NRG, Willis Partner on Innovative Agreement to Reduce Hurricane Risk Hedging Costs
Utility Holding Company Adopts Willis Hurricane-Load Protection (WHIP)
Princeton, NJ, and New York, NY, September 8, 2009 - NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG), a major US
electric generation and retail electricity provider, and Willis, the global insurance broker and risk advisor, announced
today that they have closed a ground-breaking index-based hedge.
The transaction is designed to offset the potential financial impact to NRG if a hurricane were to
affect its business in the Houston area. This innovative risk management vehicle, known as Willis Hurricane
Load-Protection, allowed NRG to lower hurricane risk hedging costs by embedding two additional energy variables into
the payout formula. Any payout would not require a prolonged claims handling process.
NRG and Willis partnered to access an unusually wide spectrum of markets: insurance, re-insurance, retrocession, banking, hedge
funds and OTC derivatives. The deal term is through October 2009. Other key terms and conditions
of the transaction are considered confidential.
About NRG
NRG Energy, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, owns and operates one of the country's largest and most
diverse power generation portfolios. Headquartered in Princeton, NJ, the Company's power plants provide more than 24,000
megawatts of generation capacity-enough to supply more than 20 million homes. NRG's retail business, Reliant Energy,
serves more than 1.6 million residential, business, commercial and industrial customers in Texas. A past recipient
of the energy industry's highest honors-Platts Industry Leadership and Energy Company of the Year awards, NRG
is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a group of business and environmental
organizations calling for mandatory legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More information is available at www.nrgenergy.com.
Safe Harbor Disclosure
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of
1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements are subject
to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions and include our expected earnings, future growth and financial performance,
and typically can be identified by the use of words such as "will," "expect," "estimate," "anticipate,"
"forecast," "plan," "believe" and similar terms. Although NRG believes that its expectations are reasonable, it can
give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct, and actual results may
vary materially. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated above include,
among others, general economic conditions, hazards customary in the power industry, weather conditions, competition in wholesale
power markets, the volatility of energy and fuel prices, failure of customers to perform under contracts,
changes in the wholesale power markets, changes in government regulation of markets and of environmental emissions,
the condition of capital markets generally, our ability to access capital markets, unanticipated outages at our
generation facilities, adverse results in current and future litigation, and the inability to implement value enhancing
improvements to plant operations and companywide processes.
NRG undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise. The foregoing review of factors that could cause NRG's actual results
to differ materially from those contemplated in the forward looking statements included in this news release
should be considered in connection with information regarding risks and uncertainties that may affect NRG's future
results included in NRG's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.
About Willis Group Holdings
Willis Group Holdings Limited (NYSE: WSH) is a leading global insurance broker, developing and delivering professional insurance,
reinsurance, risk management, financial and human resource consulting and actuarial services to corporations, public entities and
institutions around the world. Willis has more than 400 offices in nearly 120 countries, with a
global team of approximately 20,000 Associates serving clients in some 190 countries. Additional information on Willis
may be found at www.willis.com.