Houston Lighting & Power Co. (HL&P), later named Reliant Energy HL&P/Entex, was the single power and utility company that served

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the Office of Management and Budget, United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–Pasadena–The Woodlands, is the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical ...

of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. It was a subsidiary of Houston Industries (HI,

NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

: HOU), which later was renamed to

Reliant Energy Reliant Energy Retail Holding, LLC is an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. It serves the state of Texas. History Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Reliant Energy, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, is one of the largest Texas electricity ...

(REI). HL&P had a service area of . In 1998 in terms of kilowatt-hour sales it was the tenth-largest energy company in the United States.

History

It began operations in 1882. In 1999 Houston Industries changed its name to Reliant Energy. Therefore HL&P was renamed ''Reliant Energy HL&P/Entex''. When the state of Texas deregulated the

electricity market An electricity market is a system that enables the exchange of electrical energy, through an electrical grid. Historically, electricity has been primarily sold by companies that operate electric generators, and purchased by consumers or electr ...

, HL&P was split into several companies.Exelon bids for major Texas power producer NRG
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

''. October 20, 2008. Retrieved on April 14, 2014. "The plants were originally part of the former Houston Lighting & Power, the integrated utility that served the Houston area until it was broken up into three separate companies as the state deregulated its power markets." In 2003 the company was split into

Texas Genco Texas Genco was a power generation company that came about as part of the deregulated Texas electricity market and owned numerous power plants in the Houston area that serve area power needs. The Company was created in 2001 as part of the Texa ...

, and

CenterPoint Energy CenterPoint Energy, Inc. is an American utility company based in Houston, Texas, that provides electric and natural gas utility to customers in several markets in the American states of Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Tex ...

.Fowler, Tom.
8 Houston power plants to be sold to NRG
" ''

''. October 2, 2005. Retrieved on April 14, 2014. Texas Genco assumed control of the area's power plants. CenterPoint assumed control of the poles and power lines. Reliant Energy took over the sales of electricity to businesses and individuals.

Offices

Before the dissolution of the company, its headquarters were shared with Houston Industries in the Houston Industries Plaza, now the CenterPoint Energy Plaza in

Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45 ...

. The Bob Lanier Public Works Building in Downtown Houston, formerly the Electric Building, was previously the HL&P office building. In 1999 the City of Houston, which had acquired the building, renovated it for $43 million to house city government offices.Development Downtown Houston

Archive
. CentralHouston. p. 14/17. Retrieved on April 14, 2014. "1999 Bob Lanier Building 611 Walker. City of Houston conversion of the former Houston Lighting & Power office building into offices for the Public Works and Engineering Department, Planning Department and other functions. Includes new tunnel links. Developer: City of Houston. Estimated cost: $43 million."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Houston Lighting and Power 1882 establishments in Texas 1999 disestablishments in Texas Companies based in Houston Defunct companies based in Texas Defunct electric power companies of the United States Energy companies disestablished in 1999 Energy companies established in 1882 American companies disestablished in 1999 American companies established in 1882 Defunct energy companies of the United States Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange

History

Offices

References

Further reading

External links