 | |
| Company type | Limited partnership |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electricity retail, gas distribution |
| Founded | 1986 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada [1] [2] |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Parent | NRG Energy |
| Subsidiaries |
|
| Website | www |
Direct Energy LP is a North American retailer of energy and energy services. The company was founded in Toronto in 1986 [3] and now has more than four million customers in Canada and the United States. Direct Energy is a subsidiary of NRG Energy.
Direct Energy was founded in Toronto in 1986, as a competitive energy retailer. In 2000, the company was acquired by Centrica, the UK-based parent of British energy retailer British Gas.
In 2010, Direct Energy acquired Clockwork Home Services making Direct Energy the largest energy and home services retailer in North America.[ citation needed ] Clockwork has three brands: One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing and Mister Sparky, which specialize in plumbing, electrical and air-conditioning and heating and services, [4] all of which have earned the Diamond Certified Award for excellent service. [5] [6] [7]
Direct Energy acquired a number of upstream assets, including gas reserves and power generation facilities. These include: Quintana Minerals Resources, Bastrop Energy Center, Frontera Energy Center, Paris Energy Center, [8] and Rockyview Energy Inc. [9] Direct Energy has entered into long-term power purchase agreements for 813 MW of electricity from five wind farms in Texas.
Direct Energy owns and operates approximately 4,600 natural gas wells in Alberta, most recently acquiring natural gas assets from Suncor Energy and Shell Canada. [10]
The company’s new strategy calls for increased investment in North America, specifically to grow its upstream asset cover to 35-40%; it also plans to grow its downstream businesses in its core markets of Texas, US North East and Canada. [2] Chris Weston became President & CEO of Direct Energy on July 1, 2009 following the retirement of Deryk King.
Direct Energy announced in January 2012 that it will move its corporate headquarters from Toronto to Houston within the next 12 to 18 months. The headquarters will be in the Greenway Plaza location, where the company's residential energy and upstream business are now based. [2]
In 2012, Iberdrola USA sold its energy services companies, Energetix and NYSEG Solutions, to Direct Energy. [2]
In early 2014, Direct Energy partnered with Nest Labs to create a plan that would include a smart thermostat. The Nest smart thermostat will increase homeowners and renters ability to monitor the temperature of their homes for increased energy efficiency. [11] In August 2014, Direct Energy increased their ability to provide services that increase the efficiency of the American and Canadian home when it announced its partnership with SmartThings. [12] A SmartThing's Hub allows the user to connect with a smart device, secure the home with sensors, and control certain electrical devices.
In November 2015, the company acquired Israeli startup Panoramic Power, a manufacturer of circuit level wireless sensors that collect energy information, for $60M. [13]
In July 2020, NRG Energy and Centrica entered an agreement under which NRG would acquire Direct Energy for $3.625 billion in an all-cash transaction. [14] The merge was completed on January 5, 2021. [15]
Direct Energy’s U.S. operations span 46 states and the District of Columbia including Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, Oklahoma and Virginia. While not providing services to residential customers and businesses in Oklahoma, Direct Energy has established an Operations Center in Tulsa. In Canada, Direct Energy has operations in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
For residential customers and small business, Direct Energy offers fixed price electricity and gas plans, as an alternative to the local utility or in competition with the local competitive energy providers. In Texas, Direct Energy offers a pre-paid electricity plan, Power-To-Go. [16] In Ontario, Direct Energy previously rented water heaters to around 600,000 residential homeowners; [17] this division was sold off in 2014 and subsequently rebranded as Enercare. [18] Through its services division, Direct Energy installs and services heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment. It also can perform energy retrofits and other energy management projects at larger facilities. Direct Energy’s Home and Business Services division employs over 1,400 technicians providing residential customers with heating, ventilation and air conditioner (HVAC), plumbing, home improvements, water heater and electrical appliance services. [19]
Direct Energy is a regulated gas and electricity provider in Alberta, operating under the Direct Energy Regulated Services brand. It also offers deregulated service in the Province, operating as Direct Energy.
