Direct Energy Reports Half of New Customers Take Bundled Products; Residential Customer Count Declines

In reporting preliminary earnings this morning, Centrica said that, in 2015, 46% of new Direct Energy residential customers also took a services protection plan or smart thermostat, up from 11% in 2014.

Direct Energy has sold nearly 200,000 smart thermostats in North America, Centrica said.

Direct Energy Residential customer count at December 31, 2015 was 3.033 million, down from 3.188 million as of July 31, 2015 and 3.256 million a year ago.

Centrica attributed the decline of 223,000 residential customers since December 31, 2014 to competitive market pressures in the U.S. Northeast and the continued impact of the Energy Consumer Protection Act (ECPA) in Ontario.

Direct Energy Residential customer count by geographic area was as follows (thousands of customers):

                  12/31/14  6/30/15  12/31/15
Texas                 758      764     743
Canada regulated      744      736     726
Canada deregulated    411      383     348
US North East       1,343    1,305   1,216
Total               3,256    3,188   3,033

Direct Energy Business supply points at December 31, 2015 were 597,000, versus 600,000 a year ago