Federal regulators on Friday approved NRG Energy’s plan to roughly double its electricity generation by acquiring a fleet of gas-fired power plants and a demand response company from LS Power Equity Advisors.
Under the $12 billion deal, Houston-based NRG will add 18 plants totaling about 13,000 megawatts of natural gas generation from the New York-based development and investing firm. In announcing the deal this May, NRG said the plants — located in Texas, the Northeast and the Midwest — would help it meet a surge in energy demand.
CEO Larry Coben said in May the “demand supercycle” fueled by data centers made the deal necessary, especially with a backlog of gas plant infrastructure holding back potential new construction.
In its approval of the deal, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected concerns from consumer advocates that the deal could adversely affect competition in the three power markets that contain the plants.
