of flexible clean energy capacity for key parts of SCE's [Southern California Edison] Orange County and Los Angeles power grid". The platform, developed by NRG's Station A research team in San Francisco, was originally intended to help with customer acquisition but has since evolved. SpaceTag used data about
4418-621: The characteristics of the set of assets being represented. A wholesale electricity market , also power exchange or PX , (or energy exchange especially if they also trade gas) is a system enabling purchases, through bids to buy; sales, through offers to sell. Bids and offers use supply and demand principles to set the price. Long-term contracts are similar to power purchase agreements and generally considered private bi-lateral transactions between counterparties. A wholesale electricity market exists when competing generators offer their electricity output to retailers. The retailers then re-price
4512-424: The clearing can use one of two arrangements: In PAB, strategic bidding can lead producers to bid much higher than their true cost, because they will be dispatched as long as their bid is below the clearing price . In the absence of collusion , it is expected that MPS incentivizes producers to bid close to their short run marginal cost to avoid the risk of missing out altogether. MPS is also more transparent, as
4606-554: The company also owns 28 MW of solar distributed generation . NRG Energy owns the Indian River Power Plant near Millsboro, Delaware. The plant is a 784 MW facility that produces electricity from the combustion of coal. During 2018, NRG Energy sold four of their wholesale generation platforms: NRG Yield, Operations & Management (O&M) business, development business, and NRG's South Central business. Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) bought NRG Yield,
4700-444: The day-ahead dispatch, it stays feasible and cost-efficient at the time of delivery, unless some unexpected adverse events occur. Early decisions help to efficiently schedule the plants with the long ramp-up times. The drawbacks of the centralized design with LMP are: Price of a unit of electricity with LMP is based on the marginal cost , so the start-up and no-load costs are not included. Centralized markets therefore typically pay
4794-506: The design of wholesale markets in the US and Europe had diverged, even though initially the US was followed the European (decentralized) example. To accommodate the transmission network constraints centralized markets typically use locational marginal pricing (LMP) where each node has its own local market price (thus another name for the practice, nodal pricing ). Political considerations sometimes make it unpalatable to force consumers in
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#17327929540434888-408: The electricity and take it to market. While wholesale pricing used to be the exclusive domain of large retail suppliers, increasingly markets like New England are beginning to open up to end-users. Large end-users seeking to cut out unnecessary overhead in their energy costs are beginning to recognize the advantages inherent in such a purchasing move. Consumers buying electricity directly from generators
4982-401: The electricity market apart (the summer price for a beachfront hotel room can be 3–4 times higher than the off-season one), the hotel/airline markets can also use retail price discrimination , unavailable in the wholesale electricity market. The peculiarities of the electricity market make it fundamentally incomplete . Electricity is typically available on demand. In order to achieve this,
5076-471: The electricity market itself can be centralized or decentralized. In the centralized market the TSO decides which plant should run and how much is it supposed to produce way before the delivery (during the "spot market" phase, or day-ahead operation ). In a decentralized market the producer only commits to the delivery of electricity, but the means to do that are left to the producer itself (for example, it can enter
5170-415: The electricity network and the market, with some creating non-convexity : Electricity networks are natural monopolies , because it is not feasible to build multiple networks competing against one another. In order to address this, many electricity networks are regulated to address the risk of price gouging . The two main types of network price regulation are: The design of transmission network limits
5264-507: The electricity networks, enabling a choice of supplier for electricity boards and very large customers (analogous to " wheeling " in the US). The incorporation of distributed energy resources (DERs) has inspired innovative electricity markets that emerge from a hierarchical deregulated market structure, such as local flexibility markets , with upstream aggregating entities representing multiple DERs (e.g., aggregators). Flexibility Markets refer to
