Patterns emerging from evolving US merchant plant

A combination of reforms in state electricity regulation and reducing reserve generation capacity margins, the latter of which led to this summer’s price spike in the Midwest, has led to a boom in power plant development across the US. A large proportion of this proposed capacity is in the form of merchant power plants, all or some of the output of which is not covered by power purchase agreements. The status of this market is reviewed here, and some of the factors influencing the eventual number of such plant examined. John Richardson Raytheon Engineers & Constructors