Npower (United Kingdom)

Npower Limited
Public limited company
Industry Energy
Founded 2000 (as Innogy plc)
2002 (as RWE npower)
Headquarters Swindon, England, United Kingdom
Key people
 Paul Coffey, CEO
Products Gas and electricity
Number of employees
 11,501
Parent Innogy
Website www.npower.com

Npower Limited[1] (trading as npower) is an electricity generator and supplier of gas and electricity to homes and businesses which is based in the United Kingdom, 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 March 2002, it was acquired by RWE of Germany, and was subsequently renamed RWE npower plc. RWE split off its renewable energy, network and retail divisions as Innogy SE in 2016, and npower transferred to the new business. It is considered as one of the Big Six Energy Suppliers, which dominate the gas and electricity market in the United Kingdom.

The Npower is different from the Nigeria Npower programme, which is a scheme by the Federal government of Nigeria to alleviate poverty by employing and training Nigerian youth in skill acquisitions in different areas. [2]

History

The company established the Innogy plc from the operations of National Power when the overseas operations were demerged as International Power plc in October 2000.[3]

Innogy plc then went on to purchase the regional electricity company Yorkshire Electricity in February 2001.[4] It later disposed of the distribution side of Yorkshire Electricity to CE Electric UK in exchange for the supply business of Northern Electric.[5] Innogy plc was taken over by the German energy company RWE in 2002, and renamed RWE npower plc with all the supply business adopting the "npower" brand.[6]

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%.[7] In February 2009, Npower acquired Superior Plumbing, a business providing services to social housing and business customers across the United Kingdom.[8]

In February 2009, 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.[9]

In November 2013, however, npower sold the two former Telecom Plus subsidiaries back to Utility Warehouse for £218 million.[10] As a result, Utility Warehouse became one of the largest independent energy suppliers in the United Kingdom.[10] with over 500,000 customers and 770,000 gas and electricity supply points to their name.[11]

The deal also sparked commentary about the possibility of npower's parent company RWE leaving the United Kingdom, or the emergence of a "Big Seven" in place of the existing Big Six Energy Suppliers.[12]

In March 2016, the company announced losses of £106 million and 2,500 global job cuts[13] along with the fact that they had lost 351,000 customers in 2015: a high level of customer complaints were cited as reasons for the issues.[14]

On 1 April 2016, RWE split off its renewable energy, network and retail businesses into the newly formed Innogy SE. npower became a subsidiary of the new business and was renamed Npower Limited.[15] The coal, natural gas and oil-fired energy power stations, which npower operated, are no longer part of npower, but of RWE Generation UK plc.

Proposed merger/demerger of retail supply division

In November 2017, Innogy and rival SSE announced a planned merger of npower's residential and business retail business with SSE's residential energy supply and home services business in Great Britain to create a new company listed on the London Stock Exchange.[16] SSE plan to divest its 65.6% holding in the business to its shareholders and Innogy would own the remainder.[17][18]

The merger received preliminary regulatory clearance from the Competition and Markets Authority on 30 August 2018,[19] and full clearance was given on 10 October 2018.[20]

Operations

NPower Ford Transit vans in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

The company supplies gas and electricity to residential and business customers in the United Kingdom. Its energy services business provides servicing such as repairing boilers and central heating systems through its Hometeam brand.[21]

Criticism

In April 2008, npower faced allegations over the conduct of its door to door salespeople.[22] An undercover investigation by a 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'.[23] npower was eventually fined £1.8 million by the energy regulator Ofgem.[24] 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.[25]

In September 2013, Labour Party MPs and campaign group 38 Degrees accused npower of avoiding tax. npower defended itself by stating that tax paid had been lower than expected due to higher than expected capital investment in the United Kingdom, leading to capital allowances. A Bloomberg report for Greenpeace confirmed that RWE npower was the biggest investor in new energy infrastructure recently in the United Kingdom.[26]

However, groups such as 38 Degrees called for customers to boycott or switch over to other providers.[27][28][29]

In June 2014, npower's call centre in Fenton closed, resulting in a loss of 480 jobs following the announcement of the closure the previous December.[30] In December 2015, the company was ordered to pay a £26m settlement by the energy regulator, Ofgem, for "failing to treat customers fairly", the second such fine Ofgem has had imposed on it.[31] In February 2017, npower announced they were increasing their prices. Ofgem announced that npower would have to justify this price increase.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Terms and conditions - About us - npower - Section: Website Terms & conditions
  2. ↑ FG Invest In Npower Build Again Nigeria News, 22 February 2018
  3. ↑ Plugging into Nat Power split The Telegraph, 21 March 2001
  4. ↑ Npower firm buys up Yorkshire Electricity BBC News, 22 February 2001
  5. ↑ Innogy, Northern in retail swap Power Engineering International, September 2001
  6. ↑ RWE is set to buy Innogy New York Times, 18 March 2002
  7. ↑ Big gas losses force Telecom Plus to sell Digital Look, 16 February 2006
  8. ↑ SPI Group is bought by npower Archived 2 August 2012 at Archive.is Heating & Ventilation, 2009
  9. ↑ npower Acquires SPI Group Build, 4 February 2009
  10. 1 2 Chazan, Guy (20 November 2013). "Telecom Plus deal to challenge big six UK energy suppliers". Financial Times. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  11. ↑ Macalister, Terry; Jennifer Rankin (20 November 2013). "RWE npower supply sale raises fears over UK withdrawal". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  12. ↑ Gosden, Emily (20 November 2013). "Energy challenger Telecom Plus leaps to Big Six's defence". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  13. ↑ Allen, Katie; Bowers, Simon (2016-03-06). "Npower to cut up to 2,500 jobs in UK and overseas". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
  14. ↑ "Npower job losses 'devastating blow'". BBC. 8 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  15. ↑ "About npower". Npower Limited. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  16. ↑ Vaughan, Adam (7 November 2017). "SSE and npower in talks to create giant UK energy supplier". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  17. ↑ Thomas, Nathalie (8 November 2017). "SSE and Npower agree to combine household supply businesses". Financial Times. The Nikkei. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  18. ↑ "Creating a new independent energy supplier". SSE plc. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  19. ↑ Vaughan, Adam (30 August 2018). "Npower-SSE merger wins go-ahead from competition watchdog". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  20. ↑ "Competition watchdog clears SSE-Npower merger". BBC News. 10 October 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  21. ↑ "Retail – supplying the UK at home and work". www.rwe.com. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  22. ↑ npower suspends staff over claims BBC, 6 April 2008
  23. ↑ Exposed: energy giant cheats its customers The Times, 6 April 2008
  24. ↑ npower fined over doorstep sales BBC, 22 December 2008
  25. ↑ Customer Satisfaction Survey Results Which
  26. ↑ npower admits not paying taxes for three years MSN.com
  27. ↑ The big tax turn off Archived 7 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine. 38 Degrees
  28. ↑ RWE npower
  29. ↑ Bloomberg report for Greenpeace
  30. ↑ "550 job losses at npower are 'grave mistake' say Unison". HR Grapevine. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  31. ↑ "Npower fined record £26m over customer service failures". The Telegraph. 18 December 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2016.

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