5358-741: The end of 2017, 75% of JPMorgan Chase's facilities ran on wind energy provided through NRG Energy's Buckthorn wind farm in Erath County . In 2018, NRG Energy was recognized for supporting the environment in the Hudson Valley through NRG Community Solar. The community solar company builds solar farms with industrial grade solar panels that produces and delivers clean energy directly to the power grid. This allows residents who cannot purchase rooftop solar to invest in solar energy generation and receive solar credits on their utility bills. The solar farms are maintained year-round, creating local jobs in
5452-416: 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
5546-432: The energy. The market still has the central operator that exclusively controls the system in real-time, but with significantly diminished powers to intervene ahead of delivery (frequently just the ability to schedule the transmission network for day-ahead operation ). This arrangement makes operator's ownership of the transmission capacity less of an issue, and European countries, with the exception of UK, permit it (following
5640-449: The grid is down, and it could shave 10 to 15 percent off energy bills by running it as part of an aggregated fleet of an "estimated hundreds of megawatts capacity". The backup generators help gas stations, supermarkets, ATMs, and other everyday life necessities during power outages from hurricanes or other natural disasters. In April 2017, NRG Energy publicly mentioned its in-house analytics platform SpaceTag. The analytics engine found
5734-601: The grid, which they buy back from NRG at a discounted rate. The Eagles and NRG Energy are in a multi-year corporate sponsorship agreement that helps the Eagles regulate their energy costs. New York State Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas has been chair of a coalition to support the utility in their plan to replace its power plant in Astoria with a newer generator. The company stated its intention in 2012 to replace 31 older oil generators with new gas generators that will increase
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#17327929540435828-433: The incentive for strategic bidding. To handle all the constraints while keeping the system in balance, a central agency, the transmission system operator (TSO), is required to coordinate the unit commitment and economic dispatch . If the frequency falls outside a predetermined range the system operator will act to add or remove either generation or load. Unlike the real-time decisions that are necessarily centralized,
5922-470: The late 19th century in the United States and United Kingdom. Throughout the 20th century, and up to the present, there have been deep changes in the economic management of electricity. Changes have occurred across different regions and countries, for many reasons, ranging from technological advances (on supply and demand sides) to politics and ideology. Around the turn of the 21st century, several countries restructured their electric power industries, replacing
6016-518: The main entrance. The solar panel canopies also offer weather protection and reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 800 metric tons a year. In 2013, NRG Energy helped the San Francisco 49ers Stadium gain LEED certification by installing three solar array-covered bridges, a solar canopy over the green roof on the suite tower, and solar panels over the 49ers training center. The solar arrays have
6110-414: The market involves the direct cost calculations by the market operator (producers no longer submit bids). Despite the obvious problem with generation companies incentivized to inflate their costs (this can be hidden through transactions with affiliated companies), this cost-based electricity market arrangement eliminates the market power of the providers and is used in situation when an abuse of market power
6204-461: The market operator or a special-purpose independent entity charged exclusively with that function. Market operators may or may not clear trades, but often require knowledge of the trade to maintain generation and load balance. Markets for electricity trade net generation output for a number of intervals usually in increments of 5, 15 and 60 minutes. Two types of auction can be used to determine which producers are dispatched: To determine payments,
6298-500: The market participants to trust the operator (due to the complexity sometimes a decision by the algorithm to accept or reject the bid appears entirely arbitrary to the bidder). If the transmission system operator owns the actual transmission network, it would be incentivized to profit by increasing the congestion rents . Thus in the US the operator typically does not own any capacity and is frequently called an independent system operator (ISO). The higher degree of centralization of
6392-452: The markets in which Distribution System Operators (DSOs) procure services from assets linked to their distribution system, aiming to guarantee the operational safety of the distribution network. This concept is relatively new, and its design is currently a subject of active research. In this sense, different entities can act as aggregators, e.g. demand response aggregators, community managers, electricity service providers, and more, depending on
