| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Energy |
| Founded | 2000 (as Innogy plc) |
| Headquarters | Swindon, England, UK |
| Key people | Volker Beckers, CEO |
| Products | Gas and electricity |
| Employees | 11,501 |
| Parent | RWE |
| Website | www.npower.com |
RWE npower plc (trading as npower) is a UK-based electricity and gas supply generation company, formerly known as Innogy plc. As Innogy plc it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 2002 it was acquired by RWE of Germany and was subsequently renamed RWE npower plc.
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The Company was established as Innogy plc from the UK operations of National Power when the overseas operations were demerged as International Power plc in 2000.[1]
Innogy then went on to purchase the Regional Electricity Company Yorkshire Electricity in 2001.[2] It later disposed of the distribution side of Yorkshire Electricity to CE Electric UK in exchange for the supply business of Northern Electric.[3] Innogy was taken over by the German utility giant RWE in 2002 and renamed RWE Npower plc with all the supply business adopting the "Npower" brand.[4]
In February 2006 Npower acquired 19% of Telecom Plus, a business which now provides Npower with management services, such as billing, customer service, metering, debt collection and administration: under the deal Npower can increase its stake in Telecom Plus up to 29%.[5]
In 2008, npower faced allegations over the conduct of its door-to-door salespeople.[6] An undercover investigation by a UK newspaper resulted in allegations of npower salespeople misleading potential customers, with suggestions that salespeople were 'routinely lying' and asking potential customers to 'sign a form without revealing it was a contract'.[7] npower was eventually fined £1.8million by the UK energy regulator Ofgem.[8] Npower have also been criticised for their customer service, having been rated the lowest of all energy suppliers in the Which? Switch 2010 customer satisfaction survey.[9]
In 2010 npower acquired SPI Group to add to its energy services business npower hometeam. SPI provides services to the social housing market and its commercial arm serves public buildings, including schools.[10]
Npower operates a number of coal, natural gas, oil-fired and renewable energy power stations across the UK, with coal and gas accounting for 81% of their output as of 2005.[11]
Npower supplies gas and electricity to 6.5million residential and business customers in the UK. Its energy services business, npower hometeam, provides installation, servicing and repair of boilers and central heating systems. npower also supplies gas and electricity to customers of the Utility Warehouse Discount Club.
The company's main offices are in Swindon, Wiltshire with other offices in the Midlands, Yorkshire and North East. npower has around 12,000 employees across its departments and in 2010 made an operating result of £233 million.
The company also owns Aberthaw Power Station in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales, Didcot Power Station in Oxfordshire, Tilbury Power Station in Essex, Little Barford Power Station near St Neots, Great Yarmouth Power Station, Fawley Power Station, Tilbury Power Station and Littlebrook Power Station near Dartford in Kent.
Npower supplies gas and electricity to customers of the Utility Warehouse Discount Club.
| Year | Production (TWh) | Emission (Gt CO2) | kg CO2/MWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 35 | 21.5 | 623 |
| 2003 | 38 | 27.5 | 726 |
| 2004 | 34 | 23.1 | 681 |
| 2005 | 33 | 22.7 | 680 |
| 2006 | 37 | 24.7 | 677 |
| 2007 | 34 | 22 | 651 |
| 2008 | 38 | 25 | 665 |
| 2009 | 27 | 16.6 | 622 |
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