US operating power plant database
The FieldProspects operating power plants database covers 28,423 generating units in service across 51 states, with 1,413.1 GW of capacity. Natural Gas is the largest technology at 584.6 GW. Only 7.6% of the units have a developer attributed. