LS Power to Buy Nearly 5 GW of NRG’s Gas-Fired Plants in $4 Billion Deal
LS Power has agreed to buy six natural gas-fired power plants from NRG Energy for $4 billion, picking up almost 5 GW of generating capacity spread across Texas, New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut. NRG disclosed the sale on November 9 alongside its third-quarter results, as the two companies continue a run of asset trades that has reshuffled large chunks of America’s gas fleet over the past two years.
Six plants, four states, one buyer betting on dispatchable power
The portfolio changing hands totals roughly 4,979 MW. In Texas, LS Power picks up the Jack County combined-cycle plant (1,280 MW), the Johnson County combined-cycle plant (283 MW) and the R.W. Miller simple-cycle and steam-turbine facility (538 MW). In New York, the Ravenswood complex in Queens — a mix of combined-cycle, simple-cycle and steam-turbine units — adds 2,050 MW, by far the largest single asset in the deal. Rounding out the package are the Ocean State Power combined-cycle plant in Rhode Island (478 MW) and the Wallingford simple-cycle plant in Connecticut (350 MW).
The spread gives LS Power a foothold in three separate US grid regions — ERCOT in Texas, NYISO in New York, and ISO New England in Connecticut and Rhode Island — rather than a concentrated position in one market. NRG says the sale is expected to close in 2027, subject to the usual regulatory approvals.
A role reversal from last year’s $12 billion deal
The transaction runs in the opposite direction from the one that defined the two companies’ relationship a year ago, when NRG agreed to buy roughly 13 GW of LS Power’s gas fleet for close to $12 billion. This time LS Power is the buyer, picking up plants NRG no longer wants to hold as it narrows its own footprint.
LS Power is simultaneously working through a separate, pending purchase of about 4.4 GW of PJM gas capacity that Constellation agreed to divest as a condition of its Calpine acquisition. Combined, the NRG and Constellation transactions would take LS Power’s gas-fired fleet from 2.2 GW to roughly 11.5 GW, and its total generation portfolio — including solar, wind, hydro and battery storage — past 19 GW. LS Power chief executive Paul Segal framed the NRG purchase as a continuation of that build-out, saying dispatchable power “remains essential to grid reliability” and that expanding across Texas, the Northeast and New York “creates opportunities to support historic levels of power demand growth.”
Why gas plants keep changing hands
The deal lands in the middle of a broader scramble for firm, always-available generation as US electricity demand climbs for the first time in two decades, driven largely by data centers and AI computing. Utilities and independent power producers have been racing to lock in gas-fired capacity through acquisitions rather than new construction, since turbine order books are backed up for years. That dynamic has shown up elsewhere in the market this year: the Department of Energy closed a $10.1 billion loan package with Constellation and Alliant Energy to fund nuclear uprates and new capacity, AEP raised its five-year capital plan 30% to $100 billion on data-center demand, and CenterPoint Energy lifted its own ten-year plan by $4 billion to keep up with load growth. Against that backdrop, roughly $803 per kilowatt — the rough price implied by the $4 billion price tag on close to 4,979 MW — sits toward the lower end of recent gas-asset transactions, though the plants’ age and fuel-type mix make direct comparisons imprecise.
NRG narrows its footprint and funds buybacks
For NRG, the sale is part of a deliberate shrinking of its generation map to two core regions. President and chief executive Robert Gaudette said the company is “unlocking substantial value from a select group of assets” in a move that “will strengthen our balance sheet” and “support increased share repurchases.” After the sale closes, NRG expects to hold about 20 GW split evenly between ERCOT and PJM, with another 1.1 GW due in ERCOT by 2028 from two Texas Energy Fund-backed projects.
The timing lines up with a strong quarter: NRG reported third-quarter net income of $561 million, up from $152 million a year earlier, with adjusted earnings of $4.68 per share against $2.78 previously. Proceeds from the LS Power sale are earmarked to support NRG’s 2027 capital allocation plan and a $3 billion share-buyback program running through 2026 and 2027, on top of paying down debt. NRG’s 2027 adjusted earnings guidance of $8.05 to $10.05 per share does not yet factor in the effect of the divestiture. Milbank LLP advised LS Power on the legal side, with Scotiabank and Evercore acting as financial advisors. The same week brought a reminder that capital is flowing into new generation as well as traded assets, with Panamint Capital lining up $1.8 billion in financing for a Texas solar project built on a former coal mine site.
Sources: NRG Energy third-quarter 2026 earnings release and investor materials, November 9, 2026 (deal terms, plant list, financial figures, executive quotes); POWER Magazine, “LS Power Buying Nearly 5 GW of Gas-Fired Generation From NRG in $4-Billion Deal,” November 9, 2026 (independent reporting and confirmation of deal structure).
Illustrative image. Photo: Christian A. Schröder (ChristianSchd), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source
