Territorial and Production Structure of the US Power Industry: Historical Aspect and Modern Development Trends

The article is devoted to modern trends in the development of the US electric power industry, which, as an important component of the energy sector in general, is a driver of the country’s economy. For many decades, the US electric power industry has been the world’s leader in electricity generation. Based on a multiscale study, the territorial and production structures of the electric power industry, whose formation began in the 1870s, are analyzed. The dynamics of the development of the electric power industry from the beginning of its inception is briefly characterized. The location of the industry on the territory of the country and changes in its territorial and production structures are considered in detail. The use of data on individual power plants made it possible to reveal the real picture of the distribution of the industry from the 1960s until now. Based on this detailed analysis, the degree of territorial concentration of installed capacities was calculated in three categories: power plants located on the territory of the MSA; power plants in counties bordering the MSA; and power plants located outside these areas. When calculating the concentration, power plants with a capacity of more than 50 MW each were taken into account, which is almost 70% of the total for the industry. The main factors of placement are considered, special attention paid to the factors of NPP placement. The calculation of the correlation coefficient between generation and location of the manufacturing industry, generation and population, and generation and energy resources revealed the tightness of the links in each combination.