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NRG Launching New Retail Brand to Engage Customers to Think Differently About Energy, Offering Customization, 2-Cent Sundays, NFL-Themed Products Update 9/4 NRG Energy officially launched NRG Residential Solutions today. In the official announcement, NRG also mentioned, "innovations still in development, such as the NRG Clean Power Advisor, a smartphone app that will help customers decide when to run their electric appliances to lower their carbon footprint."
Originally published 8/29:
NRG Energy is officially launching NRG Residential Solutions, a new retail energy brand designed to engage customers and to get them to think differently about buying energy supply.
The forthcoming launch of NRG Residential Solutions, and the offering of a 2-cent Sunday product and NFL-themed products, had exclusively been first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com in July. NRG Residential Solutions is a new trade name for Reliant Energy Northeast LLC.
NRG Residential Solutions is currently offering residential electric service at PECO and PPL in Pennsylvania and PSE&G, Jersey Central Power & Light, and Atlantic City Electric in New Jersey. A formal launch will occur in mid-September.
Jim Steffes, Retail Regional President, Northeast, for NRG Energy, said that NRG Residential Solutions will ultimately expand to the rest of the Northeast during the rest of this year and next year, citing in particular Massachusetts, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
One of the prominent programs offered by NRG Residential Solutions is "2¢ Sundays," which is a program which, in a one-time rebate after 6 months, provides a rebate to the customer based on if they had been charged 2¢/kWh for their Sunday usage for those first six months versus the otherwise applicable rate. The 2 Cent Sundays rebate program is featured as a part of all of NRG Residential Solutions' specific electric plans.
The 2 Cent Sundays rebate program currently relies on utility load profiles to determine the customer's Sunday usage for purposes of the rebate, even at utilities such as PPL where AMI interval data is available.
Steffes said that as smart meter deployment becomes more ubiquitous, NRG Residential Solutions will be engaging customers through a variety of dynamically priced product offerings relying on actual interval data.
The 2 Cent Sundays program was chosen initially to start a conversation with customers (asking customers to give NRG their "two cents" about how energy should be done differently), and to spark customers to think differently about buying power. Sunday was chosen due to it being NFL gameday, and to leverage NRG's existing partnerships (distributed solar, sponsorship, etc.) with several NFL teams and venues (noted further below).
As part of listening to customers' two cents, NRG Residential Solutions emphasizes, in addition to several standard products, a broad ability for customers to not only customize their term length or renewable content, but to also choose their level of cash back rewards, and enrollment bonus.
Specifically, under the custom offers offered by NRG Residential Solutions, customers are presented with a decision tree allowing them to select:
• The amount of an enrollment bonus: $25 after 3 months, $50 after 6 months, or $100 after 12 months
• The amount of cash back rewards: 1% quarterly, 3% semi-annually, or 5% annually
• The term length of the product: 3, 6, 9, or 12 months (the 3 month product is month-to-month variable with 3 months of promotional pricing; the remaining products are term products with fixed pricing)
• The renewable content: 0%, 25%, 50%, or 100%
The 2-cent Sundays rebate program is automatically offered with all of the choices the customer can make during customization.
At PECO, a 12-month fixed plan with a $100 enrollment bonus, 5% cash back annually, 2-cent Sundays program, and 0% green includes a fixed price of 9.400¢ per kWh.
At PECO, a 12-month fixed plan with a $25 enrollment bonus, 1% quarterly cash back, 2-cent Sundays program, and 0% green includes a fixed price of 9.200¢ per kWh.
NRG Residential Solutions offers three standard products in addition to the customization option. These products are an Eagles Fan plan, a Learn & Conserve Nest thermostat plan, and an Essentials plan. All three plans include 2¢ Sunday rebates and 1% cash back quarterly.
The Eagles Fan plan also includes an authentic Philadelphia Eagles Helmet, 25% green energy, and a 12-month fixed rate. At PECO, the price of the Eagles Fan plan is 9.600¢/kWh.
The Learn & Conserve plan also includes a free Nest Learning thermostat, 25% green energy, and a 15-month fixed rate. At PECO, the price of the Learn & Conserve plan is 9.800¢/kWh.
The Essentials plan also includes a $25 enrollment bonus and a monthly variable rate, with three months of promotional pricing. At PECO, the price of the Essentials plan is 7.800¢/kWh for the first 3 months.
Steffes said that the Eagles plan, and similarly themed programs with other teams expected to be launched in the future, is designed to leverage NRG's existing relationships with NFL teams and venues. NRG Residential Solutions will continue to develop products to engage NFL fans, and will support the products through a variety of channels to engage customers on gameday at the stadiums.
In addition to the Eagles, NRG has a series of partnerships or sponsorships, including the placement of solar generation, at facilities used by the Patriots, Redskins, Giants, and Jets.
Ultimately, Steffes said that NRG Residential Solutions will approach the broad ecosystem of customers' energy usage and needs, and develop new products and services accordingly. Within this "lens" of the customer's energy ecosystem is natural gas supply, and distributed solar solutions, Steffes said. No definitive product offerings in these business lines were ready to be announced.
For all of the fixed products listed above, an early cancellation fee of $10 per month remaining on the term of the agreement applies. There is no early termination fee for the month-to-month product with three months fixed introductory pricing.
The cash back applies to the supply portion of the bill.
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August 29, 2013
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Copyright 2010-13 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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