6486-603: The name zonal pricing ) or a "region" ( regional pricing , the term is used primarily for very large zones of the National Electricity Market of Australia, where five regions cover the continent). In the beginning of 2020s there was no clear preference for any of the two market designs, for example, the North American markets went through centralization, while the European ones moved in the opposite direction: A transmission system operator in
6580-656: The nation’s electricity grid. Over the last six months of 2017, the Public Utility Commission of Texas received a total of 118 complaints against Reliant including 22 slamming, and 2 cramming violations. Reliant Energy has received a C rating from the Better Business Bureau. The BBB reports 240 complaints against the company in the last 3 years. On January 1, 2002, Texas deregulated the electricity industry and now there are 116 retail electric providers (REPs) currently doing business in
6674-420: The network is a calculated " shadow price ", in which it is assumed that one additional kilowatt-hour is demanded at the node in question, and the hypothetical incremental cost to the system that would result from the optimized redispatch of available units establishes the hypothetical production cost of the hypothetical kilowatt-hour. This is known as locational marginal pricing ( LMP ) or nodal pricing and
6768-581: The new bidder already knows the market price and can estimate the profitability with his marginal cost, to do well with the PAB, the bidder needs information about other bids, too. Due to higher risks of the PAB, it gives an extra advantage to the large players that are better equipped to estimate the market and take the risk (for example, by gambling with a high bid for some of their units). However, MPS results in producers being paid more than their bidding prices by design, leading to calls to replace it with PAB despite
6862-563: The new name and ticker symbol (CWEN and CWEN.A) 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 (50 GW) to 24,000 MW (24 GW). In March 2018, the company planned to hasten its transition from an independent power producer model (IPP) to a customer driven integrated power model that favored retail businesses. After GenOn's exit in 2018,
6956-425: The physical attributes of a building, how it was used, and existing energy data to create an energy performance portfolio and then assessed its location in the power grid. It also used data from the distributed energy equipment, including its capital cost, associated costs of providing generation, the demand-reduction attributes over time, and the best mix of technology on the building and portfolio level. After SpaceTag
7050-742: The plant. NRG Energy took over the O&M for two more Texas plants in November 2016. The two facilities, Mustang and Antelope Elk Energy Center, are owned by Golden Spread Electric Cooperative Inc. Mustang is a natural gas turbine plant in Denver City that produces 958 MW of power. Antelope Elk Energy Center is also a natural gas facility located in Abernathy that creates 744 MW of power. In 2016, NRG Energy oversaw O&M for nine other generation facilities and had 9.2 GW portfolio. By 2018, NRG Energy maintained 2.4 GW of renewable power through their O&M operations in 17 different states. They sold
7144-403: The potential trade gains large enough to justify some wholesale transactions: On the retail side, customers were charged fixed regulated prices that did not change with marginal costs , retail tariffs almost entirely relied on volumetric pricing (based on the meter readings recorded monthly), and fixed cost recovery was included into the per- kWh price. The traditional market arrangement
7238-1073: The renewable O&M business, along with NRG Yield and NRG's renewable energy development and operations, to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for $ 1.375 billion in cash. NRG's Retail Power services provide electricity services to more than 3 million customers, mostly in Texas and the Northeast. In March 2014, NRG Energy acquired Dominion Resources Inc. and Cirro Energy, growing their retail electric customer base by 30 percent. It adds about 600,000 accounts to its existing 2 million residential and commercial customers. Dominion's retail electricity customers were mainly in Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; Cirro mainly served residential and business customers in Texas. NRG Energy operates Cirro Energy under Cirro's name. In 2014, NRG Energy had two other retail electricity services, Reliant Energy and Green Mountain. By 2018, NRG Energy added Pennywise Power to its retail electricity portfolio. They picked up
7332-465: 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. In November 2023, Mauricio Gutierrez resigned from his role as CEO. Larry Coben
7426-544: The sale of energy, without regard for other services that may support the system, and experienced problems once implemented alone. To account for this, the electricity market structure typically includes: The competitive retail electricity markets were able to maintain their simple structure. In addition, for most major operators, there are markets for transmission rights and electricity derivatives such as electricity futures and options , which are actively traded. The market externality of greenhouse gas emissions
