Houston Rockets and Direct Energy Team Up for Third Annual Seats for Students Community Program Direct Energy to Donate 2,000 Tickets to Students

Houston, TX (2/11/2009) - The Houston Rockets and Direct Energy have teamed up for the third annual Seats for Students Community Program. The purpose of Seats for Students is to award students in the Houston area the opportunity to attend a Rockets game as a sponsored guest. This opportunity will be afforded based on a student’s performance, as related to school activities or other criteria such as attendance, academic achievement, athletic achievement, improved behavior, through the Read to Achieve Program and other school activities.

“Direct Energy and the Houston Rockets share a focus on making meaningful contributions to the Houston community. Supporting Seats for Students provides us with an opportunity to leverage a great program by the Rockets that encourages and recognizes area kids who are demonstrating a focus on their education,” said Jim Steffes, Vice President for Direct Energy.

Students selected to receive two tickets from this program are able to choose from the following two home games: Wednesday, Feb. 11 vs. the Sacramento Kings and Tuesday, March 3 vs. the Toronto Raptors, with both games set to tip off at 7:30 p.m. In addition to the two previously mentioned games, students were honored through the Seats for Students Program on Jan. 19 vs. the Denver Nuggets and Feb. 3 vs. the Chicago Bulls.

Direct Energy also co-sponsored the 2007-08 Rockets Seats for Students Community Program. Over 15,000 certificates were distributed to schools and teachers throughout last season. The Rockets received 2,288 certificates requesting tickets, fulfilling Direct Energy’s commitment to provide a total of 2,000 tickets towards a community program.

Houstonians also have two more weeks to register online for a chance to win the Direct Energy Driveway Challenge with the Houston Rockets – an inaugural event for the two organizations that will see Shane Battier and Carl Landry join the winner and their friends at the winner’s home for a friendly game of H-O-R-S-E. Houstonians can register to win at www.directenergy.com/rockets or by mail-in entry before February 27, 2009. Three semi-finalists will be chosen by random draw and will receive a pair of tickets to the March 8th Houston Rockets game versus Memphis, where they’ll compete on court for a chance to win the Grand Prize.

About Direct Energy
Direct Energy is part of the Centrica group of companies, one of the largest multi-state providers of retail energy services in North America. The North American operations have grown to more than 5 million residential and commercial customer relationships. Through its Direct Energy, CPL Retail Energy and WTU Retail Energy brands, the company is the third largest retail energy provider in Texas, and owns a series of energy-related services companies. Globally, the Centrica group of companies is a leading provider of energy and other essential services with approximately 32 million customer relationships. For more information, visit www.directenergy.com.

For additional information, contact:

Lisa Dornan
Direct Energy
713-877-3925

Bob Schranz
Rockets
713-758-7206

Direct Energy® is a subsidiary of Centrica plc. All rights reserved. Centrica was created following the demerger of British Gas plc in 1997 and is now a leading supplier of energy and related services. To read more about Centrica plc please visit www.centrica.com.