UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

☒	ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the Fiscal Year ended December 31, 2022.
☐	TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the Transition period from                      to                       .

Commission file No. 001-15891

     NRG Energy, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)	41-1724239 (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
910 Louisiana Street, Houston, Texas (Address of principal executive offices)	77002 (Zip Code)

(713) 537-3000

(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of Each Class	Trading Symbol(s)	Name of Exchange on Which Registered
Common Stock, par value $0.01	NRG	New York Stock Exchange

     Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.   Yes  ☒    No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act.    Yes ☐    No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.   Yes  ☒    No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).   Yes  ☒    No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large Accelerated Filer ☒	Accelerated filer	☐
Non-accelerated filer ☐	Smaller reporting company	☐
	Emerging growth company	☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes ☐    No ☒

As of the last business day of the most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the common stock of the registrant held by non-affiliates was approximately $6,461,030,777 based on the closing sale price of $38.17 as reported on the New York Stock Exchange.

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the registrant's classes of common stock as of the latest practicable date.

Class	Outstanding at February 15, 2023
Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share	229,774,238

Documents Incorporated by Reference:

Portions of the Registrant's definitive Proxy Statement relating to its 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders

are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K

1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

	GLOSSARY OF TERMS	3
PART I		7
	Item 1 — Business	7
	Item 1A — Risk Factors	24
	Item 1B — Unresolved Staff Comments	39
	Item 2 — Properties	40
	Item 3 — Legal Proceedings	41
	Item 4 — Mine Safety Disclosures	41
PART II		42
	Item 5 — Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	42
	Item 6 — Reserved	43
	Item 7 — Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	44
	Item 7A — Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	72
	Item 8 — Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	75
	Item 9 — Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	75
	Item 9A — Controls and Procedures	75
	Item 9B — Other Information	78
	Item 9C— Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections	78
PART III		79
	Item 10 — Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	79
	Item 11 — Executive Compensation	79
	Item 12 — Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	79
	Item 13 — Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	79
	Item 14 — Principal Accounting Fees and Services	79
PART IV		80
	Item 15 — Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules	80
	Item 16 — Form 10-K Summary	157
EXHIBIT INDEX		151

2

Glossary of Terms

        When the following terms and abbreviations appear in the text of this report, they have the meanings indicated below:

ACE	Affordable Clean Energy
Adjusted EBITDA	Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
AESO	Alberta Electric System Operator
ARO	Asset Retirement Obligation
ASC	The FASB Accounting Standards Codification, which the FASB established as the source of authoritative GAAP
ASU	Accounting Standards Updates – updates to the ASC
AUC	Alberta Utilities Commission
Bankruptcy Court	United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division
Brazos	Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc.
BTU	British Thermal Unit
Business	NRG Business, which serves business customers
CAA	Clean Air Act
CAISO	California Independent System Operator
CARES Act	Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
CDD	Cooling Degree Day
Centrica	Centrica plc
CFTC	U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
CO2	Carbon Dioxide
CO2e	Carbon Dioxide Equivalents
Company	NRG Energy, Inc.
Convertible Senior Notes	As of December 31, 2022, consists of NRG’s $575 million unsecured 2.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2048
Cottonwood	Cottonwood Generating Station, a 1,177 MW natural gas-fueled plant
COVID-19	Coronavirus Disease 2019
CPP	Clean Power Plan
CPUC	California Public Utilities Commission
CWA	Clean Water Act
D.C. Circuit	U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
DSI	Dry Sorbent Injection
DSU	Deferred Stock Unit
Dual fuel customers	Customer that have both electricity and natural gas service with the Company
Economic gross margin	Sum of retail revenue, energy revenue, capacity revenue and other revenue, less cost of fuels, purchased energy and other cost of sales
EGU	Electric Generating Unit
EPA	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPC	Engineering, Procurement and Construction
ERCOT	Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the Independent System Operator and the regional reliability coordinator of the various electricity systems within Texas
ESP	Electrostatic Precipitator
ESPP	NRG Energy, Inc. Amended and Restated Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Exchange Act	The Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended
FASB	Financial Accounting Standards Board
FERC	Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
FGD	Flue gas desulfurization

3

FPA	Federal Power Act
FTRs	Financial Transmission Rights
GAAP	Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States
GHG	Greenhouse Gas
Green Mountain Energy	Green Mountain Energy Company
GW	Gigawatts
GWh	Gigawatt Hours
HDD	Heating Degree Day
Heat Rate	A measure of thermal efficiency computed by dividing the total BTU content of the fuel burned by the resulting kWhs generated. Heat rates can be expressed as either gross or net heat rates, depending whether the electricity output measured is gross or net generation and is generally expressed as BTU per net kWh
HLW	High-level radioactive waste
Home	NRG Home, which serves residential customers
ICE	Intercontinental Exchange
IRA	Inflation Reduction Act
ISO	Independent System Operator, also referred to as RTOs
ISO-NE	ISO New England Inc.
Ivanpah	Ivanpah Solar Electric Generation Station, a 393 MW solar thermal power plant located in California's Mojave Desert in which NRG owns 54.5% interest
kWh	Kilowatt-hours
LaGen	Louisiana Generating LLC
LIBOR	London Inter-Bank Offered Rate
MDth	Thousand Dekatherms
Midwest Generation	Midwest Generation, LLC
MISO	Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.
MMBtu	Million British Thermal Units
MMDth	Million Dekatherms
MW	Megawatts
MWh	Saleable megawatt hour net of internal/parasitic load megawatt-hour
NAAQS	National Ambient Air Quality Standards
NEIL	Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited
NEPOOL	New England Power Pool
NERC	North American Electric Reliability Corporation
Net Capacity Factor	The net amount of electricity that a generating unit produces over a period of time divided by the net amount of electricity it could have produced if it had run at full power over that time period. The net amount of electricity produced is the total amount of electricity generated minus the amount of electricity used during generation
Net Exposure	Counterparty credit exposure to NRG, net of collateral
Net Generation	The net amount of electricity produced, expressed in kWhs or MWhs, that is the total amount of electricity generated (gross) minus the amount of electricity used during generation
NOL	Net Operating Loss
NOx	Nitrogen Oxides
NPNS	Normal Purchase Normal Sale
NRC	U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
NRG	NRG Energy, Inc.
NRG LTIP	NRG Energy, Inc. Amended and Restated Long-Term Incentive Plan
Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund	NRG's nuclear decommissioning trust fund assets, which are for the Company's portion of the decommissioning of the STP, units 1 & 2

4

Nuclear Waste Policy Act	U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982
NYISO	New York Independent System Operator
NYMEX	New York Mercantile Exchange
OCI/OCL	Other Comprehensive Income/(Loss)
ORDC	Operating Reserve Demand Curve
ORDPA	Online Reliability Deployment Price Adder
Peaking	Units expected to satisfy demand requirements during the periods of greatest or peak load on the system
Petra Nova	Petra Nova Parish Holdings, LLC
PJM	PJM Interconnection, LLC
PM2.5	Particulate Matter that has a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers
PPA	Power Purchase Agreement
PUCT	Public Utility Commission of Texas
Rayburn	Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative, Inc.
RCRA	Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976
Receivables Securitization Facilities	Collectively, the Receivables Facility and the Repurchase Facility
RECs	Renewable Energy Certificates
Renewable PPA	A third-party PPA entered into directly with a renewable generation facility for the offtake of the RECs or other similar environmental attributes generated by such facility, coupled with the associated power generated by that facility.
Renewables	Consists of the following projects in which NRG has an ownership interest: Agua Caliente, Ivanpah, and solar generating stations located at various NFL Stadiums
Renewables Platform	The renewable operating and development platform sold to Global Infrastructure Partners with NRG's interest in NRG Yield.
REP	Retail electric provider
Revolving Credit Facility	The Company's $3.7 billion revolving credit facility as of December 31, 2022, a component of the Senior Credit Facility, due 2024 which was amended on May 28, 2019 and August 20, 2020. The revolving credit facility was amended on February 14, 2023, increasing the facility to $4.3 billion
RGGI	Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
RMR	Reliability Must-Run
RPS	Renewable Portfolio Standards
RPSU	Relative Performance Stock Unit
RSU	Restricted Stock Unit
RTO	Regional Transmission Organization
SCR	Selective Catalytic Reduction Control System
SEC	U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Securities Act	The Securities Act of 1933, as amended
Senior Credit Facility	NRG's senior secured credit facility, comprised of the Revolving Credit Facility and the 2023 Term Loan Facility. The 2023 Term Loan Facility was repaid in the second quarter of 2019
Senior Notes	As of December 31, 2022, NRG's $4.6 billion outstanding unsecured senior notes consisting of $375 million of the 6.625% senior notes due 2027, $821 million of 5.75% senior notes due 2028, $733 million of the 5.25% senior notes due 2029, $500 million of the 3.375% senior notes due 2029, $1.0 billion of the 3.625% senior notes due 2031 and $1.1 billion of the 3.875% senior notes due 2032
Senior Secured Notes	As of December 31, 2022, NRG’s $2.5 billion outstanding Senior Secured First Lien Notes consists of $600 million of the 3.75% Senior Secured First Lien Notes due 2024, $500 million of the 2.0% Senior Secured First Lien Notes due 2025, $900 million of the 2.45% Senior Secured First Lien Notes due 2027, and $500 million of the 4.45% Senior Secured First Lien Notes due 2029
SNF	Spent Nuclear Fuel

5

SO2	Sulfur Dioxide
South Central Portfolio	NRG's South Central Portfolio, which owned and operated a portfolio of generation assets consisting of Bayou Cove, Big Cajun-I, Big Cajun-II, Cottonwood and Sterlington, was sold on February 4, 2019. NRG is leasing back the Cottonwood facility through May 2025
S&P	Standard & Poor's
STP	South Texas Project — nuclear generating facility located near Bay City, Texas in which NRG owns a 44% interest
STPNOC	South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company
Tax Act	The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
TDSP	Transmission/distribution service provider
Texas Genco	Texas Genco LLC
TSR	Total Shareholder Return
TWh	Terawatt Hours
U.S.	United States of America
U.S. DOE	U.S. Department of Energy
VaR	Value at Risk
VIE	Variable Interest Entity
Winter Storm Elliott	A major winter storm that had impacts across the majority of the United States and parts of Canada occurring in December 2022
Winter Storm Uri	A major winter and ice storm that had widespread impacts across North America occurring in February 2021

6

PART I

Item 1 — Business

General

NRG Energy, Inc., or NRG or the Company, is a consumer services company built on dynamic retail brands. NRG brings the power of energy to customers by producing and selling energy and related products and services, nation-wide in the U.S. and Canada in a manner that delivers value to all of NRG's stakeholders. NRG sells power, natural gas, and home and power services, and develops innovative, sustainable solutions, predominately under the brand names NRG, Reliant, Direct Energy, Green Mountain Energy, Stream, and XOOM Energy. The Company has a customer base that includes approximately 5.4 million Home customers as well as commercial, industrial, and wholesale customers, supported by approximately 16 GW of generation as of December 31, 2022.

On December 6, 2022, NRG and Vivint Smart Home, Inc. (“Vivint”) announced the entry into a definitive agreement under which the Company will acquire Vivint, a smart home platform company, in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition will accelerate the realization of NRG’s consumer-focused growth strategy and create a leading essential home services platform fueled by market-leading brands, unparalleled insights, proprietary technologies and complementary sales channels. The close of the acquisition is targeted for the first quarter of 2023 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

NRG sold 155 TWhs of electricity and 1,918 MMDth of natural gas in 2022, making it one of the largest competitive energy retailers in the U.S. As of the end of 2022, NRG had recurring electricity and/or natural gas sales in 24 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and 8 provinces in Canada. NRG's retail brands, collectively, have the largest share of competitively served residential electric customers in Texas and nationwide.

The following chart represents NRG's sales volumes for the year ended December 31, 2022:

Strategy

NRG's strategy is to maximize stakeholder value through the safe production and sale of reliable electricity and natural gas to its customers in the markets it serves, while positioning the Company to provide innovative solutions to the end-use energy or service customer. This strategy is intended to enable the Company to optimize its integrated model to generate stable and predictable cash flow, significantly strengthen earnings and cost competitiveness, and lower risk and volatility. Sustainability is a philosophy that underpins and facilitates value creation across NRG's business for its stakeholders. It is an integral piece of NRG's strategy and ties directly to business success, reduced risks and enhanced reputation.

To effectuate the Company’s strategy, NRG is focused on: (i) serving the energy needs of end-use residential, commercial and industrial, and wholesale counterparties in competitive markets through multiple brands and channels; (ii) offering a variety of energy products and services, including renewable energy solutions, that are differentiated by innovative features, premium service, sustainability, and loyalty/affinity programs; (iii) excellence in operating performance of its assets; (iv) optimal hedging of its portfolio; and (v) engaging in disciplined and transparent capital allocation.

7

The Company announced in 2021 a four-year plan, that began in 2022, to spend $2 billion in order to achieve growth through optimization of the Company's core power and natural gas sales, as well as integrated solution sales within its core network in both power and home services. The planned acquisition of Vivint announced in December 2022 will be the primary growth vehicle to achieve this plan.

Business Overview

The Company’s core business is the sale of electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial and wholesale customers, supported by the Company's wholesale generation. NRG manages its operations based on the combined results of the retail and wholesale generation businesses with a geographical focus.

The Company's business is segmented as follows:

•Texas, which includes all activity related to customer, plant and market operations in Texas, other than Cottonwood;

•East, which includes all activity related to customer, plant and market operations in the East;

•West/Services/Other, which primarily includes the following assets and activities: (i) all activity related to customer, plant and market operations in the West and Canada, (ii) the services businesses, (iii) activity related to the Cottonwood facility, (iv) the remaining renewables activity, including the Company’s equity method investment in Ivanpah Master Holdings, LLC, and (v) activity related to the Company’s equity method investment for the Gladstone power plant in Australia; and

•Corporate activities.

In Texas, the Company’s generation supply is fully integrated with its retail load. The integrated model provides the advantage of being able to supply a portion of the Company’s retail customers with electricity from the Company’s assets, which reduces the need to sell electricity to and buy electricity from other institutions and intermediaries, resulting in stable earnings and cash flows, lower transaction costs and less credit exposure. The integrated model also results in a reduction in actual and contingent collateral through offsetting transactions, thereby reducing transactions with third parties.

The Company’s integrated model consists of three core functions: Customer Operations, Market Operations and Plant Operations, which directly support each other in each geographic region.

Customer Operations

Customer Operations is responsible for growing and retaining the customer base and delivering an outstanding customer experience. This includes acquisition and retention of all of NRG’s residential, small commercial, government and commercial & industrial customers. NRG employs a multi-brand strategy that leverages a wide array of sales and partnership channels, direct face-to-face sales channels, call centers, websites, and brokers. Go-to-market activities include market strategy planning and development, product innovation, offer design, campaign execution, marketing and creative services, and selling. Customer portfolio maintenance and retention activities include fulfillment, billing, payment processing, collections, customer service, issue resolution, and contract renewals. NRG provides energy and related services at either fixed, indexed or month-to-month prices. Home customers typically contract for terms ranging from one month to five years, while Business contracts are often between one year and five years in length. Throughout all Customer Operations activities, the customer experience is kept at the forefront to inform decision-making and optimize retention, while creating supporters and advocates for NRG’s brands in the market. Following the expansion of the customer base with the acquisition of Direct Energy in 2021, Customer Operations now comprises three end-use customer facing teams: NRG Home, which serves residential customers, NRG Business, which serves business customers, and NRG Services, which primarily includes the services businesses acquired.

