Reliant "Well Along" Process to Launch Residential Retail Supplier in Northeast

Reliant Energy is "well along" in the process to launch as a residential retail provider in the Northeast, said NRG Energy COO Mauricio Gutierrez yesterday during an earnings call.

Reliant's intent to expand residential electric marketing to the Northeast was first reported by Matters (3/25), and Reliant just received its Maryland residential license this week (5/4). Pennsylvania is also among the states where Reliant is seeking to serve residential customers.

The Northeast residential business will fully leverage the integrated NRG-Reliant model executed in Texas.

Reliant commercial and industrial expansion into PJM has "proceeded well," and by the end of the first quarter Reliant had signed nearly 1 TWh of term business in PJM.

NRG also reported that Reliant is now serving 220,000 customers in ERCOT on at least one of eight different "eSense" products, which incorporate various capabilities from smart meters. The eSense products range from weekly usage summary emails and other information tools to formal pricing plans such as Time of Use.

In addition, Reliant is now selling home service products through its primary sales and customer operations call centers. Reliant handles over 5 million calls per year and is taking the opportunity to extend its product offerings to include protection products such as surge protection, in home power line protection, HVAC maintenance, and energy efficiency products like air filters. Reliant expects these products to not only add incremental earnings, but also reduce attrition as it continues to raise customer switching costs.

Based on metered locations, NRG reported that as of March 31, 2011, Reliant Energy and Green Mountain Energy combined to serve approximately 1.9 million residential, small business, commercial, and industrial customers, which is flat versus December 31, 2010.

Reliant's net gain of 11,000 mass market customers during the first quarter was first reported in Matters yesterday (5/5).

Green Mountain Energy's total metered customer count was approximately 400,000 and increased approximately 3%, or 12,000, in the quarter.

Green Mountain Energy retail operating revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2011 were $131 million from bundled retail electric sales in the Texas and New York markets and sales of renewable products and services to a public utility in Oregon, as well as utility programs in New York and New Jersey. Green Mountain revenues were generated 65% and 35% from residential and commercial customers, respectively.