Reliant Customer Count Declines Marginally During Fourth Quarter

Reliant Energy saw a net decrease in customer count during the final three months of 2011, versus the total as of September 30, 2011, parent NRG Energy said in reporting earnings this morning.

NRG said that Reliant's total customer count as of the end of 2011 was 1.555 million, versus 1.556 million as of September 30, 2011, and 1.521 million a year ago.

Unlike in prior quarters, NRG did not specifically break out the customer count between mass market and commercial customers. Reliant President Jason Few did say during an earnings call that Reliant had 1.3 million residential customers (the distinct mass market customer count includes small businesses).

NRG reported that Reliant mass market volumes for the year 2011 were 23.6 TWh, versus 22.1 TWh a year ago. Fourth quarter Reliant mass market volumes were 4.5 TWh, versus 4.1 TWh a year ago.

NRG said that Reliant has enrolled over 500,000 customers on its eSense products (up from 175,000 a year ago), and about 220,000 on Home Services Solutions (up from about 60,000 a year ago).

Reliant's signed load outside Texas exceeds 2 TWh.

NRG also reported that customer payment patterns continued to improve, as Reliant bad debt expense decreased by $13 million and now stands at just 0.8%, which NRG called the lowest Reliant bad debt ever. Reliant bad debt had been 1.0% in 2010.

Across all of NRG's retail supply businesses, NRG is serving 2.1 million customers in 12 states. Of this total, about 1.9 million customers are in Texas.