Product Offerings

NRG sells a variety of products to residential and small commercial customers, including retail electricity and energy management, natural gas, home security, line and surge protection products, HVAC installation, repair and maintenance, home protection products, carbon offsets, back-up power stations, portable power, portable solar and portable lighting. Home and Services customers make purchase decisions based on a variety of factors, including price, incentive, customer service, brand, innovative offers/features and referrals from friends and family. Through its broad range of service offerings and value propositions, NRG is able to attract, retain, and increase the value of its customer relationships. NRG's brands are recognized for exemplary customer service, innovative smart energy and technology product offerings, and environmentally-friendly solutions.

The Company provides power and natural gas to the business-to-business markets in North America, as well as retail services, including demand response, commodity sales, energy efficiency and energy management solutions to Business customers. The Company is an integrated provider of supply and distributed energy resources and focuses on distributed products and services as businesses seek greater reliability, cleaner power and other benefits that they cannot obtain from the grid. These solutions include system power, distributed generation, renewable products, carbon management and specialty services, backup generation, storage and distributed solar, demand response, and energy efficiency and advisory services.

8

Market Operations

Market Operations has two primary objectives: to supply energy to customers in the most cost-efficient manner and to maximize the value of the Company's assets after satisfying its customer load requirements. These objectives are intended to reduce supply costs and maximize earnings with predictable cash flows.

Power and natural gas are the two main commercial groups within market operations.

Power

The power commercial group is responsible for end-use electricity supply including power plant optimization and certain fuel supply. To meet the market operations objectives, NRG enters into supply, power and gas hedging agreements via a wide range of products and contracts, including (i) physical and financial commodity instruments, (ii) fuel supply and transportation contracts, (iii) PPAs and Renewable PPAs and (iv) capacity and other contracted revenue or supply sources, as further discussed below.

In addition, because changes in power prices in the markets where NRG operates are generally correlated to changes in natural gas prices, NRG uses hedging strategies that may include power and natural gas forward purchases and sales contracts to manage the commodity price risk.

Physical and Financial Commodity Instruments

NRG trades electric power, natural gas and related commodities, environmental products, weather products and financial products, including forwards, futures, options and swaps. NRG enters into these instruments primarily to manage price and delivery risk, optimize physical and contractual assets in the portfolio, manage working capital requirements, reduce the carbon exposure in its business and comply with laws.

Fuel Supply and Transportation Contracts

NRG's fuel requirements consist of various forms of fossil fuel and nuclear fuel. The prices of fossil fuels can be volatile. The Company obtains its fossil fuels from multiple suppliers and through multiple transporters. Although availability is generally not an issue, localized shortages, transportation availability, delays arising from extreme weather conditions and supplier financial stability issues can and do occur. The preceding factors related to the sources and availability of raw materials are fairly uniform across the Company's business and fuel products used. NRG's primary fuel requirements consist of the following:

Natural Gas — NRG operates a fleet of mid-merit and peaking natural gas plants. Fuel needs are managed by the natural gas commercial group, on a spot basis, especially for peaking assets, as the Company does not believe it is prudent to forward purchase natural gas for these types of units as the dispatch is highly unpredictable.

Coal —NRG actively manages its coal requirements based on forecasted generation, market volatility and its inventory on site. The Company believes it is adequately hedged, using forward coal supply agreements, for its domestic coal consumption for 2023. As of December 31, 2022, NRG had purchased forward contracts to provide fuel for approximately 89% of the Company's expected requirements for 2023 and 2024. For the domestic fleet, NRG purchased approximately 15.3 million tons of coal in 2022, almost all of which was Powder River Basin coal. For fuel transport, NRG has entered into various rail transportation and rail car lease agreements with varying tenures that will provide for most of the Company's transportation requirements of Powder River Basin coal for the next two years.

Nuclear Fuel — STP's owners, including NRG, satisfy their fuel supply requirements by: (i) acquiring uranium concentrates and contracting for conversion of the uranium concentrates into uranium hexafluoride; (ii) contracting for enrichment of uranium hexafluoride; and (iii) contracting for fabrication of nuclear fuel assemblies. Through its proportionate participation in STPNOC, which is the NRC-licensed operator of STP that is responsible for all aspects of fuel procurement, NRG is party to a number of long-term forward purchase contracts with many of the world's largest suppliers covering STP's requirements for uranium concentrates of all of STP's requirements through 2025 and 75% for the duration of the original operating license (through 2027/2028). Similarly, STP has begun the process of covering fuel supply requirements into the extended license period and has secured a fabrication contract with Westinghouse through 2047/2048. As of December 31, 2022, STP has secured approximately 25% of uranium hexafluoride through 2029. Other fuel requirements such as uranium, conversion and enrichment remain open at this time.

Renewable PPAs

The Company's strategy is to procure mid to long-term renewable generation through power purchase agreements. As of December 31, 2022, NRG has entered into Renewable PPAs totaling approximately 2.4 GW with third-party project developers and other counterparties, of which approximately 45% are operational. The average tenure of these agreements is twelve years. The Company expects to continue evaluating and executing similar agreements that support the needs of the business. The total GW entered into through Renewable PPAs may be impacted by contract terminations when they occur.

9

Capacity and Other Contracted Revenue Sources

NRG's revenues and cash flows, primarily in the East and West, benefit from capacity/demand payments and other contracted revenue sources, originating from market clearing capacity prices, resource adequacy contracts, tolling arrangements and other long-term contractual arrangements.

The Company's largest sources of continuing capacity revenues are capacity auctions in PJM. PJM operates a pay-for-performance model where capacity payments are modified based on real-time performance and NRG's actual revenues will be the combination of revenues based on the cleared auction MW plus the net of any over- and under-performance of NRG's respective generation assets.

Natural Gas

The natural gas commercial group is responsible for all costing, logistics and supply for all of NRG's residential, commercial & industrial and wholesale customers. The Direct Energy acquisition, which closed on January 5, 2021, significantly increased the Company's capabilities and scale across the natural gas value chain. NRG has contractual rights to natural gas transportation and storage assets across its footprint that allow for optimal supply economics in support of its various businesses. NRG's diversified load coupled with this asset portfolio enables the Company to deliver supply economically while providing incremental optimization activities when market conditions allow. The scale of the natural gas operation extends from the wellhead (through its producer services business) to end use customers (through NRG's various sales channels). This scale, coupled with the Company's associated assets, gas system platform and people, create significant opportunity across North America.

Plant Operations

The Company owns and leases a diversified wholesale generation portfolio with approximately 16 GW of fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable generation capacity at 23 plants as of December 31, 2022. The Company's wholesale generation assets are diversified by fuel-type and dispatch level, which helps mitigate the risks associated with fuel price volatility and market demand cycles. NRG continually evaluates its generation portfolio to focus on asset optimization opportunities and the locational value of its generation assets in each of the markets where the Company participates, as well as opportunities for the development of new generation.

The following table summarizes NRG's generation portfolio as of December 31, 2022:

	(In MW)(a)
Type	Texas	East	West/Services/Other	Total
Natural gas	4,721	1,881	1,279	7,881
Coal	4,174	1,948	605	6,727
Oil	—	455	—	455
Nuclear	1,132	—	—	1,132
Utility Scale Solar	—	—	219	219
Battery Storage	2	—	—	2
Total generation capacity	10,029	4,284	2,103	16,416

(a)Utility Scale Solar is described in MW on an alternating current basis. MW figures provided represent nominal summer net MW capacity of power generated as adjusted for the Company's owned or leased interest.

Plant Operations is responsible for operating the Company's generation facilities at the highest standards of safety and reliability, and includes (i) operations and maintenance, (ii) asset management, and (iii) development, engineering and construction.

Operations & Maintenance

NRG operates and maintains its generation portfolio, as well as approximately 7,800 MW of additional coal, natural gas and wind generation capacity at 12 plants operated on behalf of third parties, as of December 31, 2022, using prudent industry practices for the safe, reliable and economic generation of electricity in compliance with all local, state and federal requirements. The Company follows a consistent set of operating requirements, including a solid base of training, required adherence to specific safety and environmental limits, procedure and checklist usage, and the implementation of continuous process improvement through incident investigations.

NRG uses best-in-class maintenance practices for preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance planning. The Company’s strategic planning process evaluates equipment condition, performance, and obsolescence to support the development of a comprehensive work scope and schedule for long-term performance.

10

Asset Management

NRG manages all aspects of its generation portfolio to optimize the lifecycle value of the assets, consistent with the Company’s goals. The Company evaluates capital projects required for continued operation and strategic enhancement of the assets, provides quality assurance on capital outlays, and assesses the impact of rules, regulations, and laws on business profitability. In addition, the Company manages its long-term contracts, PPAs, and real estate holdings and provides third-party asset management services.

Development, Engineering & Construction

NRG develops, engineers and executes major plant modifications, “new build” generation and energy storage projects that enhance the value of its generation portfolio and provide options to meet generation growth needs in the retail markets it serves, in accordance with the Company’s strategic goals. These projects have included gas-fired generation development and construction, coal to gas conversions, grid scale energy storage development, grid scale renewable construction, and asset demolition, remediation and reclamation work.

Operational Statistics

The following statistics represent the Company's retail load and customer count:

	Year ended December 31,
	2022	2021	2020
Sales volumes - Electricity (in GWh)
Home - Texas	43,155	42,397	38,473
Home - East	13,269	14,108	10,221
Home - West/Services/Other	2,250	2,252	—
Business - Texas	38,447	34,367	17,928
Business - East	47,724	53,204	1,596
Business - West/Services/Other	10,231	10,625	—
Total Load	155,076	156,953	68,218
Sales volumes - Natural gas (in MDth)
Home - East	53,051	50,417	23,509
Home - West/Services/Other	92,035	97,272	—
Business - East	1,618,946	1,620,036	—
Business - West/Services/Other	154,074	109,021	—
Total Load	1,918,106	1,876,746	23,509

11

	Year ended December 31,
	2022	2021	2020
Customer count - Electricity customers(a)(b) (in thousands)
Home - Texas
Average retail	2,961	3,040	2,431
Ending retail	2,859	3,010	2,434
Home - East
Average retail	1,408	1,484	1,019
Ending retail	1,381	1,402	970
Home - West/Services/Other
Average retail(c)	383	525	18
Ending retail(c)	390	512	17
Customer count - Natural gas customers(b) (in thousands)
Home - East
Average retail	375	360	156
Ending retail	380	364	166
Home - West/Services/Other
Average retail	416	452	—
Ending retail	396	434	—
Total Customer count
Average retail - Home	5,543	5,861	3,624
Ending retail - Home	5,406	5,722	3,587
(a) Includes services customers
(b) Dual fuel customers are included within electricity customer counts only
(c) Includes 135 thousand whole home warranty customers as of December 31, 2021. The whole home warranty business was sold in January 2022

The following are industry statistics for the Company's fossil and nuclear plants, as defined by the NERC:

Annual Equivalent Availability Factor, or EAF — Measures the percentage of maximum generation available over time as the fraction of net maximum generation that could be provided over a defined period of time after all types of outages and deratings, including seasonal deratings, are taken into account.

Net Heat Rate — The net heat rate represents the total amount of fuel in BTU required to generate one net kWh provided.

Net Capacity Factor — The net amount of electricity that a generating unit produces over a period of time divided by the net amount of electricity it could have produced if it had run at full power over that time period. The net amount of electricity produced is the total amount of electricity generated minus the amount of electricity used during generation by the station.

The tables below presents these performance metrics for the Company's generation portfolio, including leased facilities, for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021:

	Year Ended December 31, 2022
			Fossil and Nuclear Plants (a)
	Net Owned Capacity (MW)	Net Generation (In thousands of MWh) (a)	Annual Equivalent Availability Factor		Average Net Heat Rate BTU/kWh	Net Capacity Factor
Texas	10,027	37,275	69.5	%	10,733	41.8	%
East	4,285	7,282	78.1	%	11,959	17.3	%
West/Services/Other	1,172	6,676	84.5	%	7,442	64.9	%

(a)Excludes equity method investments

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	Year Ended December 31, 2021
			Fossil and Nuclear Plants (a)
	Net Owned Capacity (MW)	Net Generation (In thousands of MWh) (a)	Annual Equivalent Availability Factor		Average Net Heat Rate BTU/kWh	Net Capacity Factor
Texas	10,083	36,920	70.6	%	10,717	42.4	%
East	5,476	7,494	79.8	%	11,877	8.8	%
West/Services/Other	2,318	7,949	88.0	%	7,337	47.2	%

(a)Excludes equity method investments

The generation performance by region for the three years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020 is shown below:

	Net Generation
(In thousands of MWh)	2022	2021	2020
Texas
Coal	18,860	18,876	15,701
Gas	8,763	8,846	6,006
Nuclear (a)	9,652	9,198	9,678
Total Texas	37,275	36,920	31,385
East
Coal	6,738	5,774	1,888
Oil	7	201	322
Gas	537	1,519	1,892
Total East (b)	7,282	7,494	4,102
West/Services/Other
Gas	6,669	7,941	9,165
Renewables	7	8	6
Total West/Services/Other (c)	6,676	7,949	9,171
Total generation performance	51,233	52,363	44,658

(a)Reflects the Company's undivided interest in total MWh generated by STP

(b)Includes gas generation of 855 thousand MWh and 870 thousand MWh and oil generation of 199 thousand MWh and 322 thousand MWh for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, that was sold to Generation Bridge

(c)Includes gas generation of 2,445 thousand MWh and 3,002 thousand MWh for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, that was sold to Generation Bridge

Competition

While there has been consolidation in the competitive retail space over the past few years, there is still considerable competition for customers. In Texas, there is healthy competition in deregulated areas and customers can choose providers based on the most appealing offers. Outside of Texas, electricity retailers compete with the incumbent utilities, in addition to other retail electric providers, which can inhibit competition depending on the market rules of the state. There is a high degree of fragmentation, with both large and small competitors offering a range of value propositions, including value, rewards, and sustainability-based offerings.

Wholesale generation is highly fragmented and diverse in terms of industry structure by region. As such, there is wide variation in terms of the capabilities, resources, nature and identities of the Company’s competitors depending on the market. Competitors include regulated utilities, municipalities, cooperatives, other independent power producers, and power marketers or trading companies, including those owned by financial institutions.

Seasonality and Price Volatility

The sale of power and natural gas to retail customers are seasonal businesses with the demand for power generally peaking during the summer, and the demand for natural gas generally peaking during the winter. As a result, net working capital requirements for the Company's retail operations generally increase during summer and winter months along with the higher revenues, and then decline during off-peak months. Weather may impact operating results and extreme weather conditions could have a material impact. The rates charged to retail customers may be impacted by fluctuations in total power

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prices and market dynamics, such as the price of natural gas, transmission constraints, competitor actions, and changes in market heat rates.

Annual and quarterly operating results of the Company's generation portfolio can be significantly affected by weather and energy commodity price volatility. Significant other events, such as the demand for natural gas, interruptions in fuel supply infrastructure and relative levels of hydroelectric capacity can increase seasonal fuel and power price volatility. The preceding factors related to seasonality and price volatility are fairly uniform across the regions in which the Company operates.

