Mergers Among Electricity Generators: Recent Enforcement and Emerging Trends
Two Bates White experts co-authored an article in the April 2026 edition of the CPI Antitrust Chronicle, a publication by Competition Policy International.
Rising US energy prices have brought renewed focus to mergers between electricity generators. Sam Malech and Matt Wohlleben explore this revived interest in “Mergers Among Electricity Generators: Recent Enforcement and Emerging Trends.”
The authors describe how distinctive features of electricity markets can enable companies to exert market power even when a merger appears benign under conventional market concentration measures. Drawing on the Vistra/Energy Harbor and Constellation/Calpine transactions, the authors explore how generator mergers are evaluated by outlining the economic intuition behind the competitive effects analysis and show that different regulatory bodies can reach divergent conclusions about the same competitive concerns.
The authors advise that ongoing changes in the sector—from the expanding role of renewable energy to electricity demands from data centers—will make future merger review in this sector even more complex. As a result, assessing competition among electricity generators will require more detailed, context‑specific economic analysis.
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