Nearly 9 GW of new gas-fired power plants to come online in the US this year

Nearly 8.6 GW of new gas-fired power plants are expected to come online in the United States this year, 3 GW more than last year. This marks a second consecutive year of growth in new gas-fired capacity, following three years in which capacity additions declined. This is according to data published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

So far this year, 10 new natural gas-fired power plants with a total installed capacity of 6.8 GW have entered operation in the US. A further 6 plants with a total installed capacity of 1.8 GW are expected to come online by the end of the year. For comparison, 11 new gas-fired power plants with a total installed capacity of 5.6 GW came online in 2022.

According to the agency, gas-fired capacity additions in the US are expected to slow slightly over the next two years, with a total of 20 new power plants with an installed capacity of 7.7 GW due to come online.

The published data show that, in terms of the number of new plants, combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants and open-cycle gas turbine (SCGT/OCGT) plants have been developed at the same pace over the past two years. Over that period, 13 new CCGT plants with a total installed capacity of 12.4 GW and 14 open-cycle plants with a total installed capacity of 1.9 GW came online in the US.

While combined-cycle gas turbine plants typically achieve efficiencies of 55 to 60% and are therefore also operated at mid-merit and baseload, open-cycle plants typically achieve efficiencies of around 35 to 40% and are generally used as peaking and flexible resources to cover sudden changes in electricity demand or variable generation from solar and wind power plants.

"More than half of the new SCGT capacity added in 2022 and 2023 is in Texas, which has high daily peaks in electricity demand during the summer and has seen significant renewable energy development in recent years. A further 2.8 GW of new SCGT capacity is expected to come online in 2024 and 2025, primarily in Texas near densely populated areas,"

Geographic distribution of new gas-fired power plants in the US. Source: EIA