Market Framework

NRG sells electricity, natural gas and related products and services to customers throughout the U.S. and Canada. In most of the states and regions that have introduced retail consumer choice, NRG competitively offers electricity, natural gas, portable power and other value-enhancing services to customers. Each retail consumer choice state or province establishes its own retail competition laws and regulations, and the specific operational, licensing, and compliance requirements vary by state or province. Regulated terms and conditions of default service, as well as any movement to replace default service with competitive services, as is done in ERCOT, can affect customer participation in retail competition. In Canada, NRG sells energy and related services to residential and commercial customers in the province of Alberta pursuant both to a regulated rate service governed by provincial regulations as well as a competitive service with rates set by market forces. Sales of energy to commercial customers take place in other provinces as well. The attractiveness of NRG's retail offerings may be impacted by the rules, regulations, market structure and communication requirements from public utility commissions in each state and province.

NRG's fleet of power plants which it owns, operates or manages are located in organized energy markets, known as RTOs or ISOs. Each organized market administers day-ahead and real-time centralized bid-based energy and ancillary services markets pursuant to tariffs approved by FERC, or in the case of ERCOT, market rules approved by the PUCT. These tariffs and rules dictate how the energy markets operate, how market participants make bilateral sales with one another and how entities with market-based rates are compensated. Established prices reflect the value of energy at the specific location and time it is delivered, which is known as the Locational Marginal Price. Each market is subject to market mitigation measures designed to limit the exercise of locational market power. These market structures facilitate NRG's sale of power and capacity products at market-based rates.

Other than ERCOT and AESO, each of the ISO regions also operates a capacity or resource adequacy market that provides an opportunity for generating and demand response resources to earn revenues to offset their fixed costs that are not recovered in the energy and ancillary services markets. The ISOs are also responsible for transmission planning and operations.

Texas

NRG's business in Texas is subject to standards and regulations adopted by the PUCT and ERCOT1, including the requirement for retailers to be certified by the PUCT in order to contract with end-users to sell electricity. The ERCOT market is one of the nation's largest and, historically, fastest growing power markets. ERCOT is an energy-only market. The majority of the retail load in the ERCOT market region is served by competitive retail suppliers, except certain areas that have not opted into competitive consumer choice and are served by municipal utilities and electric cooperatives.

East

While most of the states in the East region of the U.S. have introduced some level of retail consumer choice for electricity and/or natural gas, the incumbent utilities currently provide default service in most of the states and as a result typically serve the majority of residential customers. NRG’s retail activities in the East are subject to standards and regulations adopted by the ISOs, state public utility commissions and legislators, including the requirement for retailers to be certified in each state in order to contract with end-users to sell electricity.

Power plants owned, operated or managed by NRG and NRG's demand response assets located in the East region of the U.S. are within the control areas of PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE and MISO. Each of the market regions in the East region provides for robust competition in the day-ahead and real-time energy and ancillary services markets. Additionally, the assets in the East region receive a significant portion of their revenues from capacity markets. PJM and ISO-NE use a forward capacity auction, while NYISO uses a month-ahead capacity auction. MISO has an annual auction. Capacity market prices are sensitive to design parameters, as well as additions of new capacity. PJM operates a pay-for-performance model where capacity payments are modified based on real-time generator performance. In such markets, NRG’s actual capacity revenues will be the combination of cleared auction prices times the quantity of MW cleared, plus the net of any over-performance "bonus payments" and any under-performance charges. Additionally, bidding rules allow for the incorporation of a risk premium into generator bids.

1 The Cottonwood facility is located in Deweyville, Texas, but operates in the MISO market

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West

In the West region of the U.S., NRG owns equity interests, operates or manages power plants located entirely within the CAISO footprint. The CAISO operates day-ahead and real-time locational markets for energy and ancillary services, while managing congestion primarily through nodal prices. The CAISO system facilitates NRG's sale of power, ancillary services and capacity products at market-based rates, either within the CAISO's centralized energy and ancillary service markets or bilaterally. The CPUC also determines capacity requirements for LSEs and for specified local areas utilizing inputs from the CAISO. Both the CAISO and CPUC rules require LSEs to contract with sufficient generation resources in order to maintain minimum levels of generation within defined local areas. Additionally, the CAISO has independent authority to contract with needed resources under certain circumstances, typically either when LSEs have failed to procure sufficient resources, or system conditions change unexpectedly.

Canada

In Canada, NRG sells to residential and commercial retail customers in Alberta, within the AESO footprint, under both regulated rates approved by the AUC as well as through competitive service. The Company's regulated rates are approved through periodic rate applications that establish rates for power and gas sales as well as for recovery of other costs associated with operating the regulated business. In addition, the Company sells energy to commercial customers in other provinces. All sales and operations are subject to applicable federal and provincial laws.

Regulatory Matters

As participants in wholesale and retail energy markets and owners and operators of power plants, certain NRG entities are subject to regulation by various federal and state government agencies. These include the CFTC, FERC, NRC and the PUCT, as well as other public utility commissions in certain states where NRG's generation or distributed generation assets are located. In addition, NRG is subject to the market rules, procedures and protocols of the various ISO and RTO markets in which it participates. Likewise, certain NRG entities participating in the retail markets are subject to rules and regulations established by the states and provinces in which NRG entities are licensed to sell at retail. NRG must also comply with the mandatory reliability requirements imposed by NERC and the regional reliability entities in the regions where NRG operates.

NRG's operations within the ERCOT footprint are not subject to rate regulation by FERC, as they are deemed to operate solely within the ERCOT market and not in interstate commerce. These operations are subject to regulation by the PUCT, as well as to regulation by the NRC with respect to NRG's ownership interest in STP.

Federal Energy Regulation

Inflation Reduction Act — The IRA allocates $369 billion in spending for energy security and addressing climate change. Much of these investments come through the tax code in the form of clean energy tax credits. In the past, investment tax credits and production tax credits have played a vital role in the growth of wind and solar projects around the U.S., but they have had short lifespans, phaseouts and the uncertainty of extensions. The IRA provides 10-year extensions on these tax credits, which will provide more certainty needed for investment decisions to build out these projects in the long-term. With new renewable generation coming online, renewable energy supply costs will likely become cheaper and more plentiful. NRG Home can also benefit from increased residential usage to charge electric vehicles ("EV") and special EV products. The IRA also introduced new tax provisions including a corporate book minimum tax and an excise tax on net stock repurchases with both taxes effective beginning in fiscal year 2023 for NRG. The Company will continue to evaluate the impact of the corporate book minimum tax when the U.S. Treasury and the IRS release further guidance. Additionally, the IRA establishes a tax credit associated with existing nuclear facilities which begins in 2024 and terminates at the end of 2031. The tax credit will fully apply when gross revenues are at or below $25 per MWh and phases out completely at $43.75 per MWh. The U.S. Treasury is in the process of defining the methods by which gross revenues may be calculated pursuant to the IRA.

State and Provincial Energy Regulation

Illinois Legislation — Illinois enacted the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act ("CEJA") on September 15, 2021, which targets 100% clean energy by 2050. CEJA focuses on (i) decarbonization, (ii) incentives to transition coal plants into clean energy facilities and (iii) nuclear subsidies. A component of CEJA is the Coal-to-Solar Energy Storage Grant Program. On June 1, 2022, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity announced that NRG is eligible to receive almost $160 million over 10 years to develop battery storage at both the Waukegan and Will County power plant sites.

Regional Regulatory Developments

NRG is affected by rule/tariff changes that occur in the ISO regions. For further discussion on regulatory developments see Item 15 — Note 24, Regulatory Matters, to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

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Texas

Public Utility Commission of Texas’ Actions with Respect to Wholesale Pricing and Market Design — In September 2021, the PUCT opened a rulemaking project to evaluate whether it should amend its rules to modify the High System Wide Offer cap ("HCAP") and the ORDC, which is intended to ensure prices in the competitive market appropriately reflect the value of operating reserves as the system approaches scarcity conditions. This rulemaking project concluded in December 2021, resulting in a rule amendment that lowered the HCAP to $5,000 per MWh and which expands the minimum contingency level to 3,000 MW in Phase I. These two changes are broadly offsetting in their effect on overall average energy prices. In 2022, the PUCT has focused on the development of a winter firm fuel product. The PUCT directed ERCOT to issue a Request for Proposal to procure dual fuel capability with on-site fuel storage as part of the initial firm fuel procurement for the winter of 2022 and 2023. The procurement amount was 2,940MW with a total cost of $53 million.

The PUCT engaged an independent consultant, E3, to evaluate various resource adequacy proposals and recommend a policy direction to increase incentives for investment in dispatchable generation in ERCOT. On November 10, 2022, the independent consultant provided a report including various market design options such as a Forward Reliability Market, Load Serving Entity Reliability Obligation, and a new concept called a Performance Credit Mechanism ("PCM"). The PCM measures real-time contribution to system reliability and provides compensation for resources to be available. The PUCT staff filed a summary of comments and their recommendations, which support PCM. On January 19, 2023, the Commission approved an order adopting the PCM as their policy direction for resource adequacy in ERCOT, however, implementation is delayed until the legislature reviews.

Activity on Securitization and ERCOT Pricing during Winter Storm Uri — The Texas Legislature acted to pass a variety of securitization vehicles to finance exceptionally high power and gas costs from Winter Storm Uri, including HB 4492. ERCOT subsequently filed two applications requesting the PUCT to issue Debt Obligation Orders ("DOOs") based on the legislation. On October 13, 2021, the PUCT issued DOOs authorizing ERCOT's securitization of $800 million to cover short payments and reimburse congestion revenue right account holders for amounts related to the default of market participants other than electric cooperatives Brazos and Rayburn, which are discussed below (the "Default Securitization") and $2.1 billion related to highly priced ancillary service and ORPDA during Winter Storm Uri (the "Uplift Securitization").

The DOOs require ERCOT to issue loans or securitized bonds through a bankruptcy remote special purpose entity as the borrower and distribute the proceeds to affected market participants for default-related short payments and to LSEs for certain ancillary-service and ORDPA costs using an allocation of proceeds based on an LSE's exposure to relevant costs as calculated by the LSE's prevailing load-ratio share during the period of Winter Storm Uri, and a further redistribution of proceeds initially allocated to other LSEs and customers who opt-out of securitization. In turn, ERCOT charges non-bypassable fees related to the Default Securitization and Uplift Securitization to all qualified scheduling entities and to all LSEs (other than those that have opted-out), respectively. The Uplift Securitization provided for a one-time opt-out for certain LSEs or individual transmission-level customers who in exchange for foregoing any securitization-related proceeds likewise avoid future fees assessed by ERCOT for the use of repaying ERCOT's debt obligations. However, nearly all competitive REPs were required by the law to participate, ensuring the charge established by the law is competitively neutral. The $2.1 billion Uplift Securitization was disbursed by ERCOT in June 2022, with NRG's LSEs collectively receiving $689 million. NRG's LSEs that assessed customers certain ancillary-service and ORDPA costs during the period of Winter Storm Uri provided a refund or credit to those customers proportionate to the LSE's total recovery. The $800 million Default Securitization was disbursed by ERCOT in November 2021, with NRG receiving $12 million.

Electric Cooperative Bankruptcy and Securitization — Of the defaults in the ERCOT market the majority was attributable to Brazos, who filed bankruptcy on March 1, 2021 following the events of Winter Storm Uri. Brazos' bankruptcy case culminated in a settlement between Brazos and ERCOT that was embodied in Brazos' chapter 11 plan of reorganization. Brazos' chapter 11 plan was confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court on November 14, 2022, and the chapter 11 plan became effective on December 15, 2022.

Under the terms of the Brazos' chapter 11 plan, Brazos and ERCOT are providing market participants a recovery of funds that were short-paid in relation to Brazos based on elections made by each market participant. NRG elected the accelerated cash recovery option and has received 43% of the $68 million of its short pay. NRG expects to receive an additional 22% of its short pay in various installments over the following 12-year period. The plan and ERCOT settlement also provide that there be no default uplift under the current ERCOT protocols in relation to the Brazos short payments.

In February 2022, Rayburn successfully completed a securitization transaction and fully paid its outstanding obligations to ERCOT.

Reliability and Plant Operations Standards — The PUCT created a rulemaking to establish weatherization standards and issued a notice for comments in response to provisions of Texas Senate Bill 3 ("SB3") that require mandatory standards for power generators and others within the electric-power sector. On October 21, 2021, Commissioners of the PUCT voted to adopt Phase I of the rule without substantial modifications from the proposal, and those rules are now in effect. On May 26, 2022, the

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PUCT issued a proposal for publication to repeal Phase I rules and implement Phase II rules. The new rules entail conducting a weather study by ERCOT and directing the State Climatologist to create a percentile-based standard of weatherization and implement weatherization plan audits based on weather related outages that occur during weather emergencies. NRG filed comments to the rulemaking on June 23, 2022. On September 29, 2022, the PUCT adopted the Phase II Weatherization Standards.

PJM

PJM Delays Base Residual Auction Results and Files to Update Tariff — The Base Residual Auction for the 2024/2025 delivery year commenced on December 7, 2022 and closed on December 13, 2022. On December 19, 2022, PJM announced that it would delay the publication of the auction results. On December 23, 2022, PJM made a filing at FERC to revise the definition of Locational Deliverability Area Reliability Requirement in the Tariff. This would allow PJM to exclude certain resources from the calculation of the Local Deliverability Area Reliability Requirement. If accepted by FERC, the proposal will affect the clearing price of the auction. NRG has protested the filing.

Capacity Performance Penalties and Bonuses from Winter Storm Elliott — PJM experienced approximately 23 hours of Capacity Performance events from December 23-24, 2022 across PJM's entire footprint. The Company will be subject to penalty or bonus payments related to the events with settlements to occur in 2023. PJM anticipates that certain market participants who incurred penalties may encounter challenges in paying penalties levied upon them. This may result in bonus payments being prorated. On February 2, 2023, PJM made a filing at FERC that, if approved, would give PJM the ability to extend the payment period for PJM member who incurred penalties for an additional 9 months.

Indian River RMR Proceeding — On June 29, 2021, Indian River notified PJM that it intended to retire Unit 4, effective May 31, 2022, due to expected uneconomic operations. On July 30, 2021, PJM responded to the deactivation notice and stated that PJM had identified reliability violations resulting from the proposed deactivation of Unit 4. NRG filed a cost based RMR rate schedule at FERC on April 1, 2022. FERC accepted the rate schedule with a June 1, 2022 effective date, subject to refund and established hearing and settlement procedures. Multiple parties protested. Parties are currently in settlement negotiations.

PJM Revisions to Minimum Offer Price Rule — On July 30, 2021, PJM filed proposed tariff changes at FERC to largely eliminate the current minimum offer price rules ("MOPR") except in very narrow cases. The proposal would eliminate: (i) the current MOPR for new entrant natural gas resources effective with the 2023/2024 delivery year and (ii) the expanded MOPR established in FERC's December 2019 Order to address out-of-market subsidies. On September 30, 2021, PJM's proposal went into effect by operation of law because the FERC Commissioners were split 2-2 as to the lawfulness of the change. Multiple parties filed motions for rehearing and ultimately appealed to the federal court of appeals. On December 21, 2021 and December 30, 2021, respectively, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order holding the appeals in abeyance. The Seventh Court appeal is being held in abeyance while the appeal in the Third Court is moving forward with briefing and oral argument. Any changes to the PJM capacity market construct may impact the outcome of future Base Residual Auctions.

