The electric utility industry was once so stable that its stocks were called “widow and orphan” investments, certain to maintain value and return high dividends even during downturns. Now, the phrase “death spiral” is frequently used to describe the impact distributed generation and slowing demand could have on utilities’ financial returns. As such, it is instructive to consider one company’s approach to modern-day challenges. Princeton, N.J.-based independent power producer (IPP) NRG is embracing current changes and sees them as central to its ambitious goal of doubling expected 2015 revenues of $3.3 billion to $6.6 billion by 2022.


As an IPP, NRG is not a utility in the regulated, vertically integrated sense of the word. Although the company owns generation assets and runs retail electricity businesses, the two sides are independently operated. However, its presence in both markets is significant. Its April 2014 purchase of Edison Mission Energy assets boosted its total generating capacity to more than 53,000 megawatts (MW), second only to Duke Energy in the United States. And, in buying Dominion Resources’ retail business the same month, it gained an additional 1.5 million customers in Texas and the Northeast, pushing its total to nearly 3 million electricity consumers.


Much of NRG’s generating assets remain traditional fossil-fuel units, bundled into the company’s NRG Business division, but the company is breaking the mold with growing emphasis on distributed renewable resources. In fact, CEO David Crane (No. 4 on Fortune magazine’s 2014 list of the world’s top eco-innovators) has set his sights on a head-to-head battle with that nemesis of old-school utilities, SolarCity, San Mateo, Calif., and he has made a lot of progress on that front in the last year.


Continuing its acquisition string in 2014, NRG picked up Roof Diagnostics, a leading installer in the Northeast. In the fall, the company purchased Pure Energies Group, which specializes in generating leads for solar sales. Finally, the company acquired the Northeast sales and operations teams of Verengo Solar. As of the third quarter of 2014, NRG was the nation’s fifth largest solar installer. Crane has stated a corporate goal to move up to the No. 2 position, just under SolarCity, by the end of 2015.


A key part in NRG’s strategy is reaching out to the 111 million Americans between the ages of 6 and 30, a demographic overlooked by most old-school energy providers, Crane said at a January investors’ conference.


“Think about what we could achieve if we are the first company to try and be the energy provider of choice to 111 million Americans,” Crane said.


To reach that market, NRG bundled its solar offerings into the NRG Home division, which also includes residential electric-vehicle (EV) charging equipment, along with its growing commercial network of eVgo DC fast chargers; backup generators; and small, solar-based electronics chargers (the company also acquired Goal Zero, a maker of such products, last year). The goal, as division president Steve McBee said in a recent interview, is an “integrated suite of products” that can engage consumers across a range of energy needs.


Those needs also could include wholesale renewable energy, met through a number of high-profile solar plants and some less-well-known wind farms, united under the NRG Renew banner. These include the 2,400-acre, 290-MW Agua Caliente plant in Arizona, and a major investment (along with Google and BrightSource Energy) Ivanpah, one of the world’s largest solar-thermal plants, located in California’s Mojave Desert.


There is challenge in such a broad business portfolio. NRG is often compared to Dynergy, a smaller IPP, with fossil-fuel-based generation about half the size of NRG’s. Dynergy seeks to boost its bottom line by maintaining focus on doing the job of running merchant power plants better. With its three divisions, NRG could risk cannibalizing itself. Its wholesale business is its biggest source of revenue, while its solar and retail operations have been the biggest target for recent investment. The former seeks to sell kilowatt-hours the old-fashioned way, while the latter is geared to provide consumers with an increasing number of off-grid power options.


The experience of German utility E.ON illustrates the difficulty of the path NRG is now taking. Germany’s stringent renewable-energy requirements makes it a much more difficult market for fossil-fuel-based generation companies than the United States, but it’s still often seen as a possible model of the so-called “death spiral” U.S. utilities could face in the move toward more distributed generation. In December, E.ON announced it will spin off its traditional power plants into a separate company so it can focus more deliberately on “innovative, customer-­oriented solutions.”


“It will become increasingly difficult for a company with a broad portfolio to be successful and to grow in both the new and the conventional energy world,” said Johannes Teyssen, E.ON’s CEO and board chairman, in a press conference regarding the decision.


While Crane would seem to disagree with Teyssen’s argument against a broad-portfolio approach, his comments at the January investors presentation show a distinct agreement on the need for openness to change.


“The riskiest thing in energy, and any sector, is to ignore the future change coming to your industry,” he said. “NRG is preparing for this future.”