The Department of Justice under President Donald Trump this week continued flexing its antitrust powers in the electricity market, while generation growth shows potential signs of slowing.
The race for gas turbines, however, continues apace. Here are those and other numbers that made news this week.
BY THE NUMBERS
►14 years
How long it had been since the Department of Justice’s antitrust division last filed a settlement consent decree in an electricity merger. That streak ended last Friday with an agreement that Constellation Energy must sell six power plants and a minority stake in a seventh power plant to move forward with its $26.6 billion deal to buy Calpine, making it the largest wholesale power provider in the United States. The settlement is the latest in a series of moves indicating the DOJ under President Trump sees antitrust enforcement as a tool in power markets as electricity prices and demand climb.
►1.7%
The rate at which the Energy Information Administration expects generation to grow in 2026, down from a 3% growth rate it forecast last month. The EIA said it revised its expectations downward “based on how much large load electricity demand has come online so far this year,” particularly in Texas, “and its implications for near-term growth.” Texas is one of the regions driving aggressive demand projections for the U.S. power system as a whole, so changes to its demand forecast have an outsized influence on the overall numbers. The EIA said it had revised down its expected demand growth rate for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas since last month, shrinking its projections from 6% to 5% growth in 2025 and from 15.7% to 9.6% growth in 2026.
►80 GW
The capacity of GE Vernova’s expected gas turbine backlog by the end of this year. CEO Scott Strazik said on an investor call Tuesday he expects gas turbine reservations to be sold out through 2030 by the end of 2026. “We are having healthy conversations” with hyperscalers that could lead to “volume agreements” stretching out as far as 2035, Strazik said.
►20.4 GW
How much “clean” energy corporate buyers contracted for in the first three quarters of 2025, according to the Clean Energy Buyers Association. CEBA CEO Rich Powell said his organization is on track to have “the largest year ever buying carbon emissions-free electricity,” despite cuts to clean energy tax credits and other policy actions targeting renewables. Powell noted a significant increase in procurement of “clean firm” resources, which CEBA defines as resources that can provide consistent power on demand from hydroelectric, geothermal, nuclear, long-duration energy storage and thermal with carbon capture and storage.
►5.5 GW
The capacity of renewables approved by the New York Power Authority as part of its updated plan to transition away from fossil fuels. The initial plan, adopted in January, called for about 3 GW of renewables. The latest iteration adds about 2.5 GW, including 1,425 MW of solar and 800 MW of wind. Although the update expanded the plan’s goal for renewable capacity, it was less ambitious than the original proposal, highlighting the policy and market changes that have made it more difficult to pursue renewables.
