Tell us about NRG and NRG’s role in the clean energy transition?

NRG is the leading energy and home services company with approximately 6 million customers across the US and Canada. We provide power and natural gas to home and commercial spaces, coupled with consumer services tailored to our sustainable, technology-driven future.

Our customer-first mentality shapes both our vision and our approach to the evolving energy landscape. We tackle the clean energy transition from two sides; first, by helping our customers achieve their environmental goals through access to renewable power and gas and the ability to manage their energy usage, and second, through our own journey towards setting and achieving our sustainability goals.

There is a lot going on in the industry today. As a company that has been involved in energy for a long time, can you share a few ways that NRG has evolved as a company and what the future looks like?

The old power sector mandate of “safe, reliable, affordable” is now table stakes. Customers also want clean, connected, and customized energy, which has propelled us to change how we think about our business. As a result, NRG has transitioned from a generator/retailer to an integrated consumer services company focused on unlocking the potential of energy’s future for our customers.

The diversification of our business can be seen through the expansion of our company footprint and our clean, customizable core products that make controlling energy more effortless than ever before. While we don’t have a crystal ball, looking to the future, we will be growing from our core business through adjacent power and home services that address customer needs.

You mention NRG is putting customers at the center of everything they do; can you elaborate? For example, what does that look like to me as an energy consumer? 

As our industry evolves, we must continue to reimagine what meeting the needs of our customers, like you, really means. So, we asked ourselves: what are consumers looking for in their 21^st-century energy service? The answer was more control and a service that is not one-size-fits-all. Looking for better experiences, sustainable solutions, and increased efficiency provided by socially conscious companies, consumers want power to be more like putting in a coffee order than procuring a baseline service.

What excites you most about the future of energy?

There is a huge opportunity to make clean energy affordable and accessible to all. We don’t expect a one-and-done solution, and we view climate technology solutions agnostically. Instead, we are excited about the technologies, resources, solutions, education, and innovations that, collectively, will help us usher in a cleaner energy future.

 As a longtime Dynamo member, why did you join, and what aspects of your membership have been most valuable?

In our efforts to break the mold of “traditional power,” we have needed to think outside the box of an industry that has been the same for a very long time—and that goes beyond our products. We take pride in our efforts to evoke positive change for our employees and our communities, and we know we cannot achieve that on our own.

That is one of the many reasons Dynamo has been so valuable—it brings so many distinct voices to the table. Engaging with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences as we work to shape the future of energy ensures we are approaching one of the biggest challenges of our time through an inclusive lens. When we take the time to view ourselves, the future of our industry, and our place in the energy transition objectively, and with the help of the Dynamo platform, we can think ahead of the curve and help build a future fit for all people.