PJM's ORDC Filing and Compliance Directives — On May 21, 2020, PJM proposed energy and reserve market reforms to enhance price formation in reserve markets, which included modifying its ORDC and aligning market-based reserve products in Day-Ahead and Real-Time markets. In addition to approving PJM's proposal, FERC also directed PJM to implement a forward-looking Energy and Ancillary Services Offset to be used in PJM's capacity markets. After multiple compliance filings, parties filed appeals at the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit of FERC’s orders, and on August 13, 2021, FERC filed a motion and was granted a voluntary remand of the case back to the agency. On December 22, 2021, FERC issued its order on voluntary remand affirming in part and reversing in part FERC's determination. Specifically, FERC reversed itself and ordered PJM to: (i) eliminate the more robust ORDC curves and reserve penalty adders and maintain the existing (lower) curves and (lower) penalty adders and (ii) restore its tariff provisions related to its prior backward-looking Energy and Ancillary Services Offset. In response to requests for rehearing of the December 2021 order, FERC issued a notice denying the rehearings by operation of law and providing for further consideration on February 22, 2022. Multiple parties filed appeals in various appellate courts and those appeals are now all before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for consideration.

Independent Market Monitor Market Seller Offer Cap Complaint — On March 18, 2021, finding that the calculation of the default Market Seller Offer Cap was unjust and unreasonable, FERC issued an Order, which permitted the current PJM May 2021 capacity auction for the 2022/2023 delivery rule to continue under the existing rules and set a procedural schedule for parties to file briefs with possible solutions. On September 2, 2021, FERC issued an order in response to a complaint filed by the PJM Independent Market Monitor's proposal, which eliminates the Cost of New Entry-based Market Seller Offer Cap and implements a limited default cap for certain asset classes based on going-forward costs and provides for unit specific cost review by the Independent Market Monitor for all other non-zero offers into the auctions. On October 4, 2021, as required by the Order, PJM submitted its compliance tariff and certain parties filed a motion for rehearing, which was denied by operation of law. On February 18, 2022, FERC addressed the arguments raised on rehearing and rejected the rehearing requests. Multiple parties filed appeals at the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. A decision is pending.

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New York

NYISO's Revisions to the Buyer Side Mitigation Rules — On January 5, 2022, the NYISO filed its Comprehensive Mitigation Review proposing changes to the buyer-side mitigation rules. The proposal would remove certain facilities to be reviewed under the buyer-side mitigation rules to serve the goals of New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, adopt a marginal capacity accreditation market design and adjust the rules surrounding installed and unforced capacity. On February 9, 2022 FERC issued a deficiency notice, focusing on capacity accreditation issues, which NYISO responded. On May 10, 2022, FERC issued an order accepting the NYISO's Comprehensive Mitigation Review. Changes to NYISO's Buyer Side Mitigation rules may impact the outcome of future capacity auctions.

California

California Resource Adequacy Proceedings — As part of the Integrated Resource Procurement docket, the CPUC approved a decision on June 24, 2021 that requires all LSEs to procure a pro rata share of 11.5 GW of new non-fossil resource adequacy from 2023 to 2026. In that same docket, the CPUC ordered the state's major investor-owned utilities to procure additional summer reliability resources through 2023. On June 23, 2022, the CPUC approved a decision that raises the reserve margin from 15 percent to 16 percent in 2023 and at least 17 percent in 2024. SB846 establishes a pathway for PG&E's Diablo Canyon Nuclear power plant, which units are scheduled to close in 2024 and 2025, to remain open for at least five additional years. Finally, the CPUC completed a series of 2022 stakeholder meetings regarding details for implementation of a new Resource Adequacy ("RA") program beginning in 2025 which will require procurement to meet needs during every hour of the day. The result of these changes will likely keep RA prices elevated in the near term and if LSEs cannot meet their RA obligations, penalties may be issued.

Midway-Sunset Reliability Must Run Proceeding — San Joaquin Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of NRG, owns a 50%, non-controlling interest in the Midway-Sunset Cogeneration Company ("MSCC"). MSCC owns a cogeneration facility near Fellows, California and submitted mothball notices for the cogeneration facility to the CAISO in the latter half of 2020. On December 17, 2020, the CAISO Board effectively rejected the mothball notices by authorizing its staff to designate the MSCC facility as a reliability must-run ("RMR") resource conditioned on execution of a RMR contract. On January 29, 2021, MSCC made its RMR filing at FERC. Multiple parties filed protests and on March 16, 2021, MSCC filed a response to those protests. On April 2, 2021, FERC accepted the RMR filing, suspended it to become effective February 1, 2021, subject to refund and established hearing and settlement judge proceedings. On September 27, 2021, the CAISO gave notice to MSCC extending the term of the reliability designation through December 31, 2022. On April 29, 2022, the participants in the settlement proceeding filed a Joint Offer of Settlement with the FERC, which was approved by FERC on July 28, 2022.

Environmental Regulatory Matters

NRG is subject to numerous environmental laws in the development, construction, ownership and operation of power plants. These laws generally require that governmental permits and approvals be obtained before construction and maintained during operation of power plants. Federal and state environmental laws historically have become more stringent over time. Future laws may require the addition of emissions controls or other environmental controls or impose restrictions on the Company's operations. Complying with environmental laws often involves specialized human resources and significant capital and operating expenses, as well as occasionally curtailing operations. NRG decides to invest capital for environmental controls based on the relative certainty of the requirements, an evaluation of compliance options, and the expected economic returns on capital.

A number of regulations that affect the Company have been revised recently and continue to be revised by the EPA, including ash storage and disposal requirements, NAAQS revisions and implementation and effluent limitation guidelines. NRG will evaluate the impact of these regulations as they are revised but cannot fully predict the impact of each until anticipated revisions and legal challenges are resolved.

Air 

The CAA and related regulations (as well as similar state and local requirements) have the potential to affect air emissions, operating practices and pollution control equipment required at power plants. Under the CAA, the EPA sets NAAQS for certain pollutants including SO2, ozone, and PM2.5. Many of the Company's facilities are located in or near areas that are classified by the EPA as not achieving certain NAAQS (non-attainment areas). The relevant NAAQS may become more stringent. In January 2023, the EPA proposed increasing the stringency of the PM2.5 NAAQS. The Company maintains a comprehensive compliance strategy to address continuing and new requirements. Complying with increasingly stringent air regulations could require the installation of additional emissions control equipment at some NRG facilities or retiring of units if installing such controls is not economic. Significant changes to air regulatory programs affecting the Company are described below.

CPP/ACE Rules — The attention in recent years on GHG emissions has resulted in federal and state regulations. In October 2015, the EPA promulgated the CPP, addressing GHG emissions from existing EGUs. On February 9, 2016, the U.S.

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Supreme Court stayed the CPP. In July 2019, EPA promulgated the ACE rule, which rescinded the CPP, which had sought to broadly regulate CO2 emissions from the power sector. On January 19, 2021, the D.C. Circuit vacated the ACE rule (but on February 22, 2021, at the EPA's request, stayed the issuance of the portion of the mandate that would vacate the repeal of the CPP). On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the "generation shifting" approach in the CPP exceeded the powers granted to the EPA by Congress. The Court did not address the related issues of whether the EPA may adopt only measures applied at each source. The Company anticipates that there will be additional rulemaking by the EPA over the next several years.

Cross-State Air Pollution Rule ("CSAPR") — In April 2022, the EPA proposed revising the CSAPR to address the good-neighbor provisions of the 2015 ozone NAAQS. If the rule were finalized as proposed, it would apply to 25 states (including Texas) beginning in 2023. In 2023, the revised Group 3 trading program (previously established in the Revised CSAPR Update Rule) would have emission budgets based on NOx emission rates that the EPA says are achievable by existing controls at power plants. Starting in 2026, the NOx budgets would be reduced significantly based on levels achievable if SCR controls were installed at coal-fueled power plants that do not currently have such controls. Starting in 2025, the budgets would be updated annually to account for retirements, changes to operations, and new units. The proposal also contemplates heightened surrender requirements for units that exceed certain NOx emission rate thresholds. The Company cannot predict the outcome of this proposed revision and anticipates that this rulemaking will be subject to legal challenges after it is finalized. The EPA anticipates finalizing the revised rule in Spring 2023.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions — NRG emits CO2 (and small quantities of other GHGs) when generating electricity at a majority of its facilities. Nearly all (>99%) of NRG's domestic GHG emissions are subject to federal (U.S. EPA) GHG reporting requirements.

NRG's climate goals are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2025, from its current 2014 baseline, and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Greenhouse gas emissions include directly controlled emissions, emissions from NRG's purchased energy, and emissions from employee business travel. In early 2021, NRG's climate goals were certified by the Science Based Targets initiative as aligned with a 1.5 degree Celsius trajectory. From the current 2014 baseline to 2022, the Company's CO2e emissions decreased from 60 million metric tons to 35 million metric tons, representing a cumulative 42% reduction. The decrease is attributed to reductions in fleet-wide annual net generation and a market-driven shift away from coal as a primary fuel to natural gas. The increase in emissions in 2022, as compared to 2021, was primarily due to increased generation driven by power market conditions and weather. The Company is continuing to target a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, however, assuming no mitigating events occur, current power market forecasts suggest that the projected reduction in NRG's greenhouse gas emissions at that time will be less than the targeted goal. The Company expects these forecasts to continue to evolve over time given recent and expected future changes in regulatory policies and prices in electricity and natural gas markets. The Company continues to actively monitor and explore various options to meet the goal when both economically and legally feasible.

As of December 31, 2022, less than 5% of the Company's consolidated revenues were derived from coal-fired operating assets.

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The following charts reflect the Company’s domestic generation portfolio, including leased facilities and those accounted for through equity method investments, but excluding the battery storage and remaining renewables activity. Prior year information on U.S. CO2e emissions and U.S. generation was adjusted to remove divested assets.

Byproducts, Wastes, Hazardous Materials and Contamination

In April 2015, the EPA finalized the rule regulating byproducts of coal combustion (e.g., ash and gypsum) as solid wastes under the RCRA. On July 30, 2018, the EPA promulgated a rule that amended the ash rule by extending some of the deadlines and providing more flexibility for compliance. On August 21, 2018, the D.C. Circuit found, among other things, that the EPA had not adequately regulated unlined ponds and legacy surface impoundments. On August 28, 2020, the EPA finalized "A Holistic Approach to Closure Part A: Deadline to Initiate Closure," which amended the April 2015 Rule to address the August 2018 D.C. Circuit decision and extend some of the deadlines. On November 12, 2020, the EPA finalized "A Holistic Approach to Closure Part B: Alternative Demonstration for Unlined Surface Impoundments," which further amended the April 2015 Rule to, among other things, provide procedures for requesting approval to operate existing ash impoundments with an alternate liner. NRG anticipates further rulemaking related to the Federal Permit Program and legacy surface impoundments.

Domestic Site Remediation Matters

Under certain federal, state and local environmental laws, a current or previous owner or operator of a facility, including an electric generating facility, may be required to investigate and remediate releases or threatened releases of hazardous or toxic substances or petroleum products. NRG may be responsible for property damage, personal injury and investigation and remediation costs incurred by a party in connection with hazardous material releases or threatened releases. These laws impose liability without regard to whether the owner knew of or caused the presence of the hazardous substances, and the courts have interpreted liability under such laws to be strict (without fault) and joint and several. Cleanup obligations can often be triggered during the closure or decommissioning of a facility, in addition to spills during its operations.

Jewett Mine Lignite Contract — The Company's Limestone facility historically burned lignite obtained from the Jewett mine. Active mining ceased as of December 31, 2016; however, the Company remains responsible for reclamation activities and is responsible for all reclamation costs. NRG has recorded an adequate ARO liability. The Railroad Commission of Texas has imposed a bond obligation of approximately $99 million for the reclamation of the Jewett mine, which NRG supports through surety bonds. The cost of the reclamation may exceed the value of the bonds. NRG may provide additional performance assurance if required by the Railroad Commission of Texas.

Nuclear Waste — The federal government's program to construct a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada was discontinued in 2010. Since 1998, the U.S. DOE has been in default of the federal government's obligations to begin accepting spent nuclear fuel ("SNF"), and high-level radioactive waste ("HLW"), under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Owners of nuclear plants, including the owners of STP, had been required to enter into contracts setting out the obligations of the owners and the U.S. DOE, including the fees to be paid by the owners for the U.S. DOE's services to license a spent fuel repository. Effective May 16, 2014, the U.S. DOE stopped collecting the fees.

On February 5, 2013, STPNOC entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. DOE for payment of damages relating to the U.S. DOE's failure to accept SNF and HLW under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act through December 31, 2013, which has been extended three times through addendums to cover payments through December 31, 2022. There are no facilities for the

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reprocessing or permanent disposal of SNF currently in operation in the U.S., nor has the NRC licensed any such facilities. STPNOC currently stores all SNF generated by its nuclear generating facilities on-site. STPNOC plans to continue to assert claims against the U.S. DOE for damages relating to the U.S. DOE's failure to accept SNF and HLW.

Under the federal Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act of 1980, as amended in 1985, the state of Texas is required to provide, either on its own or jointly with other states in a compact, for the disposal of all low-level radioactive waste generated within the state. Texas is currently in a compact with the state of Vermont, and the compact low-level waste facility located in Andrews County in Texas has been operational since 2012.

Water 

The Company is required under the CWA to comply with intake and discharge requirements, requirements for technological controls and operating practices. As with air quality regulations, federal and state water regulations have become more stringent and imposed new requirements.

Effluent Limitations Guidelines — In November 2015, the EPA revised the Effluent Limitations Guidelines ("ELG") for Steam Electric Generating Facilities, which imposed more stringent requirements (as individual permits were renewed) for wastewater streams from FGD, fly ash, bottom ash and flue gas mercury control. On September 18, 2017, the EPA promulgated a final rule that, among other things, postponed the compliance dates to preserve the status quo for FGD wastewater and bottom ash transport water by two years to November 2020 until the EPA amended the rule. On October 13, 2020, the EPA amended the 2015 ELG rule by: (i) altering the stringency of certain limits for FGD wastewater; (ii) relaxing the zero-discharge requirement for bottom ash transport water; and (iii) changing several deadlines. On July 26, 2021, the EPA announced that it is initiating a new rulemaking to evaluate revising the ELG rule. While the EPA is developing the new rule, the existing rule (as amended in 2020) will stay in place, and the EPA expects permitting authorities to continue to implement the current regulation. The Company anticipates that the EPA will release a proposed rule in the first half of 2023. In October 2021, NRG informed its regulators that the Company intends to comply with the ELG by ceasing combustion of coal by the end of 2028 at its domestic coal units outside of Texas, and installing appropriate controls by the end of 2025 at its two plants that have coal-fired units in Texas.

Regional Environmental Developments

Ash Regulation in Illinois — On July 30, 2019, Illinois enacted legislation that required the state to promulgate regulations regarding coal ash at surface impoundments. On April 15, 2021, the state promulgated the implementing regulation, which became effective on April 21, 2021. NRG has applied for initial operating permits and has begun to apply for construction permits (for closure) as required by the regulation.

Houston Nonattainment for 2008 Ozone Standard — During the fourth quarter of 2022, the EPA changed the Houston area’s classification from Serious to Severe nonattainment for the 2008 Ozone Standard. Accordingly, Texas is required to develop a new control strategy and submit it to the EPA.

