As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, it is worth reflecting on a principle that has defined the nation from the beginning: competition drives progress and fuels innovation. For 250 years, America has rewarded ingenuity, private investment, and the pursuit of better ideas—fueling breakthroughs in manufacturing, transportation, technology, and energy.
That principle has never been more important. Artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, data centers, and electrification are driving a new era of electricity demand. Meeting that challenge without overburdening consumers will require enormous private investment, and history shows competition is one of the most effective ways to encourage it.
Competitive power markets are a distinctly American success story. By allowing power suppliers to compete to provide the most reliable electricity at the lowest cost, and rewarding performance and innovation, these markets harness private investment, spur innovation, and deliver tangible benefits to consumers.
Competition Rewards Innovation
America’s greatest breakthroughs have come from systems that reward performance and encourage new ideas.
Competitive power markets operate on the same principle. Rather than relying on centralized decisions about which resources should be built, organized markets allow all technologies to compete on a level playing field based on cost and performance, with planning and reliability overseen and managed by a regional or state grid operator. Natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar, hydropower, battery storage, and emerging technologies can all participate.
This all-of-the-above approach encourages companies to invest private capital, improve efficiency, and deploy better solutions. Competitive power markets provide clear investment signals and shift investment risk away from consumers and onto shareholders, creating strong incentives for reliability, innovation, and disciplined investment.
Lower Costs for Consumers
Competition works by rewarding the resources that deliver electricity at the best value.
In competitive power markets, generators submit bids to supply electricity, and the most cost-effective resources are selected to meet demand. This process has helped lower generation costs and improve efficiency, delivering savings to households and businesses.
Consumers in states participating in the PJM Interconnection market save an estimated $5 billion annually as a result of competition.
Unlike vertically integrated utility models, competitive generators invest at their own financial risk rather than relying on guaranteed cost recovery through customer bills. That means shareholders, not ratepayers, bear the risk if investments fail to perform as expected.
Reliable Power for a Growing Economy
America’s next era of growth will require more electricity than ever before.
Data centers supporting artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, semiconductor production, and broader electrification are driving a sharp increase in power demand. Competitive power markets respond by sending price signals that attract investment where and when new resources are needed most.
By allowing market signals to guide investment decisions, competitive power suppliers can deploy new technologies, modernize existing fleets, and build the resources needed to support a stronger and more resilient grid. As supply increases and/or demand decreases, price signals drive resources to retire without keeping ratepayers on the hook for investments that are no longer needed.
As demand grows, competitive generators are investing billions of dollars in new generation, expanding existing facilities, and deploying innovative technologies to add capacity where it is needed most. Since mid-2024 alone, EPSA member companies have announced or brought online more than 12 gigawatts of new capacity in the PJM region, while advancing additional natural gas, nuclear, battery storage, geothermal, and renewable energy projects nationwide. These investments are funded by private capital—not guaranteed customer cost recovery—demonstrating how competition attracts the resources needed to strengthen reliability, protect consumers, and power America’s growing economy.
A History of Advancement
The history of competitive power markets isn’t just told through market rules—it’s reflected in the companies that have invested billions of dollars to build, modernize, and operate America’s generating fleet. Their stories show how competition rewards companies willing to innovate, adapt, and invest for the long term.
- Invenergy began building its business in 2003 with the acquisition of the 370-megawatt Hardee Energy Center, a natural gas facility in Florida. More than two decades later, the plant remains in operation, reflecting Invenergy’s long-term commitment to high performance and operational innovation. That first investment provided the foundation for the company’s expansion into wind, solar, battery storage, transmission, geothermal and other advanced energy technologies. To date Invenergy has developed more than 38,000 MW across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and has more than 30 GW of solar and 10 GW of natural gas under development.
- LS Power was founded in 1990 and has been a consistent innovator in competitive electricity markets. By 2000, the company constructed nine natural gas-fired power generation facilities. In the years that followed, the company expanded into transmission, renewable energy, and battery storage. Today, through REV Renewables, LS Power owns the largest non-utility energy storage portfolio in the United States.
- Constellation operates the nation’s largest fleet of nuclear power plants, providing around-the-clock, carbon-free electricity that serves as a cornerstone of U.S. grid reliability. The company has pioneered investments in nuclear uprates and license renewals to safely extend the life and output of existing facilities. Its planned restart of the Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania—supported by a long-term power agreement with Microsoft—represents one of the most significant energy infrastructure projects in recent years, demonstrating how existing nuclear assets can be returned to service to help meet rapidly growing electricity demand from AI, data centers, and advanced manufacturing while strengthening reliability and supporting economic growth
- Throughout its history, Constellation has paired large-scale generation with customer-focused innovation. The company is also advancing innovations in energy optimization, flexible electric vehicle charging, and new, tailored solutions for data centers and artificial intelligence—helping customers manage costs while supporting a more reliable, resilient, and lower-emissions grid.
- Calpine traces its roots to 1984, when the company began investing in geothermal generation at The Geysers in California. Over the following decades, Calpine grew into one of the nation’s largest competitive power producers, before joining Constellation in 2026. Today, Calpine’s nearly 28,000 MW portfolio—including natural gas and geothermal generation, along with investments in battery storage, carbon capture, and other emerging technologies—complements Constellation’s industry-leading fleet to create the nation’s largest producer of electricity, with approximately 55 GW of generating capacity. The combined company is uniquely positioned to invest in the reliable, dispatchable, and innovative energy solutions needed to power America’s growing economy.
- Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) launched in 1990, with a clear mission: to modernize the United States electric grid with highly efficient generating facilities and deliver tangible benefits to consumers.
Over the last 26 years, CPV has focused on applying its development, financial, and project management expertise to advance the next generation of technologies The company developed, sold, financed, and acquired 17 GW of power generation since 1999. Today, the company’s operating portfolio includes state of the art, highly efficient gas generation facilities alongside an expanding wind and solar footprint. With a current pipeline of over 13 GW of renewable and dispatchable generation, including utility-scale carbon capture, CPV is well positioned to help drive the nation’s decarbonization goals forward.
Together, these companies reflect the broader strength of competitive power markets: private capital flows to innovative technologies that improve reliability, expand generation, and meet the nation’s growing electricity needs. Collectively, EPSA member companies own and operate approximately 225,000 megawatts of generation capacity, including natural gas, nuclear, hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, and battery storage.
Building America’s Energy Future
America’s electric grid has entered a new era, presenting new challenges—and new opportunities—for the competitive wholesale electricity markets that have driven innovation and investment for nearly three decades. The American economy has always advanced because entrepreneurs were free to compete, invest, and innovate. Competitive electricity markets embody that same principle. As the nation enters a new era of rising demand and unprecedented technological change, America’s competitive power suppliers are continuing that tradition—investing private capital, embracing new technologies, and building the reliable electricity system that will power the country’s next 250 years.
