Short answers, pulled from the story.
NRG Energy was formed in 1989 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Northern States Power Company (NSP), the Minnesota-based utility that later became Xcel Energy. It became an independent public company in 2003 following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
NRG Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on the 14th of May 2003 after its debt reached $9.4 billion, up from $212 million in 1996. The company had taken on massive debt through an aggressive acquisition campaign in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The reorganization eliminated roughly $5.2 billion in corporate debt and $1.2 billion in additional claims.
NRG Energy serves over 7 million retail customers in 24 US states and eight Canadian provinces. Its retail operations are concentrated in Texas and the northeastern United States, and include brands such as Reliant Energy, Green Mountain Energy, and XOOM Energy.
NRG Energy has acquired eleven energy companies, including Texas Genco for roughly $5.9 billion in 2006, Reliant Energy in 2009, Green Mountain Energy in 2010, GenOn Energy for $1.7 billion in 2012, XOOM Energy for $210 million in 2018, Stream Energy for $300 million in 2019, Direct Energy for $3.625 billion in 2021, and Vivint Smart Home for $2.8 billion in 2022.
In 2018, NRG Energy sold its NRG Yield stake, its Operations and Management business, its renewable energy development operations, and its Louisiana assets to reduce debt by an estimated $7 billion. The divestitures cut its generation portfolio from 50,000 megawatts to roughly 23,000 megawatts. Paying down debt had been the top priority of CEO Mauricio Gutierrez since he took over in December 2015.
NRG Energy launched EVgo in late 2010 as the first entirely private public electric vehicle charging network in the United States. NRG sold EVgo in 2016 to Vision Ridge Partners for an undisclosed amount. LS Power acquired EVgo in December 2019, and it went public via a SPAC merger in July 2021 under the EVGO ticker on the Nasdaq.