Dive Brief:
- NRG Energy's retail customer base will grow by 30% under its deal to buy Dominion Resources' retail business.
- NRG will add about 600,000 customers to its 2 million retail customer base once the deal is completed. Dominion's customers are in Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
- NRG expects to close the deal by April.
Dive Insight:
Dominion is getting out of the competitive retail business so it can focus on its regulated operations as part of the “back to basics” trend in the industry. For NRG, the deal expands its customer base outside of Texas. NRG aims to match its retail business with its wholesale power business, which will be expanding with the planned purchase of Edison Mission Energy's generating fleet.