Customers

NRG sells to a wide variety of customers, primarily end-use customers in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors. The Company owns and operates power plants to generate and sell power to wholesale customers, such as utilities and other intermediaries. The Company had no customer that comprised more than 10% of the Company's consolidated revenues for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Human Capital

As of December 31, 2022, NRG and its consolidated subsidiaries had 6,603 employees, approximately 12% of whom were covered by U.S. collective bargaining agreements. During 2022, the Company did not experience any labor stoppages or labor disputes at any of its facilities.

NRG believes its employees are vital to its success and is committed to offering employees a rewarding career that provides opportunities for growth and the ability to make valuable contributions toward the achievement of the Company’s business objectives. NRG focuses on safety, health and wellness, diversity, equity and inclusion, talent development and total rewards for its employees.

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Safety

Safety is embedded in the culture at NRG. The Company strives to begin meetings with a safety moment and regularly reminds its employees that safety comes first. NRG has achieved its targeted top decile safety record of Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordable injury rates in each of the 5 previous years.

Health and Wellness

For several years, NRG has invested in the health and well-being of its employees and their families. NRG provides programs that holistically support its employees’ physical, emotional and financial wellness, allowing employees the opportunity to take control of their well-being and focus on what matters most to them for a healthy, secure future.

For the 2022 plan year, the Company included well-being goals in the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP), ensuring participants are motivated to improve their physical, emotional and financial well-being. Accordingly, certain key employee programs were evaluated and enhanced for 2023: several new programs were added to NRG's voluntary benefits offerings, NRG’s retirement savings plan match was increased by 50% in the U.S. and by 100% in Canada, and paid parental leave was increased to 6 weeks regardless of gender.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

NRG is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion ("DE&I") as an integral way the Company operates. In 2020, NRG completed a gender and race pay equity study to ensure that the Company's pay decisions were not influenced by gender, race, or other similar factors. The study demonstrated equitable pay practices after accounting for education, experience, performance and location. The Company committed to conduct this study every three years, including in 2023.

In 2022, the Company used a portion of its cash balances to invest in a money market fund in which a portion of the fund’s fee is donated to Rio Bank, a Texas-based minority-owned financial institution. This commitment demonstrates the Company's support for the communities in which it is located and does business.

NRG also held its first company-wide Day of Service in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2022. Employees were encouraged to participate in events held across multiple states to listen, learn and serve their communities.

Talent Development

NRG deploys various talent development strategies and programs with the goal of ensuring a pipeline of leadership who can execute on the Company’s strategy and drive value for all stakeholders. The Board of Directors regularly engages with management on leadership development and succession planning, including providing feedback on development plans and bench strength for key senior leader positions. The Board of Directors also has a structured program that allows directors to interact directly with individuals deeper within the organization whom management, through a robust talent assessment

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program, as well as mentoring relationships, has identified as high potential future leaders. In 2021, the Company launched an annual Executive Leadership Program to strengthen the identified pipeline of future leaders and create a cohort of high potential candidates for the program. The Company has a performance management tool that emphasizes a continuous feedback loop and a robust online training curriculum with topics including leadership, communication and productivity.

Total Rewards

NRG seeks to provide market competitive compensation and benefits, benchmarked against direct peers, industry, and, where appropriate, general peers. To ensure incentives are properly aligned with business needs and can attract and retain qualified employees, the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors actively reviews the Company's total rewards programs, including benchmarking programs against peer groups, assessing the risks of programs and evaluating the design of the annual and long-term incentive programs. The Company offers full-time employees incentives designed to motivate and reward success. NRG continues to evaluate its offerings taking into consideration the needs of its employees to ensure they are competitive and best serve its employees. Every two years, the Company engages an independent third-party to benchmark its compensation and benefits programs against its peers and report the results to the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

For further discussion and recent available data regarding the Company’s efforts and programs please see the Company’s 2022 Proxy Statement and 2021 Sustainability Report, which are available on the Company’s website at: www.nrg.com. Information included in these documents is not intended to be incorporated into this Form 10-K.

Available Information

NRG's annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act are available free of charge through the SEC's website, www.sec.gov, and through the Company's website, www.nrg.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The Company also routinely posts press releases, presentations, webcasts, sustainability reports and other information regarding the Company on the Company's website. The information posted on the Company's website is not a part of this report.

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Item 1A — Risk Factors

NRG's risk factors are grouped into the following categories: (i) Risks Related to the Proposed Acquisition of Vivint; (ii) Risks Related to the Operation of NRG's Business; (iii) Risks Related to Governmental Regulation and Laws; (iv) Risks Related to Economic and Financial Market Conditions, and the Company's Indebtedness; and (v) Risks Related to Public Health Threats.

Risks Related to the Proposed Acquisition of Vivint

If completed, the acquisition of Vivint may not achieve its intended results.

The Company entered into the Purchase Agreement with the expectation that the acquisition would result in various benefits, including, among other things, cost savings and operating efficiencies. Achieving the anticipated benefits of the acquisition is subject to a number of uncertainties, including whether the businesses of NRG and Vivint are integrated in an efficient and effective manner. Failure to achieve these anticipated benefits could result in increased costs, lower-than-expected revenues or income generated by the combined company and diversion of management's time and energy and could have an adverse effect on the Company's business, financial results and prospects.

The Company will be subject to business uncertainties and contractual restrictions while the acquisition of Vivint is pending that could adversely affect its financial results.

Uncertainty about the effects of the acquisition of Vivint on employees, customers and suppliers may have an adverse effect on NRG's business. Although the Company intends to take steps designed to reduce any adverse effects, these uncertainties may impair its ability to attract, retain and motivate key personnel until the acquisition is completed and for a period of time thereafter, and could cause customers, suppliers and others to seek to change existing business relationships.

Employee retention and recruitment may be particularly challenging prior to the completion of the acquisition, as employees and prospective employees may experience uncertainty about their future roles with the combined company. If, despite the Company's retention and recruiting efforts, key employees depart or fail to accept employment with NRG because of issues relating to the uncertainty and difficulty of integration or a desire not to remain with the combined company, the Company's financial results could be affected.

The pursuit of the acquisition and the preparation for the integration of NRG and Vivint may place a significant burden on management and internal resources. The diversion of management attention away from ongoing business concerns and any difficulties encountered in the transition and integration process could affect the Company's business, results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, the Company has agreed not to take any actions that would materially delay the satisfaction of any of the closing conditions to the transaction or prevent any of those conditions from being satisfied. This restriction on the Company's actions may prevent it from pursuing otherwise attractive business opportunities or making other changes to its business prior to the completion of the acquisition or termination of the merger agreement.

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Risks Related to the Operation of NRG's Business

NRG's financial performance may be impacted by price fluctuations in the retail and wholesale power and natural gas markets, as well as fluctuations in coal and oil markets and other market factors that are beyond the Company's control.

Market prices for power, capacity, ancillary services, natural gas, coal and oil are unpredictable and tend to fluctuate substantially. Electric power generally must be produced concurrently with its use. As a result, power prices are subject to significant volatility due to supply and demand imbalances, especially in the day-ahead and spot markets. Long and short-term power and gas prices may also fluctuate substantially due to other factors outside of the Company's control, including:

•changes in generation capacity in the Company’s markets, including the addition of new supplies of power as a result of the development of new plants, expansion of existing plants, the continued operation of uneconomic power plants due to state subsidies, retirement of existing plants or addition of new transmission capacity;

•environmental regulations and legislation;

•electric supply disruptions, including plant outages and transmission disruptions;

•changes in power and gas transmission infrastructure;

•fuel price volatility and transportation capacity constraints or inefficiencies;

•changes in law, including judicial decisions;

•weather conditions, including extreme weather conditions and seasonal fluctuations, including the effects of climate change;

•changes in commodity prices and the supply of commodities, including but not limited to natural gas, coal and oil;

•changes in the demand for power or gas, or in patterns of power or gas usage, including the potential development of demand-side management tools and practices, distributed generation, and more efficient end-use technologies;

•development of new fuels, new technologies and new forms of competition for the production of power;

•economic and political conditions;

•federal, state and provincial power regulations and legislation, and regulations and actions of the ISO and RTOs;

•changes in prices related to RECs; and

•changes in capacity prices and capacity markets.

While retail rates are generally designed to allow retail sellers of electricity and natural gas to pass through price fluctuations and other changes to costs, the Company may not be able to pass through all such changes to customers. For example, serving retail power customers in ISOs that have a capacity market exposes the Company to the risk that capacity costs can change and may not be recoverable, or the Company may engage in sales of power at fixed prices. Additionally, increases in wholesale costs to retail customers may cause additional customer defaults or increased customer attrition, or may be impacted by regulatory rules.

Further, in low natural gas price environments, natural gas can be the more cost-competitive fuel compared to coal for generating electricity. The Company enters into guaranteed supply contracts to provide for the amount of coal needed to operate its base load coal-fired generating facilities. The Company may experience periods where it holds excess amounts of coal if fuel pricing results in the Company reducing or idling coal-fired generating facilities. In addition, the Company may incur costs to terminate supply contracts for coal in excess of its generating requirements.

Such factors and the associated fluctuations in power prices have affected the Company's wholesale and retail profitability in the past and are expected to continue to do so in the future.

Volatile power and gas supply costs and demand for power and gas could adversely affect the financial performance of NRG's retail operations.

NRG's retail power operations purchase a significant portion of their supply from third parties. All of the gas sold by the Company in retail and wholesale markets is purchased from third parties. As a result, financial performance depends on the ability to obtain adequate supplies of power and gas from third parties at prices below the prices NRG charges its customers. Consequently, the Company's earnings and cash flows could be adversely affected in any period in which the wholesale power or gas prices rise at a greater rate than the rates the Company can charge to customers. The price of wholesale electricity and gas supply purchases associated with the retail operations' energy commitments can be different than that reflected in the rates charged to customers due to, among other factors:

•varying supply procurement contracts used and the timing of entering into related contracts;

•subsequent changes in the overall price of natural gas;

•daily, monthly or seasonal fluctuations in the price of natural gas relative to the 12-month forward prices;

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•transmission and transportation constraints and the Company's ability to move power or gas to its customers; and

•changes in market heat rate (i.e., the relationship between power and natural gas prices).

The Company's earnings and cash flows could also be adversely affected in any period in which its customers' actual usage of electricity or gas significantly varies from the forecasted usage, which could occur due to, among other factors, weather events, changes in usage patterns, competition and economic conditions.

Substantially all of NRG's businesses operates, wholly or partially, without long-term power sale agreements.

Many of NRG’s retail customers are contracted for a period of one year or less, and NRG may or may not hedge its retail power sales exposure, or may hedge in a manner that is not effective at managing quantity or price risk in the retail market. In addition, many of NRG’s generation facilities are exposed to market risk because they operate as "merchant" facilities without long-term power sales agreements for some or all of their generating capacity and output. Without the benefit of long-term power sales or purchase agreements, and without long-term load obligations, NRG cannot be sure that it will be able to sell or purchase power at commercially attractive rates or that its generation facilities will be able to operate profitably. This could lead to future impairments of the Company's property, plants and equipment, the closing of certain of its facilities or the loss of retail customers, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company's results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.

Competition may have a material adverse effect on NRG's results of operations, cash flows and the market value of its assets.

NRG has numerous competitors in all aspects of its business, and additional competitors may enter the industry. The Company's retail operations specifically face competition for customers. Competitors may offer different products, lower prices, and other incentives which may attract customers away from the Company. In some retail electricity markets, the principal competitor may be the incumbent utility. The incumbent utility has the advantage of long-standing relationships with its customers and strong brand recognition. Furthermore, NRG may face competition from other energy service providers, other energy industry participants, or nationally branded providers of consumer products and services, who may develop businesses that will compete with NRG.

The Company’s plant operations face competition from newer or more efficient plants owned by competitors, which may put some of the Company's plants at a disadvantage to the extent these competitors are able to consume the same or less fuel as the Company's plant. Over time, the Company's plants may be unable to compete with these more efficient plants, which could result in retirements.

NRG’s competitors may have greater liquidity, greater access to credit and other financial resources, lower cost structures, more effective risk management policies and procedures, greater ability to incur losses, longer-standing relationships with customers, greater brand awareness, greater potential for profitability from retail sales or greater flexibility in the timing of their sale of generation capacity and ancillary services than NRG does. Competitors may also have better access to subsidies or other out-of-market payments that put NRG at a competitive disadvantage.

NRG's competitors may be able to respond more quickly to new laws or regulations or emerging technologies, or devote greater resources to marketing of retail energy than NRG can. In addition, current and potential competitors may make strategic acquisitions or establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties. Accordingly, it is possible that new competitors or alliances among current and new competitors may emerge and rapidly gain significant market share.

There can be no assurance that NRG will be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors, and any failure to do so would have a material adverse effect on the Company's business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flow.

NRG's costs, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows could be adversely impacted by disruption of its fuel supplies.

NRG relies on natural gas, coal and oil to fuel a majority of its power generation facilities. Grid operations depend on the continuing financial viability of contractual counterparties, as well as the infrastructure (including rail lines, rail cars, barge facilities, roadways, riverways and natural gas pipelines) available to serve generation facilities and to ensure that there is sufficient power produced to meet retail demand. As a result, the Company’s wholesale generation facilities are subject to the risks of disruptions or curtailments in the production of power at its generation facilities if no fuel is available at any price, if a counterparty fails to perform or if there is a disruption in the fuel delivery infrastructure.

NRG routinely hedges both its wholesale sales and purchases to support its retail load obligations. In order to hedge these obligations, the Company may enter into long-term and short-term contracts for the purchase and delivery of fuel. Many of the forward power sales contracts do not allow the Company to pass through changes in fuel costs or discharge the power sale obligations in the case of a disruption in fuel supply due to force majeure events or the default of a fuel supplier or transporter. Disruptions in the Company's fuel supplies or power supply arrangements may therefore require it to find alternative fuel

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sources at higher costs, to find other sources of power to deliver to retail customers or other counterparties at a higher cost, or to pay damages to counterparties for failure to deliver power or sell electricity or natural gas as contracted. Any such event could have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial performance.

NRG also buys significant quantities of energy and fuel on a short-term or spot market basis. Prices sometimes rise or fall significantly over a relatively short period of time. The price NRG can obtain for the sale of energy may not rise at the same rate, or may not rise at all, to match a rise in fuel or delivery costs. Retail rates may also not rise at the same rate or may not rise at all. This may have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial performance.

NRG's plant operating characteristics and equipment, particularly at its coal-fired plants, often dictate the specific fuel quality to be combusted. The availability and price of specific fuel qualities may vary due to supplier financial or operational disruptions, transportation disruptions and force majeure. At times, coal of specific quality may not be available at any price or the Company may not be able to transport such coal to its facilities on a timely basis. In this case, the Company may not be able to run the coal facility even if it would be profitable. Operating a coal facility with different quality coal can lead to emission or operating problems. If the Company had sold forward the power from such a coal facility, it could be required to supply or purchase power from alternate sources, perhaps at a loss. This could have a material adverse impact on the financial results of specific plants and on the Company's results of operations.

There may be periods when NRG will not be able to meet its commitments under forward sale or purchase obligations at a reasonable cost or at all.

The Company may sell fixed price gas as a proxy for power. Because the obligations under most of the Company's forward sale agreements are not contingent on a unit being available to generate power, NRG is generally required to deliver power to the buyer, even in the event of a plant outage, fuel supply disruption or a reduction in the available capacity of the unit. To the extent that the Company does not have sufficient lower-cost capacity to meet its commitments under its forward sale obligations, the Company would be required to supply replacement power either by running its other, higher cost power plants or by obtaining power from third-party sources at market prices that could substantially exceed the contract price. If NRG fails to deliver the contracted power, it would be required to pay the difference between the market price at the delivery point and the contract price, and the amount of such payments could be substantial.

