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NRG Energy Completes Acquisition of Cottonwood Generating Station

^{Published on 2010-11-15 07:00:21 - Market Wire}
 

PRINCETON, N.J.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) has completed the acquisition of the Cottonwood Generating Station, a 1,279 megawatt (MW) natural gas-fueled plant in the Entergy zone of East Texas, from Kelson Limited Partnership.

"Cottonwood gives us the ability to follow South Central customer load economically with modern, efficient and flexible generation"

aCottonwood gives us the ability to follow South Central customer load economically with modern, efficient and flexible generation,a said Jeff Baudier, President of NRG Energya™s South Central Region.

Prior to this purchase, NRG was already contracted with Cottonwood, one of the newest and most efficient plants in the region, to support regional customer demand.

aCottonwooda™s unique configuration and low-carbon profile, combined with its location on the transmission system, gives us greater capability to support our current long-term contracts and future growth, and to provide balancing and ancillary services,a said Jeff Baudier, President of NRG Energya™s South Central region.

Initially, Cottonwood will help support 600 MW of new load contracts in Arkansas and East Texas that NRG recently secured, and will reduce cycling stress on the Companya™s Big Cajun II coal units. NRG will explore with regional customers the potential to sell a portion of Cottonwooda™s capacity by direct equity sell-downs, power purchase agreements or a combination of the two.

The Cottonwood Generating Station consists of four highly efficient natural gas-fueled combined cycle turbines and is capable of powering more than one million homes. The plant began commercial operations in December 2003 and was designed and built with many of the most environmentally and operationally advanced technologies available. The planta™s administration building was developed and certified under the U.S. Green Building Councila™s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

About NRG

NRG Energy, Inc., a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 Index company, owns and operates one of the countrya™s largest and most diverse power generation portfolios. Headquartered in Princeton, NJ, the Companya™s power plants provide more than 24,000 megawatts of generation capacitya"enough to supply more than 20 million homes. NRGa™s retail businesses, Reliant Energy and Green Mountain Energy Company, combined serve more than 1.8 million residential, business, commercial and industrial customers. With investments in solar, wind and nuclear power, as well as electric vehicle infrastructure, NRG is working to help Americaa™s transition to a clean energy economy. More information is available at [ www.nrgenergy.com ].

Safe Harbor Disclosure

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions and include NRGa™s expectations regarding the Cottonwood plant acquisition and forward-looking statements typically can be identified by the use of words such as awill,a aexpect,a abelieve,a and similar terms. Although NRG believes that its expectations are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct, and actual results may vary materially. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated above include, among others, general economic conditions, hazards customary in the power industry, weather conditions, competition in wholesale power markets, the volatility of energy and fuel prices, failure of customers to perform under contracts, changes in the wholesale power markets, changes in government regulation of markets and of environmental emissions, unanticipated outages at our generation facilities, the inability to implement value enhancing improvements to plant operations and companywide processes, and our ability to achieve the expected benefits and timing of our RepoweringNRG projects.

NRG undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The foregoing review of factors that could cause NRGa™s actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in the forward-looking statements included in this news release should be considered in connection with information regarding risks and uncertainties that may affect NRGa™s future results included in NRGa™s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission at [ www.sec.gov ].