The corporate credit rating on NRG Energy Inc. is 'BB-'. The outlook is stable. The corporate credit rating on NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) reflects the company's fundamental exposure to volatile commodity markets balanced by a substantially hedged baseload fleet for the next few years. The hedges provide cash flow stability and has allowed NRG to weather the current merchant downturn better than other independent power producers. NRG's hedges, strong fleetwide operations, and the presence of Reliant Energy, the retail business of which is somewhat countercyclical to wholesale generation and which has performed strongly since its acquisition, combine to give the company a "fair" business risk profile. We expect NRG to be free-cash-flow positive for the next few years, even under