NRG's trading operations and use of hedging agreements could result in financial losses that negatively impact its results of operations, and NRG's hedging activities may increase the volatility in the Company's quarterly and annual financial results.

The Company typically enters into hedging agreements, including contracts to purchase or sell commodities at future dates and at fixed prices, to manage the commodity price risks inherent in its business. The Company’s risk management policies and hedging procedures may not mitigate risk as planned, and the Company may fail to fully or effectively hedge its commodity supply and price risk. In addition, these activities, although intended to mitigate price volatility, expose the Company to other risks. When the Company sells or buys power or gas forward, it gives up the opportunity to buy or sell at the future price, which not only may result in lost opportunity costs but also may require the Company to post significant amounts of cash collateral or other credit support to its counterparties. The Company also relies on counterparty performance under its hedging agreements and is exposed to the credit quality of its counterparties under those agreements. Further, if the values of the financial contracts change in a manner that the Company does not anticipate, or if a counterparty fails to perform under a contract, it could harm the Company's business, operating results or financial position.

NRG does not typically hedge the entire exposure of its operations against commodity price volatility. To the extent it does not hedge against commodity price volatility, the Company's results of operations and financial position may be improved or diminished based upon movement in commodity prices.

NRG may engage in trading activities, including the trading of power, fuel and emissions allowances that are not directly related to the operation of the Company's generation facilities or the management of related risks. These trading activities take place in volatile markets and some of these trades could be characterized as speculative. The Company would expect to settle these trades financially rather than through the production of power or the delivery of fuel. This trading activity may expose the Company to the risk of significant financial losses which could have a material adverse effect on its business and financial condition.

NRG generally attempts to balance its fixed-price physical and financial purchases and sales commitments in terms of contract volumes and the timing of performance and delivery obligations through the use of financial and physical derivative contracts. These derivatives are accounted for in accordance with the FASB ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging ("ASC 815"), which requires the Company to record all derivatives on the balance sheet at fair value with changes in the fair value resulting from fluctuations in the underlying commodity prices immediately recognized in earnings, unless the derivative qualifies for cash flow hedge accounting treatment or a scope exception. As a result, the Company's quarterly and annual results are subject to significant fluctuations caused by changes in market prices.

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NRG may not have sufficient liquidity to hedge market risks effectively.

The Company is exposed to market risks through its retail and wholesale operations, which involve the purchase of electricity and natural gas for resale, the sale of energy, capacity and related products, and the purchase and sale of fuel, transmission services and emission allowances. These market risks include, among other risks, volatility arising from location and timing differences that may be associated with buying and transporting fuel, converting fuel into energy and delivering energy to a buyer.

NRG undertakes these market activities through agreements with various counterparties. Many of the Company's agreements with counterparties include provisions that require the Company to provide guarantees, offset or netting arrangements, letters of credit, a first lien on assets and/or cash collateral to protect the counterparties against the risk of the Company's default or insolvency. The amount of such credit support that must be provided typically is based on the difference between the price of the commodity in a given contract and the market price of the commodity. Significant movements in market prices can result in the Company being required to provide cash collateral and letters of credit in very large amounts. The effectiveness of the Company's strategy may depend on the amount of collateral available to enter into or maintain these contracts, and liquidity requirements may be greater than the Company anticipates or will be able to meet. Without a sufficient amount of working capital to post as collateral in support of performance guarantees or as a cash margin, the Company may not be able to manage price volatility effectively or to implement its strategy. An increase in the amount of letters of credit or cash collateral required to be provided to the Company's counterparties may negatively affect the Company's liquidity and financial condition.

Further, if retail customers use more power or gas than expected, or if any of NRG's facilities experience unplanned outages, the Company may be required to procure additional power or gas at spot market prices to fulfill contractual commitments. Without adequate liquidity to meet margin and collateral requirements, the Company may be exposed to significant losses, may miss significant opportunities, and may have increased exposure to the volatility of spot markets.

NRG relies on storage, transportation assets and suppliers, which it does not own or control, to deliver natural gas.

The Company depends on natural gas pipelines and other transportation and storage facilities owned and operated by third parties to deliver natural gas to wholesale and retail markets and to provide retail energy services to customers. The Company's ability to provide natural gas for its present and projected customers will depend upon its suppliers' ability to obtain and deliver supplies of natural gas, as well as NRG's ability to acquire supplies directly from new sources. Factors beyond the control of the Company and its suppliers may affect the Company's ability to deliver such supplies. These factors include other parties' control over the drilling of new wells and the facilities to transport natural gas to the Company's receipt points, development of additional interstate pipeline infrastructure, availability of supply sources competition for the acquisition of natural gas, priority allocations, impact of severe weather disruptions to natural gas supplies and the regulatory and pricing policies of federal and state regulatory agencies, as well as the availability of Canadian reserves for export to the U.S. Energy deregulation legislation may increase competition among natural gas utilities and impact the quantities of natural gas requirements needed for sales service. If supply, transportation or storage is disrupted, including for reasons of force majeure, the ability of the Company to sell and deliver its products and services may be hindered. As a result, the Company may be responsible for damages incurred by its customers, such as the additional cost of acquiring alternative supply at then-current market rates. These conditions could have a material impact on the Company's financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Operation of power generation facilities involves significant risks and hazards customary to the power industry that could have a material adverse effect on NRG's revenues and results of operations, and NRG may not have adequate insurance to cover these risks and hazards.

The ongoing operation of NRG's facilities involves risks that include the breakdown or failure of equipment or processes, performance below expected levels of output or efficiency and the inability to transport the Company's products to its customers in an efficient manner due to a lack of transmission capacity. Unplanned outages of generating units, including extensions of scheduled outages due to mechanical failures or other problems occur from time to time and are an inherent risk of the Company's business. Unplanned outages typically increase the Company's operation and maintenance expenses and may reduce the Company's revenues as a result of selling fewer MWh or incurring non-performance penalties and/or require NRG to incur significant costs as a result of obtaining replacement power from third parties in the open market or running one of its higher cost units to satisfy the Company's forward power sales obligations. NRG's inability to operate the Company's plants efficiently, manage capital expenditures and costs, and generate earnings and cash flow from the Company's asset-based businesses could have a material adverse effect on the Company's results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.

In addition, NRG provides plant operations and commercial services to a variety of third parties. There is a risk that mistakes, mis-operations, or actions taken by these third parties could be attributed to NRG, including the risk of investigation or penalties being assessed to NRG in connection with the services it offers, or that regulators could question whether NRG had the appropriate safeguards in place.

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Power generation involves hazardous activities, including acquiring, transporting and unloading fuel, operating large pieces of rotating equipment and delivering electricity to transmission and distribution systems. In addition to natural risks such as earthquake, flood, lightning, hurricane and wind, other hazards, such as fire, explosion, structural collapse and machinery failure are inherent risks in the Company's operations. These and other hazards can cause significant personal injury or loss of life, severe damage to and destruction of property, plant and equipment, contamination of, or damage to, the environment and suspension of operations. The occurrence of any one of these events may result in NRG being named as a defendant in lawsuits asserting claims for substantial damages, including for environmental cleanup costs, personal injury and property damage and fines and/or penalties.

NRG maintains an amount of insurance protection that it considers adequate, obtains warranties from vendors and obligates contractors to meet certain performance levels, but the Company cannot provide any assurance that these measures will be sufficient or effective under all circumstances and against all hazards or liabilities to which it may be subject. A successful claim for which the Company is not adequately insured or protected could hurt its financial results and materially harm NRG's financial condition. NRG cannot provide any assurance that its insurance coverage will continue to be available at all or at rates or on terms similar to those presently available. Any losses not covered by insurance could have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

Supplier and/or customer concentration may expose the Company to significant financial credit or performance risks.

NRG often relies on a single contracted supplier or a small number of suppliers for the provision and transportation of fuel, chemicals and other services required for the operation of certain of its facilities. If these suppliers cannot perform these services, the Company utilizes the marketplace. There can be no assurance that the marketplace can provide these services as, when and where required or at comparable prices.

The Company may also hedge a portion of its exposure to power and fuel price fluctuations through various physical or financial agreements with counterparties. Counterparties to these agreements may breach or may be unable to perform their obligations, and in case of renewable generation, such counterparties may be subject to additional risks, such as facility development and transmission risks, unfavorable weather and atmospheric conditions, and mechanical or operational failures. NRG may not be able to enter into replacement agreements on terms as favorable as its existing agreements, or at all. If the Company is unable to enter into replacement purchase agreements or other replacement hedging agreements, the Company would be exposed to market price volatility and the risk that fuel and transportation may not be available during certain periods at any price.

The failure of any supplier or customer to fulfill its contractual obligations to NRG could have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial results. Consequently, the financial performance of the Company's facilities is dependent on the credit quality of, and continued performance by, suppliers and customers.

Maintenance, expansion and refurbishment of power generation facilities involve significant risks that could result in unplanned power outages or reduced output and could have a material adverse effect on NRG's results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

NRG's facilities require periodic maintenance and repair. Any unexpected failure, including failure associated with breakdowns, forced outages or any unanticipated capital expenditures could result in reduced profitability.

NRG cannot be certain of the level of capital expenditures that will be required due to changing environmental and safety laws (including changes in the interpretation or enforcement thereof), needed facility repairs and unexpected events (such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks). The unexpected requirement of large capital expenditures could have a material adverse effect on the Company's liquidity and financial condition.

NRG and its subsidiaries have guaranteed the performance of third parties, which may result in substantial costs in the event of non-performance.

NRG and its subsidiaries have issued certain guarantees of the performance of others, which obligate NRG and its subsidiaries to perform in the event that the third parties do not perform. In the event of non-performance by the third parties, NRG could incur substantial cost to fulfill their obligations under these guarantees. Such performance guarantees could have a material impact on the operating results, financial condition, or cash flows of the Company.

NRG relies on power transmission and distribution facilities that it does not own or control and that are subject to transmission constraints within a number of the Company's core regions.

NRG depends on transmission and distribution facilities owned and operated by others to deliver power to its customers. If transmission or distribution is disrupted, including by force majeure events, or if the transmission or distribution infrastructure is inadequate, NRG's ability to deliver power may be adversely impacted. The Company also cannot predict whether transmission or distribution facilities will be expanded in specific markets to accommodate competitive access to those markets.

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In addition, in certain of the markets in which NRG operates, energy transmission congestion may occur and the Company may be deemed responsible for congestion costs associated with power sales or purchases, or retail sales, particularly where the Company’s load is not co-located with its retail sales obligations. If NRG were liable for such congestion costs, the Company's financial results could be adversely affected.

Rates and terms for service of certain residential and commercial customers in Alberta are subject to regulatory review and approval.

The Company owns Direct Energy Regulated Services, which serves as a regulated rate supplier for residential and commercial energy customers in portions of the province of Alberta. It is required to engage in regulatory approval proceedings as a part of the process of establishing the terms and rates for sales of power and natural gas. These proceedings typically involve multiple parties, including governmental bodies and officials, consumer advocacy groups and various consumers of energy, who have differing concerns but also have the common objective of limiting rate increases or even reducing rates. Decisions are subject to appeal, potentially leading to additional uncertainty associated with the approval proceedings. The potential duration of such proceedings creates a risk that rates ultimately approved by the applicable regulatory body may not be sufficient for the Company to recover its costs by the time the rates become effective. Established rates are also subject to subsequent reviews by regulators, whereby various portions of rates could be adjusted, subject to refund or disallowed. In certain instances, the Company could agree to negotiated settlements related to various rate matters and other cost recovery elements. These settlements are subject to regulatory approval. The ultimate outcome and timing of regulatory rate proceedings have a significant effect on the Company to recover its costs or earn an adequate return. In addition, subsequent legislative or regulatory action could alter the terms on which the regulated business operates and future earnings could be negatively impacted. The Company also operates a competitive energy supply business in Alberta that is not subject to rate regulation and is subject to stringent requirements to segregate operations and information relating to the competitive business from the regulated business. Failure to comply with these and other requirements on the business could subject the Company's regulated and competitive businesses in Alberta to fines, penalties, and restrictions on the ability to continue business.

Because NRG owns less than a majority of the ownership interests of some of its project investments, the Company cannot exercise complete control over their operations.

NRG has limited control over the operation of some project investments and joint ventures because the Company's investments are in projects where it beneficially owns less than a majority of the ownership interests. NRG seeks to exert a degree of influence with respect to the management and operation of projects in which it owns less than a majority of the ownership interests by negotiating to obtain positions on management committees or to receive certain limited governance rights, such as rights to veto significant actions. However, the Company may not always succeed in such negotiations. NRG may be dependent on its co-venturers to operate such projects. The Company's co-venturers may not have the level of experience, technical expertise, human resources management or other attributes necessary to operate these projects optimally. The approval of co-venturers also may be required for NRG to receive distributions of funds from projects or to transfer the Company's interest in projects.

NRG may be unable to integrate the operations of acquired entities in the manner expected.

NRG enters into acquisitions that result in various benefits, including, among other things, cost savings and operating efficiencies. Achieving the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions depends on whether the businesses can be integrated into NRG in an efficient and effective manner. The integration process could take longer than anticipated and could result in the loss of valuable employees, the disruption of NRG's businesses, processes and systems or inconsistencies in standards, controls, procedures, practices, policies and compensation arrangements, any of which could divert the attention of management and adversely affect the Company's ability to achieve the anticipated benefits of the acquisitions. NRG may have difficulty addressing possible differences in corporate cultures and management philosophies. Failure to achieve these anticipated benefits could result in increased costs or decreases in the amount of expected revenues and could adversely affect NRG's future business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.

Future acquisition or disposition activities could involve unknown risks and may have materially adverse effects and NRG may be subject to trailing liabilities from businesses that it disposes of or that are inactive.

NRG may in the future acquire or dispose of businesses or assets, acquire or sell books of retail customers, or pursue other business activities, directly or indirectly through subsidiaries, that involve a number of risks. The acquisition of companies and assets is subject to substantial risks, including the failure to identify material problems during due diligence, the risk of over-paying for assets or customers, the inability to retain customers and the inability to arrange financing for an acquisition as may be required or desired. Further, the integration and consolidation of acquisitions requires substantial human, financial and other resources and, ultimately, the Company's acquisitions may not be successfully integrated. In the case of dispositions, such risks may relate to employment matters, counterparties, regulators and other stakeholders in the disposed business, the separation of disposed assets from NRG’s business, the management of NRG’s ongoing business, and other financial, legal and operational

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matters related to such disposition, which may be unknown to NRG at the time. In addition, NRG may be subject to material trailing liabilities from disposed businesses. Any such risk may result in one or more costly disputes or litigation. There can be no assurances that any future acquisitions will perform as expected or that the returns from such acquisitions will support the indebtedness incurred to acquire them or the capital expenditures needed to develop them. There can also be no assurances that NRG will realize the anticipated benefits from any such dispositions. The failure to realize the anticipated returns or benefits from an acquisition or disposition could adversely affect NRG's results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

The operation of the Company's businesses is subject to advanced persistent cyber-based security threats and integrity risk. Attacks on NRG's infrastructure that breach cyber/data security measures could expose the Company to significant liabilities, reputational damage, regulatory action, and disrupt business operations, which could have a material adverse effect.

