RWE Npower - History

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.

Innogy then went on to purchase the Regional Electricity Company Yorkshire Electricity in 2001. It later disposed of the distribution side of Yorkshire Electricity to CE Electric UK in exchange for the supply business of Northern Electric. 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.

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%.

In 2009 npower acquired Superior Plumbing, a business providing services to social housing and business customers across the UK.

In 2008, npower faced allegations over the conduct of its door-to-door salespeople. An undercover investigation by a UK 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'. npower was eventually fined £1.8million by the UK energy regulator Ofgem. 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.

In 2010 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.