THE BIG PICTURE: World’s Biggest Power Companies

In 2017, the 10 largest power companies, ranked by their installed generation capacity, owned 18% of total global installed capacity, while the next-largest 15 owned around 10%—meaning that the top 25 companies own nearly 30% of global installed power generation capacity, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Chinese companies account for more than one-eighth of global installed capacity, owing to that country’s expansion of its generation fleet to 1,750 GW, from about 400 GW in 2003. By comparison, in 2003, European-owned utilities dominated the list, accounting for almost 13% of installed capacity worldwide. Source: © OECD/IEA 2018 World Energy Outlook.
—Copy and artwork by Sonal Patel, a POWER associate editor.