Numerous functions affecting the efficient operation of NRG’s businesses depend on the secure and reliable storage, processing and communication of electronic data and the use of sophisticated computer hardware and software systems, much of which is connected (directly or indirectly) to the internet. As a result, NRG's information technology systems and infrastructure, and those of its vendors and suppliers, are susceptible to cyber-based security threats which could compromise confidentiality, integrity or availability. While the Company has controls in place designed to protect its infrastructure, such breaches and threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex, requiring continuing evolution of its program. Any such breach, disruption or similar event that impairs NRG's information technology infrastructure could disrupt normal business operations and affect the Company's ability to control its generation assets, maintain confidentiality, availability and integrity of restricted data, access retail customer information and limit communication with third parties, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company.

As part of the continuing development of new and modified reliability standards, the FERC has approved changes to its Critical Infrastructure Protection reliability standards and has established standards for assets identified as "critical cyber assets." Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the FERC can impose penalties (up to $1 million per day, per violation) for failure to comply with mandatory electric reliability standards, including standards to protect the power system against potential disruptions from cyber/data and physical security breaches.

Further, the Company's retail business requires accessing, collecting, storing and transmitting sensitive customer data in the ordinary course of business. Concerns about data privacy have led to increased regulation and other actions that could impact NRG's businesses and changes in data privacy and data protection laws and regulations or any failure to comply with such laws and regulations could adversely affect the Company's business and financial results. NRG's retail business may need to provide sensitive customer data to vendors and service providers who require access to this information in order to provide services, such as call center operations, to the retail business.

Although the Company takes precautions to protect its infrastructure, it has been, and will likely continue to be, subject to attempts at phishing and other cybersecurity intrusions. International conflict increases the risk of state-sponsored cyber threats and escalated use of cybercriminal and cyber-espionage activities. In particular, the current geopolitical climate has further escalated cybersecurity risk, with various government agencies, including the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, issuing warnings of increased cyber threats, particularly for U.S. critical infrastructure. While the Company has not experienced a cyber/data event causing any material operational, reputational or financial impact, it recognizes the growing threat within the general marketplace and the industry, and there is no assurance that NRG will be able to prevent any such impacts in the future. If a material breach of the Company's information technology systems were to occur, the critical operational capabilities and reputation of its business may be adversely affected, customer confidence may be diminished, and NRG may be subject to substantial legal or regulatory scrutiny and claims, any of which may contribute to potential legal or regulatory actions against the Company, loss of customers and otherwise have a material adverse effect. Any loss or disruption of critical operational capabilities to support the Company's generation, commercial or retail operations, loss of customers, or loss of confidential or proprietary data through a breach, unauthorized access, disruption, misuse or disclosure could adversely affect NRG's reputation, expose the Company to material legal or regulatory claims and impair the Company's ability to execute its business strategy, which could have a material adverse effect. In addition, NRG may experience increased capital and operating costs to implement increased security for its information technology infrastructure. NRG cannot provide any assurance that such events and impacts will not be material in the future, and the Company's efforts to deter, identify and mitigate future breaches may require additional significant capital and may not be successful.

Negative publicity may damage NRG's reputation or its brands.

NRG’s reputation and brands could be damaged for numerous reasons, including negative views of the Company’s environmental impact, sustainability goals, supply chain practices, product and service offerings, sponsorship relationships, charitable giving programs and public statements made by Company officials. The Company may also experience criticism or backlash from media, customers, employees, government entities, advocacy groups and other stakeholders that disagree with positions taken by the Company or its executives. If the Company’s brands or reputation are damaged, it could negatively

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impact the Company’s business, financial condition, results of operations, and ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees.

Risks that are beyond NRG's control, including but not limited to acts of terrorism or related acts of war, natural disaster or other catastrophic events could have a material adverse effect on NRG's financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

NRG's generation facilities and the facilities of third parties on which they rely may be targets of terrorist activities, as well as events occurring in response to or in connection with such activities, all of which could cause environmental repercussions and/or result in full or partial disruption of the facilities ability to generate, transmit, transport or distribute electricity or natural gas. Strategic targets, such as energy-related facilities, may be at greater risk of future terrorist activities than other domestic targets. Any such environmental repercussions or disruption could result in a significant decrease in revenues or significant reconstruction or remediation costs beyond what could be recovered through insurance policies, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. In addition, significant weather events or terrorist actions could damage or shut down the power or gas transmission and distribution facilities upon which the Company is dependent, which may reduce retail volume for extended periods of time. Power or gas supply may be sold at a loss if these events cause a significant loss of retail customer demand.

The Company has made investments, and may continue to make investments, in new business initiatives predominantly focused on consumer products and in markets that may not be successful, may not achieve the intended financial results or may result in product liability and reputational risk that could adversely affect the Company.

NRG continues to pursue growth in its existing businesses and markets and further diversification across the competitive energy value chain. Such initiatives may involve significant risks and uncertainties, including distraction of management from current operations, inadequate return on capital, and unidentified issues not discovered in the diligence performed prior to launching an initiative or entering a market.

As part of these initiatives, the Company may be liable to customers for any damage caused to customers’ homes, facilities, belongings or property during the installation of Company products and systems, such as home back-up generators and residential HVAC system repairs, installation and replacements. Where such work is performed by independent contractors, such as repairs performed under the Company's home warranty and protection plan products, the Company may nonetheless face claims and costs for damage. In addition, shortages of skilled labor for Company projects could significantly delay a project or otherwise increase its costs. The products that the Company sells or manufactures may expose the Company to product liability claims relating to personal injury, death, or environmental or property damage, and may require product recalls or other actions. Although the Company maintains liability insurance, the Company cannot be certain that its coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to the Company on economically reasonable terms, or at all. Further, any product liability claim or damage caused by the Company could significantly impair the Company’s brand and reputation, which may result in a failure to maintain customers and achieve the Company’s desired growth initiatives in these new businesses.

Changes in technology may impair the value of NRG's power plants and the attractiveness of its retail products, and the Company may potentially be affected by emerging technologies that may over time affect change in capacity markets and the energy industry overall with the inclusion of distributed generation and clean technology.

Research and development activities are ongoing in the industry to provide alternative and more efficient technologies to produce power, including wind, photovoltaic (solar) cells, hydrogen, energy storage, and improvements in traditional technologies and equipment, such as more efficient gas turbines. Advances in these or other technologies could reduce the costs of power production to a level below what the Company has currently forecasted, which could adversely affect its cash flows, results of operations or competitive position. Technology, including distributed technology or changes in retail rate structures, may also have a material impact on the Company’s ability to retain retail customers.

Some emerging technologies, such as distributed renewable energy technologies, broad consumer adoption of electric vehicles and energy storage devices, could affect the price of energy. These emerging technologies may affect the financial viability of utility counterparties and could have significant impacts on wholesale market prices, which could ultimately have a material adverse effect on NRG's financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

NRG's business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted by strikes or work stoppages by its unionized employees or inability to replace employees as they retire.

As of December 31, 2022, approximately 12% of NRG's employees were covered by collective bargaining agreements. In the event that the Company's union employees strike, participate in a work stoppage or slowdown or engage in other forms of labor strife or disruption, NRG would be responsible for procuring replacement labor or the Company could experience reduced power generation or outages. Although NRG's ability to procure such labor is uncertain, contingency staffing planning is completed as part of each respective contract negotiation. Strikes, work stoppages or the inability to negotiate future collective

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bargaining agreements on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. In addition, a number of the Company's employees at NRG's plants are close to retirement. The Company's inability to replace retiring workers could create potential knowledge and expertise gaps as such workers retire.

Risks Related to Governmental Regulation and Laws

NRG's business is subject to substantial energy regulation and may be adversely affected by legislative or regulatory changes, as well as liability under, or any future inability to comply with, existing or future energy regulations or requirements.

NRG's business is subject to extensive U.S. federal, state and local laws and foreign laws. Compliance with, or changes to, the requirements under these legal regimes may cause the Company to incur significant additional costs, reduce the Company's ability to hedge exposure or to sell retail power within certain states or to certain classes of retail customers, or restrict the Company’s marketing practices, its ability to pass through costs to retail customers, or its ability to compete on favorable terms with competitors, including the incumbent utility. Retail competition and home warranty services are regulated on a state-by-state or at the province-by-province level and are highly dependent on state and provincial laws, regulations and policies, which could change at any moment. Failure to comply with such requirements could result in the shutdown of a non-complying facility, the imposition of liens, fines, and/or civil or criminal liability.

Public utilities under the FPA are required to obtain FERC acceptance of their rate schedules for wholesale sales of electricity. Except for ERCOT generation facilities and power marketers, all of NRG's non-qualifying facility generating companies and power marketing affiliates in the U.S. make sales of electricity in interstate commerce and are public utilities for purposes of the FPA. FERC has granted each of NRG's generating and power marketing companies that make sales of electricity outside of ERCOT the authority to sell electricity at market-based rates. FERC's orders that grant NRG's generating and power marketing companies market-based rate authority reserve the right to revoke or revise that authority if FERC subsequently determines that NRG can exercise market power in transmission or generation, create barriers to entry, or engage in abusive affiliate transactions. In addition, NRG's market-based sales are subject to certain market behavior rules, and if any of NRG's generating and power marketing companies were deemed to have violated those rules, they are subject to potential disgorgement of profits associated with the violation and/or suspension or revocation of their market-based rate authority. If NRG's generating and power marketing companies were to lose their market-based rate authority, such companies would be required to obtain FERC's acceptance of a cost-of-service rate schedule and could become subject to the accounting, record-keeping, and reporting requirements that are imposed on utilities with cost-based rate schedules. This could have a material adverse effect on the rates NRG charges for power from its facilities.

Substantially all of the Company's generation assets are also subject to the reliability standards promulgated by the designated Electric Reliability Organization (currently NERC) and approved by FERC. If NRG fails to comply with the mandatory reliability standards, NRG could be subject to sanctions, including substantial monetary penalties and increased compliance obligations. NRG is also affected by legislative and regulatory changes, as well as changes to market design, market rules, tariffs, cost allocations, and bidding rules that occur in the existing ISOs. The ISOs that oversee most of the wholesale power markets impose, and in the future may continue to impose, mitigation, including price limitations, offer caps, non-performance penalties and other mechanisms to address some of the volatility and the potential exercise of market power in these markets. These types of price limitations and other regulatory mechanisms may have a material adverse effect on the profitability of NRG's generation facilities that sell energy and capacity into the wholesale power markets.

The regulatory environment is subject to significant changes due to state and federal policies affecting wholesale and retail competition and the creation of incentives for the addition of large amounts of new renewable generation and, in some cases, transmission. These changes are ongoing, and the Company cannot predict the future design of the wholesale power markets or the ultimate effect that the changing regulatory environment will have on NRG's business. In addition, in some of these markets, interested parties have proposed material market design changes. If competitive restructuring of the electric power markets is reversed, discontinued, or delayed, the Company's business prospects and financial results could be negatively impacted. In addition, there have been a number of reforms to the regulation of the derivatives markets, both in the United States and internationally. These regulations, and any further changes thereto, or adoption of additional regulations, including any regulations relating to position limits on futures and other derivatives or margin for derivatives, could negatively impact NRG’s ability to hedge its portfolio in an efficient, cost-effective manner by, among other things, potentially decreasing liquidity in the forward commodity and derivatives markets or limiting NRG’s ability to utilize non-cash collateral for derivatives transactions.

NRG’s business may be affected by interference in the competitive wholesale marketplace.

NRG’s generation and competitive retail operations rely on a competitive wholesale marketplace. The competitive wholesale marketplace may be impacted by out-of-market subsidies, including bailouts of uneconomic nuclear plants, imports of power from Canada, renewable mandates or subsidies, mandates to sell power below its cost of acquisition and associated costs as well as out-of-market payments to new or existing generators. These out-of-market subsidies to existing or new

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generation undermine the competitive wholesale marketplace, which can lead to premature retirement of existing facilities, including those owned by the Company. If these measures continue, capacity and energy prices may be suppressed, and the Company may not be successful in its efforts to insulate the competitive market from this interference. The Company's retail operations may be materially impacted by rules or regulations that allow regulated utilities to participate in competitive retail markets or own and operate facilities that could be provided by competitive market participants.

Additions or changes in tax laws and regulations could potentially affect the Company’s financial results or liquidity.

NRG is subject to various types of tax arising from normal business operations in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates. Any additions or changes to tax legislation, or their interpretation and application, including those with retroactive effect, could have a material adverse effect on NRG’s financial condition and results of operations, including income tax provision and accruals reflected in the consolidated financial statements. The Inflation Reduction Act, enacted on August 16, 2022, includes the implementation of a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax (“CAMT”) effective in 2023. The CAMT may lead to volatility in the Company’s cash tax payment obligations, particularly in periods of significant commodity or currency variability resulting from potential changes in the fair value of derivative instruments. There remains unanswered questions on how the operative rules for CAMT will be implemented and interpreted. The Company continuously monitors and assesses proposed tax legislation that could negatively impact its business.

The integration of the Capacity Performance product into the PJM market could lead to substantial changes in capacity income and non-performance penalties, which could have a material adverse effect on NRG’s results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

PJM operates a pay-for-performance model where capacity payments are modified based on real-time generator performance. Capacity market prices are sensitive to design parameters, as well as additions of new capacity. NRG may experience substantial changes in capacity income and incur non-performance penalties, which could have a material adverse effect on NRG’s results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

NRG's ownership interest in a nuclear power facility subjects the Company to regulations, costs and liabilities uniquely associated with these types of facilities.

Under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended ("AEA"), ownership and operation of STP, of which NRG indirectly owns a 44% interest, is subject to regulation by the NRC. Such regulation includes licensing, inspection, enforcement, testing, evaluation and modification of all aspects of nuclear reactor power plant design and operation, environmental and safety performance, technical and financial qualifications, decommissioning funding assurance and transfer and foreign ownership restrictions. The current facility operating licenses for STP expire on August 20, 2047 (Unit 1) and December 15, 2048 (Unit 2).

There are unique risks to owning and operating a nuclear power facility. These include liabilities related to the handling, treatment, storage, disposal, transport, release and use of radioactive materials, particularly with respect to spent nuclear fuel, and uncertainties regarding the ultimate, and potential exposure to, technical and financial risks associated with modifying or decommissioning a nuclear facility. The NRC could require the shutdown of the plant for safety reasons or refuse to permit restart of the unit after unplanned or planned outages. New or amended NRC safety and regulatory requirements may give rise to additional operation and maintenance costs and capital expenditures. Additionally, aging equipment may require more capital expenditures to keep each of these nuclear power plants operating efficiently. This equipment is also likely to require periodic upgrading and improvement. Any unexpected failure, including failure associated with breakdowns, forced outages, or any unanticipated capital expenditures, could result in reduced profitability. STP will be obligated to continue storing spent nuclear fuel if the U.S. DOE continues to fail to meet its contractual obligations to STP made pursuant to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to accept and dispose of STP's spent nuclear fuel. Costs associated with these risks could be substantial and could have a material adverse effect on NRG's results of operations, financial condition or cash flow to the extent not covered by the Decommissioning Trusts or recovered from ratepayers. In addition, to the extent that all or a part of STP is required by the NRC to permanently or temporarily shut down or modify its operations, or is otherwise subject to a forced outage, NRG may incur additional costs to the extent it is obligated to provide power from more expensive alternative sources — either NRG's own plants, third-party generators or the ERCOT — to cover the Company's then existing forward sale obligations. Such shutdown or modification could also lead to substantial costs related to the storage and disposal of radioactive materials and spent nuclear fuel.

