Charging on the go
Reliant places kiosks around the area that offer batteries for rent to keep mobile devices up and running
The dreaded low-battery warning. It pops onto smartphone screens at the most inconvenient times: sporting events, concerts or just catching a coveted Pokémon.
For Elizabeth Killinger, president of Reliant and NRG Retail, that moment came during a family trip to Disneyland. It was 2 p.m., and her phone was at 30 percent. She had to ration her power carefully while accessing a Disney app for the park.
Killinger and colleagues with similar experiences realized that Reliant shouldn’t just power customers’ homes or businesses. It should also provide power for mobile devices on the go. So the electricity provider, owned by NRG Energy, came up with a new product: kiosks that rent portable battery packs for recharging mobile devices.
Reliant has recently ramped up the rollout of these kiosks, called NRG Go. Since Aug. 1, Reliant residential or small -business customers have been able to get the first day of each rental for free.
“We want to be people’s power company, and so it’s an additional service we would provide to them,” Killinger said.
There are 31 of these NRG Go kiosks in Texas, with 12 at NRG Stadium and six others in Katy. Other kiosks are peppered throughout businesses in Houston, Pearland and Spring. Reliant is adding about three kiosks a week,
and it has plans for six more in Katy, where it has a lot of customers.
“We want to intersect with people when and where they need power,” said Reneé Meaux, marketing manager for NRG portable power.
The kiosks have portable power packs designed for iPhones — with charging connectors for newer and older models — and Androids.
Non-Reliant customers can rent these power packs for $3 to $5, depending on the location, and must return them by 9 p.m. the following day.
If they don’t return them, users accrue a $3 charge for each additional day up to seven days. After seven days, they own the power pack and are charged $39.99, minus the $3 to $5 paid for the firstday rental.
Charging stations aren’t an entirely new idea.
At events, it’s common to see attendees crowded around booths or tables with power outlets and a variety of phone cables.
Some venues have minilockers, allowing people to lock up their phones and walk away as they charge in the locker.
In Katy, bar and eatery Little Woodrow’s installed outlets under the bar so its bartenders wouldn’t have to plug in customers’ phones behind the bar. But customers never brought cables to charge their devices. The NRG Go kiosk, which was installed last week, could help alleviate that.
“It’s going to help me, and it’s going to help them,” said Van Tomlinson, general manager of the Little Woodrow’s in Katy.
Some customers have decided to keep the battery pack past the seven days, he said. They like that they can charge them from home and continue reusing them.
According to The NPD Group’s Weekly Retail Tracking Service, unit sales of portable power packs have increased 35 percent year-over-year for the 12 months ending in June.
Ben Arnold, an industry analyst for consumer technology at The NPD Group, said portable power packs are a relatively new product, and accessories related to smartphones have seen pretty strong sales growth.
Contributing to a more recent surge in sales, however, is the popular “Pokémon Go” app, which allows players to catch Pokémon characters that are superimposed on their everyday real-world surroundings. Unit sales of portable power packs grew 101 percent between July 10 and July 23 compared with a year earlier.
“Anybody that’s played the game knows it uses a lot of power,” Arnold said.
The similarities between the names — “Pokémon Go” and NRG Go — was “a happy coincidence,” Meaux said.
Before settling on the NRG Go kiosks, Killinger said the company researched a variety of options, such as the locker variation, solar-powered charging stations with cords tethering people to the station, and tables where people had to physically rent out the power packs.
The kiosks, she said, are the best fit for people on the go.
Or for people at a Texans game who don’t want to miss J.J. Watt in action. Rentals from the 12 kiosks at NRG Stadium will be free for everyone on game day or during other big events throughout the Texans football season.
The power packs have also found success at the Typhoon Texas water park in Katy.
The park sells bags that keep smartphones dry, so customers have been using their devices more frequently to take pictures or stay in touch with children.
NRG Go can help keep their phones charged and ready to capture the fun.
“You see people in the lazy river now, and they’re using their phones,” said Susan Kruizinga, programming and sponsorships director for Typhoon Texas.