In South Texas, Direct Energy operates as CPL Retail Energy and CPL Business.
In West Texas, Direct Energy operates as WTU Retail Energy and WTU Business.
In Texas, additional brands of Direct Energy are First Choice Power, Bounce Energy.
Direct Energy encourages volunteerism within their organization through internal company policies, award programs, and grants. Direct Energy encourages their employees to take their first step into community involvement by offering one paid volunteer day a year. Interested employees can choose a charity or organization to lend their expertise. [20]
The Volunteer Citizen of the Year award program allows citizens to nominate individuals or organizations who have through volunteer work made their community better. The winner can choose a charity to receive $5000. Last year, the award went to Paul Garrett for his efforts towards cleaning his community and encouraging sustainable practices. Garret chose to give the donation to the Mechanicsburg Area School District's Trails and Trees Environmental Center. [21]
The Reduce Your Use For Good grant program was created to help organizations increase the energy efficiency of their program or products. In the past the grant has allowed various organization to increase efficiency. In the past the grant was awarded to a Pittsburgh community food bank, Medina Creative Housing, and Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley. [22]
Former CEO Chris Weston has given several speeches stating the need for deregulation of the energy market and the need for consumers to pay the actual price for energy rather than what he considers its current artificially low position. Weston spoke at KEMA’s 21st Executive Forum on the benefits of a competitive energy market and the value it has to consumers. [23] He has also authored opinion pieces on the subject.
May 2004 - Direct Energy was fined $157,500 CAD in 2003 after investigators discovered 25 of their sales agents were forging contracts to trap Ontario and US citizens into long-term energy contracts. [24] After the forgeries committed by sales employees were discovered, Direct Energy president Paul Massara reported that "action [was taken to] deal with these issues and we've moved on a long way since that time."
May 2009 - Some Direct Energy sales people failed to make it clear to customers that they were signing up for unregulated energy rates. In order to prevent this issue from continuing, Direct Energy worked with the Service Alberta to train staff and implement practices that would prevent sales people from purposefully or accidentally misleading citizens about energy plans. The company was fined over $5,000 in penalties for the damages caused by the negligence. The Ontario government has since passed a bill that would require energy retailers to follow up on each contract sold to ensure the customer had willingly made the purchase which should allow energy companies to ensure that customers were not swayed by unethical sales pitches. [25]
In November 2012, Canada's Competition Bureau began looking into whether water heater rental companies were engaging in anti-competitive practices. Direct Energy, Reliance Home Comfort, and other water heater suppliers allegedly created contracts with high exit fees, long term contracts, and high buyout charges to make it difficult for customers to switch suppliers. [26] The division of Direct Energy in question was subsequently sold and rebranded as Enercare. [18]
March 2014 - An Alberta judge has certified a class action lawsuit against Direct Energy alleging the company violated the Criminal Code and Canada's Interest Act. The lawsuit alleges Direct Energy's late payment penalties were effectively charging customers a 91 percent interest rate on late payments. [27] The class action is still in process.[ needs update ]
Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is a Canadian retail company which operates in the automotive, hardware, sports, leisure and housewares sectors. Its Canadian operations include: Canadian Tire, Mark's, FGL Sports, PartSource, and the Canadian operations of Party City. Canadian Tire acquired the Norwegian clothing and textile company Helly Hansen from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in 2018.
Water heating is a heat transfer process that uses an energy source to heat water above its initial temperature. Typical domestic uses of hot water include cooking, cleaning, bathing, and space heating. In industry, hot water and water heated to steam have many uses.
Enwave Energy Corporation is a Canadian multinational energy company based in Toronto that focuses on sustainable district energy including heating, cooling, hot water, combined heat and power, and geothermal energy systems. It is one of the largest district energy systems in North America and has been referred as the leading energy district system with 17 heating plants, 21 chilled water plants and ice on coil storage tanks. It serves over 700 customers including commercial properties, developers, municipalities, health care, educational centres and residential units.
The Ontario Energy Board is the provincial regulator of natural gas and electricity utilities in Ontario, Canada. This includes setting rates, and licensing all participants in the electricity sector including the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), generators, transmitters, distributors, wholesalers and electricity retailers, as well as natural gas marketers who sell to low volume customers.
