 |
|
| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2000 (as Innogy plc) |
| Headquarters | Swindon, England UK |
| Industry | Energy |
| Products | Gas and electricity |
| Employees | 11,501 |
| Parent | RWE |
| Website | www.npower.com |
Npower (stylised as npower) is a UK-based electricity and natural gas supply company, 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, but is now owned by RWE of Germany.
Contents |
History
The Company was established as Innogy plc from the UK operations of National Power when the overseas operations were demerged as International Power plc in 2000.[1]
Innogy then went on to purchase the Regional Electricity Company, Yorkshire Electricity in 2001.[2] It later disposed of the distribution side of Yorkshire Electricity to CE Electric UK in exchange for the supply business of Northern Electric.[3] Innogy was taken over by the German utility giant RWE in 2002 and renamed RWE Npower plc with all the supply business adopting the "Npower" brand.[4]
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%.[5]
Operations
Npower operates a number of coal, natural gas, oil-fired and renewable energy power stations across the UK, with coal and gas accounting for 81% of their output as of 2005.[6]
The company's main offices are in Swindon, Wiltshire. Npower has around 9,500 employees across its departments and an annual turnover in 2005-6 equivalent to US$5.6bn.[7]
The company also owns Aberthaw Power Station in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales, Didcot Power Station in Oxfordshire, Tilbury Power Station in Essex, Little Barford Power Station near St Neots, Great Yarmouth Power Station, Fawley Power Station, and Littlebrook Power Station near Dartford in Kent.
Brand identity
Npower has two mascots, which feature on all recent advertisements representing gas and electricity. They are two small glowing "Orbs" with eyes and feet, one yellow (Electricity Orb) and one blue (Gas Orb). Npower gives soft toys resembling the Orbs to new customers.
Npower's TV advertisements feature the song, "Happy Together" by the Turtles, and more recently a cover version of the same song by Johnny Panic. More recently, Wallace and Gromit, and npower BOB (the engineer) are used in TV advertisements produced by Aardman Animations.
Sponsorship
Npower is very active in community sponsorship and has backed the England cricket team's home Test matches. In addition they currently sponsor Worcester Warriors Club (which is less than 100 yards from Npower offices), the Worcester Wolves Basketball Club. Npower Renewables support the Swansea based Magners League rugby union team The Ospreys.
Npower also supplies green energy to the New Wembley Stadium
See also
- Energy policy of the United Kingdom
- Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
- Green electricity in the United Kingdom
References
- ^ Plugging into National Power split The Telegraph, 21 March 2001
- ^ Npower firm buys up Yorkshire Electricity BBC News, 22 February 2001
- ^ Innogy, Northern in retail swap Power Engineering International, September 2001
- ^ RWE is set to buy Innogy New York Times, 18 March 2002
- ^ Telecom Plus (TEP) News – Big gas losses force Telecom Plus to sell Digital Look, 16 February 2006
- ^ RWE Gestaltungselement "Quadrate" in Corporate Broschueren
- ^ RWE Npower – Company Profile – Energy Business Review
External links
Video clips
|
||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
