Texas Genco

Texas Genco is a subsidiary of NRG Energy. It was acquired by NRG in 2006 and since then has been considered the Company’s Texas region.

Seeking opportunities arising out of the deregulation of the electricity industry in Texas, in late 2004 four private equity firms — the Texas Pacific Group, the Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Hellman & Friedman of San Francisco — combined forces to purchase Texas Genco from the transmission & distribution provider utility Centerpoint Energy for Houston.

This coalition of firms acquired Texas Genco, then the second largest operator of power generation facilities in the state, for a price of approximately $1.9 billion. In late 2005, these private equity firms announced the sale of Texas Genco to NRG Energy of Princeton, N.J., for a price of roughly $5.9 billion. The investors achieved a gain of almost $5 billion over the space of an investment holding period of less than 18 months, a return that will mark one of the most lucrative private equity investments in recent years.

Pegasus project
In 2004 Texas Genco in a joint effort with Pegasus Technologies Inc. received $6.1 million in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Energy for the $12.2 million Pegasus project. The project was part of President Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative, which called for reductions in power plant emissions, particularly mercury, by 2018. The goal of Pegasus was to "optimize mercury speciation and control" from the Limestone Generating Station utility boiler in Jewett, Texas, combusting a blend of Texas lignite and Powder River Basin subbituminous coal.

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