page_title: Electricity sector of the United States
section_title: Electricity generation
hierarchical_section_title: Electricity sector of the United States / Electricity generation
caption_attribution_description: English: 2018 Electric Generation by Source
context_page_description: The electricity sector of the United States includes a large array of stakeholders that provide services through electricity generation, transmission, distribution and marketing for industrial, commercial, public and residential customers. It also includes many public institutions that regulate the sector.
  In 1996, there were 3,195 electric utilities in the United States, of which fewer than 1,000 were engaged in power generation. This leaves a large number of mostly smaller utilities engaged only in power distribution. There were also 65 power marketers. Of all utilities, 2,020 were publicly owned, 932 were rural electric cooperatives, and 243 were investor-owned utilities. The electricity transmission network is controlled by Independent System Operators or Regional Transmission Organizations, which are not-for-profit organizations that are obliged to provide indiscriminate access to various suppliers in order to promote competition.
context_section_description: In 2018 the total installed electricity generation summer capacity: in the United States was 1,084.37 gigawatts (GW), up 11.91 Gigawatts from 2017. The main energy sources for electricity generation include
  Thermal/Fossil 747.78 GW up 11.45 GW from 2017
  Nuclear 99.4 GW was flat from 2017
  Hydropower 79.87 GW up 0.1 GW from 2017
  Wind 94.4 GW up 6.8 GW from 2017
  Solar 31.89 GW up 4.91 GW from 2017
  Actual USA electricity generation in 2018 was 4,178.08 Terawatt hours (TWh) and was up 143.8 TWh (3.6%) from 2017. The USA also imported 58.26 Terawatt hours and exported 13.805 Terawatt hours: making a total of 4222.5 Terawatt hours for consumption, up 131.9 TWh (3.2%) from 2017. Electricity generation was primarily from the following sources:
  Thermal/Fossil 2,657.1 TWh up 121 TWh ( 4.8%) from 2017
  Nuclear 809.5 TWh up 4.6 TWh (0.6%)from 2017
  Hydropower 292.6 TWh down 7.8 TWh (-2.6%) from 2017
  Wind 272.7 TWh up 18.4 TWh ( 7.2%)from 2017
  Other renewables 141.62 TWh (including wood, landfill gas, geothermal energy, and solar) up 9.6 TWh ( 7.3%) from 2017
  The share of coal and nuclear in power generation is much higher than their share in installed capacity, because coal and nuclear plants provide base load and thus are running longer hours than natural gas and petroleum plants which typically provide peak load, while wind turbines and solar plants produce electricity when they can and natural gas fills in as required to compensate.
  
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  Gas includes Natural Gas and Other Gases.
  Solar includes Photovoltaics and Thermal.
  Misc includes Misc generation, Pumped storage, and Net imports.
  Bio Other includes Waste, Landfill Gas, and Other.
  Hydro excludes pumped storage (not an energy source, used by all sources, other than hydro).
  Total includes Net imports.
  2019 data is from Electric Power Monthly and is preliminary.
  
  The following table summarize the electrical energy generated by fuel sources for the USA. Data was mined from Electric Power Annual 2017]. Profile data is from Electric Power Monthly and is for 2019].
caption: 2018 Electric Generation by Source
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