2023 National Energy Resource Mix

• Coal provided 15.9 percent of our nation's electricity.
• Natural gas supplied 42.4 percent.
• Nuclear energy produced 18.2 percent.
• Wind provided 10.0 percent.
• Hydropower provided 5.6 percent of the supply.
• Solar provided 5.6%.
• Other renewable resources, such as biomass and geothermal provided 1.5 percent.
• Other fuel sources, including fuel oil, provided 0.8 percent of the generation mix.

• Preliminary estimates suggest that as of year-end 2023, the electric power sector’s carbon emissions were 41 percent below 2005 levels. In addition, emissions from the electric power sector are no longer the leading source of the nation’s CO₂ and have been lower than the emissions from the transportation sector since 2016.
• Since 1990, the industry has cut sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions by 96 percent and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions by 90 percent.
• As a result of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and other Clean Air Act regulations, from 2010 to 2017, the electric power industry has reduced mercury emissions by 86 percent and total emissions of hazardous air pollutants by 96 percent. National total power sector mercury emissions have been reduced by 96 percent over the period 1990 to 2023 (from 59 to 2.4 tons per year).

Power Plant Emissions Drop Significantly Since 1990

U.S. Power Sector Carbon Dioxide Emissions Declining

• Total installed generating capacity in the United States was 1,270,418 megawatts (MW) as of December 31, 2022, an increase of 13,745 MW over year-end 2021 capacity totals.
• A total of 13,092 MW of coal generating capacity was retired in 2022.
• In 2022, total U.S. electricity generation was 4,243,136 gigawatt- hours (GWh)—an increase of 3.5 percent over total generation in 2021.
• U.S. investor-owned electric companies accounted for 1,470,748 GWh, or 34.7 percent, of total U.S. electricity generation in 2022.
  Electricity generation at independent power producer-owned plants totaled 1,990,850 GWh, accounting for 46.9 percent of the total electricity generation in the United States in 2022.

Sources of Electric Generation (by type of ownership)

• In 2022, investor-owned electric companies spent $26.7 billion on transmission investment, compared to $25.1 billion in 2021 (in nominal dollars), and were projected to spend $29.1 billion in 2023.
• Investor-owned electric companies are planning to invest approximately $121 billion on transmission construction between 2023 and 2026 (in nominal dollars).
• In 2022, investor-owned electric companies spent $47.6 billion on distribution investment, compared to $46.1 billion in 2021 (in nominal dollars).
• Since 2001, investor-owned electric companies have invested more than $500 billion (in nominal dollars) on the U.S. distribution system.  

Historical and Projected Transmission Investment

• In 2023, total energy operating revenues of investor-owned electric companies were $411 billion.
• Consolidated holding company-level assets of investor-owned electric companies were $2,115 billion as of December 31, 2023.
• Of these assets, $1,357 billion were net property in service.
• Total market capitalization of U.S. investor-owned electric companies was $890 billion on December 31, 2023. 

Industry Capital Expenditures

• In 2022, the average number of customers served by the electric power industry was 160,195,739.
• The average annual electricity use per residential customer in 2022 was 10,884 kilowatt-hours (kWh).
• In 2022, the average electricity price to residential customers was 15.12 cents/kWh.