NRG Energy Inc. will acquire Philadelphia-based retail natural gas and electricity provider Energy Plus Holdings LLC for $190 million in cash, the companies said Tuesday.

The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, is expected to close in October. The deal will add immediate scale to NRG’s expanding retail customer base in the Northeast, said CEO David Crane.

Energy Plus supplies natural gas services in New York and New Jersey through affiliate Energy Plus Natural Gas LP, and supplies electricity services to customers in seven competitive energy states — Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania — through subsidiary Independence Energy.

Crane recently said Princeton, NJ-based NRG would not buy any additional gas- or coal-fired facilities in the current overheated market (see Daily GPI, Aug. 8). NRG had been planning, with two Japanese partners, to build two nuclear units next to its existing South Texas Project nuclear complex but ended those plans following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the resulting Fukushima nuclear disaster (see Daily GPI, April 25).

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