While STP maintains property and liability insurance for losses related to nuclear operations, there may be limitations on the amounts and types of insurance commercially available. See also Item 15 — Note 23, Commitments and Contingencies, Nuclear Insurance. An accident at STP or another nuclear facility could have a material adverse effect on NRG's financial condition, its operational results, reputation, or liquidity as losses may exceed the insurance coverage available and/or may result in the obligation to pay retrospective premium obligations.

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NRG is subject to environmental laws that impose extensive and increasingly stringent requirements on the Company's ongoing operations, as well as potentially substantial liabilities arising out of environmental contamination. These environmental requirements and liabilities could adversely impact NRG's results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

NRG is subject to the environmental laws of foreign and U.S., federal, state and local authorities. The Company must comply with numerous environmental laws and obtain numerous governmental permits and approvals to build and operate the Company's plants. Federal and state environmental laws generally have become more stringent over time. Should NRG fail to comply with any environmental requirements that apply to its operations, the Company could be subject to administrative, civil and/or criminal liability and fines, and regulatory agencies could take other actions seeking to curtail the Company's operations. In addition, when new requirements take effect or when existing environmental requirements are revised, reinterpreted or subject to changing enforcement policies, NRG's business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows could be adversely affected.

NRG's businesses are subject to physical, market and economic risks relating to potential effects of climate change, and policies at the national, regional and state levels to regulate GHG emissions and mitigate climate change which could adversely impact NRG's results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

Fluctuations in weather and other environmental conditions, including temperature and precipitation levels, may affect consumer demand for electricity or natural gas. In addition, the potential physical effects of climate change, such as increased frequency and severity of storms, floods and other climatic events, could disrupt NRG's operations and supply chain, and cause it to incur significant costs in preparing for or responding to these effects. These or other changes in climate could lead to increased operating costs or capital expenses. NRG's customers may also experience the potential physical impacts of climate change and may incur significant costs in preparing for or responding to these efforts, including changing the fuel mix and resiliency of their energy solutions and supply.

Hazards customary to the power production industry include the potential for unusual weather conditions, which could affect fuel pricing and availability, the Company's route to market or access to customers, i.e., transmission and distribution lines, transportation and delivery, or critical plant assets. The contribution of climate change to the frequency or intensity of weather-related events could affect NRG's operations and planning process.

Climate change could also affect the availability of a secure and economical supply of water in some locations, which is essential for the continued operation of NRG's generation plants. NRG monitors water supply risk carefully. If it is determined that a water supply risk exists that could impact projected generation levels at any plant, risk mitigation efforts are identified and evaluated for implementation.

Further, demand for NRG's energy-related services could be similarly impacted by consumers’ preferences or market or regulatory factors favoring energy efficiency, lower carbon energy sources or reduced electricity or natural gas usage.

NRG's GHG emissions reduction targets can be found in Item 1, Business —Environmental Regulatory Matters. The Company's ability to achieve these targets depends on many factors, including the ability to retire high emitting assets, ability to reduce emissions based on technological advances and innovation, and ability to source energy from less carbon intense resources. In addition, any future decarbonization efforts may increase costs, or NRG may otherwise be limited in its ability to apply them. The cost associated with NRG's GHG emissions reduction goals could be significant. Failure to achieve the Company's emissions targets could result in a negative impact on access to and cost of capital, changing investor sentiment regarding investment in the Company or reputation harm.

Enhanced data privacy and data protection laws and regulations or any non-compliance with such laws and regulations, could adversely affect NRG’s business and financial results.

The consumer privacy landscape continues to experience momentum for greater privacy protection and reform at the state and federal level in response to precedents set forth by the General Data Protection Regulation (the "GDPR") and the California Consumer Privacy Act (the "CCPA"). The development and evolving nature of domestic and international privacy regulation and enforcement could impact and potentially limit how NRG processes personally identifiable information. Beginning January 1, 2023, California residents have increased access rights (including the right to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information), which are enforced by a new state privacy regulator, resulting in more scrutiny of business practices and disclosures. Additional states including Virginia, Utah, Connecticut, Colorado, and Nevada have similarly adopted enhanced data privacy legislation effective in 2023 and patterned after the standards set forth by CCPA, including broader data access rights, with Virginia going a step further requiring businesses to perform data protection assessments for certain processing activities.

As new laws and regulations are created, requiring businesses to implement processes to enable customer access to their data and enhanced data protection and management standards, NRG cannot forecast the impact that they may have on the Company’s business. Any non-compliance with laws may result in proceedings or actions against the Company by

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governmental entities or individuals. Moreover, any inquiries or investigations, government penalties or sanctions, or civil actions by individuals may be costly to comply with, resulting in negative publicity, increased operating costs, significant management time and attention, and may lead to remedies that harm the business, including fines, demands or orders that existing business practices be modified or terminated.

NRG's retail operations are subject to changing rules and regulations that could have a material impact on the Company's profitability.

The competitiveness of NRG's retail operations partially depends on regulatory policies that establish the structure, rules, terms and conditions on which services are offered to retail customers. These policies can include, among other things, controls on the retail rates that NRG can charge, the imposition of additional costs on sales, restrictions on the Company's ability to obtain new customers through various marketing channels and disclosure requirements. The Company's retail operations may be materially impacted by rules or regulations that allow regulated utilities to participate in competitive retail markets or own and operate facilities that could be provided by competitive market participants. Additionally, state, federal or provincial imposition of net metering or RPS programs can make it more or less expensive for retail customers to supplement or replace their reliance on grid power.

The Company's international operations are exposed to political and economic risks, commercial instability and events beyond the Company's control in the countries in which it operates, which risks may negatively impact the Company's business.

The Company's international operations depend on products manufactured, purchased and sold in the U.S. and internationally. In some cases, these countries have greater political and economic volatility and greater vulnerability to infrastructure and labor disruptions than in NRG's other markets. Operating a business in a number of different regions and countries exposes the Company to a number of risks, including: multiple and potentially conflicting laws, regulations and policies that are subject to change, imposition of currency restrictions on repatriation of earnings or other restraints, imposition of burdensome tariffs or quotas, national and international conflict, including terrorist acts and political and economic instability or civil unrest that may severely disrupt economic activity in affected countries.

The occurrence of one or more of these events may negatively impact the Company's business, results of operations and financial condition.

Risks Related to the Economic and Financial Market Conditions, and the Company's Indebtedness

NRG's level of indebtedness could adversely affect its ability to raise additional capital to fund its operations or return capital to stockholders. It could also expose it to the risk of increased interest rates and limit its ability to react to changes in the economy or its industry.

NRG's substantial debt could have negative consequences, including:

•increasing NRG's vulnerability to general economic and industry conditions;

•requiring a substantial portion of NRG's cash flow from operations to be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on its indebtedness, therefore reducing NRG's ability to pay dividends or to use its cash flow to fund its operations, capital expenditures and future business opportunities;

•limiting NRG's ability to enter into long-term power sales or fuel purchases which require credit support;

•limiting NRG's ability to obtain additional financing for working capital including collateral postings, capital expenditures, debt service requirements, acquisitions and general corporate or other purposes;

•limiting NRG's ability to adjust to changing market conditions and placing it at a competitive disadvantage compared to its competitors who have less debt; and

•exposing NRG to the risk of increased interest rates because certain of its borrowings are at variable rates of interest, primarily through its Revolving Credit Facility.

The Company’s credit documents contain financial and other restrictive covenants that may limit the Company's ability to return capital to stockholders or otherwise engage in activities that may be in its long-term best interests. NRG's failure to comply with those covenants could result in an event of default which, if not cured or waived, could result in the acceleration of all of the Company's indebtedness. The Company's corporate credit agreement includes a sustainability-linked metric and sustainability-linked bonds, which could result in increased interest expense to the Company if the sustainability metrics set forth therein are not met. Furthermore, financial and other restrictive covenants contained in any project level subsidiary debt may limit the ability of NRG to receive distributions from such subsidiary.

In addition, NRG's ability to arrange financing, either at the corporate level, a non-recourse project-level subsidiary or otherwise, and the costs of such capital, are dependent on numerous factors, including: general economic and capital market conditions; credit availability from banks and other financial institutions; investor confidence in NRG, its partners and the

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regional wholesale power markets; NRG's financial performance and the financial performance of its subsidiaries; NRG's level of indebtedness and compliance with covenants in debt agreements; maintenance of acceptable credit ratings; cash flow; and provisions of tax and securities laws that may impact raising capital.

NRG may not be successful in obtaining additional capital for these or other reasons. The failure to obtain additional capital from time to time may have a material adverse effect on its business and operations.

Adverse economic conditions could adversely affect NRG’s business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Adverse economic conditions, including inflation, and declines in wholesale energy prices, partially resulting from adverse economic conditions, may impact NRG's results of operations. The breadth and depth of negative economic conditions may have a wide-ranging impact on the U.S. business environment. In addition, adverse economic conditions also reduce the demand for energy commodities. Reduced demand from negative economic conditions continues to impact the key domestic wholesale energy markets NRG serves. In general, economic and commodity market conditions will continue to impact NRG’s unhedged future energy margins, liquidity, earnings growth and overall financial condition. In addition, adverse economic conditions, declines in wholesale energy prices, reduced demand for energy and other factors may negatively impact the trading price of NRG’s common stock and impact forecasted cash flows, which may require NRG to evaluate its goodwill and other long-lived assets for impairment. Any such impairment could have a material impact on NRG’s financial condition.

Goodwill and other intangible assets that NRG has recorded in connection with its acquisitions are subject to impairment evaluations and, as a result, the Company could be required to write off some or all of this goodwill and other intangible assets, which may adversely affect the Company's financial condition and results of operations.

Goodwill is not amortized but is reviewed annually or more frequently for impairment. Other intangibles are also reviewed at least annually or more frequently, if certain conditions exist, and are amortized. Any reduction in or impairment of the value of goodwill or other intangible assets will result in a charge against earnings, which could materially adversely affect NRG's reported results of operations and financial position in future periods.

Risks Related to Public Health Threats

Public health threats or outbreaks of communicable diseases could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s operations and financial results.

The Company may face risks related to public health threats or outbreaks of communicable diseases. A widespread healthcare crisis, such as an outbreak of a communicable disease, could adversely affect the global economy and the Company’s ability to conduct its business for an indefinite period of time. For example, the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted local and global economies, disrupted financial markets and international trade, resulted in increased unemployment levels and impacted local and global supply chains, all of which also negatively impacted the electricity industry and the Company’s business. Federal, state, and local governments have implemented, and may continue to implement, various mitigation measures, including travel restrictions, border closings, restrictions on public gatherings, shelter-in-place orders and limitations on business activities. Although the operations of the Company are considered an essential service, some of these measures may adversely impact the ability of NRG employees, contractors, suppliers, customers, and other business partners to conduct business activities. This could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations, financial condition, risk exposure and liquidity.

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CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This Annual Report on Form 10-K of NRG Energy, Inc., or NRG or the Company, includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or Exchange Act. The words "believes," "projects," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "intends," "estimates," "should," "forecasts," "plans" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause NRG's actual results, performance and achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors, risks and uncertainties include the factors described under Item 1A — Risk Factors and the following:

•Business uncertainties related to the acquisition of Vivint;

•NRG's ability to obtain and maintain retail market share;

•General economic conditions, changes in the wholesale power and gas markets and fluctuations in the cost of fuel;

•Volatile power and gas supply costs and demand for power and gas;

•Changes in law, including judicial and regulatory decisions;

•Hazards customary to the power production industry and power generation operations, such as fuel and electricity price volatility, unusual weather conditions, catastrophic weather-related or other damage to facilities, unscheduled generation outages, maintenance or repairs, unanticipated changes to fuel supply costs or availability due to higher demand, shortages, transportation problems or other developments, environmental incidents, or electric transmission or gas pipeline system constraints and the possibility that NRG may not have adequate insurance to cover losses as a result of such hazards;

•The effectiveness of NRG's risk management policies and procedures and the ability of NRG's counterparties to satisfy their financial commitments;

•NRG's ability to enter into contracts to sell power or gas and procure fuel on acceptable terms and prices;

•NRG's inability to estimate with any degree of certainty the future impact that COVID-19, any resurgence of COVID-19 or variants thereof, or other pandemic may have on NRG's results of operations, financial position, risk exposure and liquidity;

•NRG's ability to successfully integrate, realize cost savings and manage any acquired businesses;

•NRG's ability to engage in successful acquisitions and divestitures, as well as other mergers and acquisitions activity;

•Cyber terrorism and cybersecurity risks, data breaches or the occurrence of a catastrophic loss and the possibility that NRG may not have sufficient insurance to cover losses resulting from such hazards or the inability of NRG's insurers to provide coverage;

•Counterparties' collateral demands and other factors affecting NRG's liquidity position and financial condition;

•NRG's ability to operate its businesses efficiently and generate earnings and cash flows from its asset-based businesses in relation to its debt and other obligations;

•The liquidity and competitiveness of wholesale markets for energy commodities;

•Government regulation, including changes in market rules, rates, tariffs and environmental laws;

•NRG's ability to develop and innovate new products, as retail and wholesale markets continue to change and evolve;

•Price mitigation strategies and other market structures employed by ISOs or RTOs that result in a failure to adequately and fairly compensate NRG's generation units;

•NRG's ability to mitigate forced outage risk;

•NRG's ability to borrow funds and access capital markets, as well as NRG's substantial indebtedness and the possibility that NRG may incur additional indebtedness in the future;

•Operating and financial restrictions placed on NRG and its subsidiaries that are contained in NRG's corporate credit agreements, and in debt and other agreements of certain of NRG subsidiaries and project affiliates generally;

•The ability of NRG and its counterparties to develop and build new power generation facilities;

•NRG's ability to implement its strategy of finding ways to meet the challenges of climate change, clean air and protecting natural resources, while taking advantage of business opportunities;

•NRG's ability to increase cash from operations through operational and market initiatives, corporate efficiencies, asset strategy, and a range of other programs throughout NRG to reduce costs or generate revenues;

•NRG's ability to successfully evaluate investments and achieve intended financial results in new business and growth initiatives;

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•NRG's ability to develop and maintain successful partnering relationships as needed.

In addition, unlisted factors may present significant additional obstacles to the realization of forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made and NRG undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable laws. The foregoing factors that could cause NRG's actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in any forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K should not be construed as exhaustive.

Item 1B — Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

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Item 2 — Properties

Listed below are descriptions of NRG's interests in facilities, operations and/or projects owned or leased as of December 31, 2022. The rated MW capacity figures provided represent nominal summer MW capacity of power generated. Net MW capacity is adjusted for the Company's owned or leased interest as of December 31, 2022. The Company believes its existing facilities, operations and/or projects are suitable for the conduct of its business. The following table summarizes NRG's power production and cogeneration facilities by region:

Name of Facility	Power Market	Plant Type	Primary Fuel	Location	Rated MW Capacity(a)	Net MW Capacity(b)	% Owned
Texas
Cedar Bayou	ERCOT	Fossil	Natural Gas	TX	1,494	1,494	100.0
Cedar Bayou 4	ERCOT	Fossil	Natural Gas	TX	504	252	50.0