7520-427: The same territory, but connected to different nodes, to pay different prices for electricity, so a modified generator nodal pricing (GNP) model is used: the generators are still being paid the nodal prices, while the load serving entities are charging the end users prices that are averaged over the territory. Many decentralized markets do not use the LMP and have a price established over a geographic area ("zone", thus
7614-399: The state. Texas is one of 18 states that offers some level of deregulated electricity, with the state having the largest percentage (approximately 85%) of residents who are able to choose their service provider. With deregulation the transmission and distribution of the electricity is handled by Transmission and Distribution Utilities (TDUs) that must offer access to their wires to all REPs on
7708-434: The supply must match the demand very closely at any time despite the continuous variations of both (so called grid balancing ). Frequently, the only safety margins are the ones provided by the kinetic energy of the physically rotating machinery ( synchronous generators and turbines). If there is a mismatch between supply and demand the generators absorb extra energy by speeding up or produce more power by slowing down causing
7802-421: The total direct cost. In the process, the hourly shadow prices are obtained for each node that might be used to settle the market sales. Decentralized markets allow the generation companies to choose their own way to provide energy for their day-ahead bid (that specifies price and location). The provider can use any unit at its disposal (so called "portfolio-based bidding") or even pay another company to deliver
7896-524: The traditional markets are still common in some regions, including large parts of the United States and Canada. In recent years, governments have reformed electricity markets to improve management of variable renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions . The structure of an electricity market is quite complex. Markets often include mechanisms to manage a variety of relevant services alongside energy. Services may include: A simple "energy-only" wholesale electricity market would only facilitate
7990-416: The various levels of government. By the 1950s, a wide variety of arrangements had evolved with substantial differences between countries and even at the regional level, for example: These diverse structures had a few unifying features: very little reliance on competitive markets, no formal wholesale markets, and customers unable to choose their suppliers. The diversity and sheer size of the US market made
8084-624: The year. These 12 units still collect annual revenues from the NYISO's capacity market for not producing energy. For example, at 6.40 ($ /kW – Month), the 12 actively listed facilities would produce an annual capacity market revenue of $ 42.8 million for NRG. It is unclear if the 7 deactivated units still collect capacity market revenues. In July 2017, NRG filed a request with the New York State Public Service Commission to avoid Article 10 siting procedures for
8178-568: 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
8272-657: 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 (GIP) and the sale of its Louisiana assets to Cleco Corporate Holdings. This included the 1,300 MW Cottonwood natural gas plant (1.3 GW), the 1,500 MW Big Cajun II coal and gas-fired plant (1.5 GW), and three other gas-fired peaking plants. In August, NRG Yield changed its name to Clearway Energy and began trading under
8366-503: 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. NRG Energy holds the naming rights to the NRG Park campus (formerly Reliant Park) in Houston , Texas , home to
8460-431: Was designed for the state of the electric industry common pre-restructuring (and still common in some regions, including large parts of the US and Canada ). Schmalensee calls this state historical (as opposed to post-restructuring emerging one). In the historical regime almost all generation sources can be considered dispatchable (available on demand, unlike the emerging variable renewable energy ). Chile had become
8554-546: 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, Montaup Electric, Rochester Gas and Electric, and Connecticut Light & Power. They continued to grow through acquisitions and in 2000, acquired Cajun Electric Power Cooperative's facilities. In 2001, NRG Energy had
8648-479: Was named Interim President and CEO. When the state of Texas deregulated the electricity market, Houston Industries , the parent company of Houston Lighting & Power (HL&P), 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
8742-448: 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 (RDS),
8836-462: Was the second largest electric provider in Texas. The name Reliant Energy was retained and the surviving wholesale business was renamed RRI Energy , which was retired in 2012 after additional NRG acquisitions. In 2010, Reliant Energy received a $ 20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the DOE’s Recovery Act activities to fund a suite of Smart Grid products for upgrades of
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