Centrica plc is a British multinational energy and services company with its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire. Its principal activity is the supply of electricity and gas to consumers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Constellation Energy Corporation is an American energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company provides electric power, natural gas, and energy management services. It has approximately two million customers across the continental United States.
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. is an American electric and natural gas utility serving several markets in the American states of Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Texas. Part of the Fortune 500, the company was formerly known as Reliant Energy, NorAm Energy, Houston Industries, and HL&P. The company is headquartered in the CenterPoint Energy Tower at 1111 Louisiana Street in Downtown Houston.
Union Gas was a major Canadian natural gas company based in Ontario. Its distribution arm serviced approximately 1.5 million customers in northern, southwestern and eastern Ontario. Union Gas has been a subsidiary of Enbridge since February 2017, when former parent Spectra Energy merged into Enbridge.
NRG Energy, Inc. is an American energy company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was formerly the wholesale arm of Northern States Power Company (NSP), which became Xcel Energy, but became independent in 2000. NRG Energy is involved in energy generation and retail electricity. Their portfolio includes natural gas generation, coal generation, oil generation, nuclear generation, wind generation, utility-scale generation, and distributed solar generation. NRG serves over 7 million retail customers in 24 US states including Texas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio; the District of Columbia, and eight provinces in Canada.
Calor is a brand of bottled butane and propane which is available in Britain and Ireland. It comes in cylinders, which have a special gas regulator.
Stream Energy is a subsidiary of NRG Energy and a retail electricity company. It uses multi-level marketing as its primary sales channel. The company sells electric and gas services in seven states and Washington, D.C.
Eastern Electricity plc was an electricity supply and distribution utility serving Eastern England, including East Anglia and part of Greater London. It was renamed Eastern Group under which name it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Hanson plc in 1995, before being purchased by Texas Utilities in 1998.
Npower Limited is a British supplier of gas and electricity to businesses. It has been a subsidiary of E.ON UK since January 2019. The company was formerly known as Innogy plc and was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
British Gas is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Serving around ten million homes in the United Kingdom, British Gas was the biggest energy supplier in the country, until 2024 when it was overtaken by Octopus Energy as the UK's largest electricty supplier. It remains larger for gas. It is considered one of the Big Six dominating the gas and electricity market in the United Kingdom. Their lines are open from 8am to 5pm on weekdays, and 9am to 6pm on weekends.
Just Energy Group Inc. is a Canadian-based natural gas and electricity retailer operating in Canadian and American markets across North America.
AlertMe was a UK smart Tech company that provides energy and home monitoring hardware and services. AlertMe produces hardware and software to enable users to monitor and control their home energy use.
Bord Gáis Energy is a utility that supplies gas and electricity and boiler services to customers in the Republic of Ireland. Bord Gáis Energy has been in operation in some form since 1976 and supplies over 750,000 customers with energy in Ireland. Since mid-2014 Bord Gáis Energy is also part of the British Centrica plc Group. Bord Gáis Energy has offices in Dublin and Cork as well as having boiler service technicians nationwide. Bord Gáis translates as "Gas Board", although it is now a private company limited by shares and part of Centrica plc, which also owns British Gas.
Hive is a trademark owned by Centrica Hive Limited that produces smart home devices. It is one of the largest connected home providers in the UK and, as of May 2018, the company had more than 1,000,000 customers.
Octopus Energy Group is a British renewable energy group specialising in sustainable energy. It was founded in 2015 with the backing of British fund management company Octopus Group, a British asset management company. Headquartered in London, the company has operations in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. Octopus is the UK's largest supplier of electricity to domestic customers, and the second largest in domestic gas.
Reliance Home Comfort is a residential and commercial services company headquartered in Canada primarily focused on rental, sales and maintenance of water heaters, water purification, smart home and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. The company has its largest base of operations in Ontario, but also has offices in western Canada and the United States. As of 2017, it served 1.7 million customer households across Canada.
