Information on orders and backlogs is gathered through a written survey of USA and overseas suppliers of electric power generating equipment and engineering services. For the year 2010 data was received on 4,211 active power projects in the world, including 200,055 MWe of new orders (178,900 MWe in 2009). Data on each project is constantly updated from order date until commercial operation. (Even after start of operation when ownership changes.)

The data on projects under construction or in the development stage, and the 28,115 that have already gone operational (every project awarded since 1980 and awards prior to 1980 on all nuclear plants, conventional steam plants built in the USA since 1950, and gas turbines worldwide since 1975), is stored in a database and can be sorted several ways. Because information on each power plant is cross-checked from multiple sources and very carefully scrutinized, the resulting reports are the most current and complete available from an independent organization.

The reports cover new orders and backlogs for:

The annual written reports (distributed via Email) include several summary tables as well as lists of individual orders.

Besides the written reports, individual project data is available in electronic format (also distributed via Email). Data on each project includes: equipment manufacturer, engineer, country, customer name, state, unit name, customer type, project type, cogeneration, # of units, unit capacity, total capacity, date ordered, date operational, primary fuel, secondary fuel, world region.

Interim nine-month reports are produced on gas turbines, steam turbines, boilers, and heat recovery steam generators.

MPR also produces a Summary Report that has statistics for every country in the world covering that country's new capacity additions for the next five years by type of fuel.

Robert W. McCoy, Jr. has been conducting electric power generating equipment surveys for 41 years.