NRG Will Seek $900 Million in Loans to Build New Gas-Fired Power Plants

The interim CEO of Texas-based NRG Energy Inc. said the company plans to apply for up to $900 million in loans from the state in order to finance construction of new natural gas-fired power plants.

Larry Coben, who was appointed interim CEO in November 2023 after the resignation of long-time CEO Mauricio Gutierrez, on Feb. 28 said the funding would supply about 60% of the financing needed by Houston-headquartered NRG to build two gas-fired plants that would be available in 2026, along with another gas-fired facility that could come online in 2028. Coben said the money, which would come from a $5 billion voter-approved Texas Energy Fund, would have a 3% interest rate.

Want to learn more about NRG Energy? Read this profile of the Texas-based utility from the August 2023 issue of POWER.

Texas, which leads the U.S. in renewable energy generation capacity, is looking to add more gas-fired power plants to support a power grid that has been stressed by extreme weather events in recent years. Coben told Bloomberg that NRG, which is one of the first groups to announce it will utilize money from the energy fund, already has ordered equipment needed to build the new power plants.

“We are doing the work we need to be able to start as soon as loan approvals come through, which should be in Q2,” Coben told Bloomberg.

—Darrell Proctor is a senior associate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).