Npower (United Kingdom)

npower Business Solutions is a British supplier of gas and electricity to large businesses. It has been a subsidiary of E.ON UK since January 2019. The company was formerly known as Innogy plc and was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

In March 2002, it was acquired by RWE of Germany, and was subsequently renamed RWE npower plc. RWE split off its renewable energy, network and retail divisions as Innogy SE in April 2016, and Npower transferred to the new business. It is considered one of the Big Six energy suppliers, which dominate the gas and electricity market in the United Kingdom.

E.ON transferred npower's residential customers to a new brand, E.ON Next, in 2021. Since then, the npower brand has only been active within the commercial energy space, marketed as npower Business Solutions, a brand of Npower Commercial Gas Limited. The npower Business Solutions brand still supplies over 20,000 businesses, including customers previously supplied by E.ON who have been migrated.

The company was established as the consumer division of Innogy plc from the operations of National Power, when the overseas operations were demerged as International Power plc in October 2000.

Innogy plc then went on to purchase the regional electricity company Yorkshire Electricity in February 2001. It later disposed of the distribution side of Yorkshire Electricity to CE Electric UK in exchange for the supply business of Northern Electric. Innogy plc was taken over by the German energy company RWE in March 2002, and renamed RWE Npower plc with all the supply business adopting the "npower" brand.

In February 2006, Npower acquired 19% of Telecom Plus, a business which now provides Npower with management services, such as billing, customer service, metering, debt collection and administration: under the deal Npower can increase its stake in Telecom Plus up to 29%. In February 2009, Npower acquired Superior Plumbing, a business providing services to social housing and business customers across the United Kingdom.

In February 2009, Npower acquired SPI Group to add to its energy services business Npower Hometeam. SPI provides services to the social housing market and its commercial arm serves public buildings, including schools.

In November 2013, however, Npower sold the two former Telecom Plus subsidiaries back to Utility Warehouse for £218 million. As a result, Utility Warehouse became one of the largest independent energy suppliers in the United Kingdom. with over 500,000 customers and 770,000 gas and electricity supply points to their name.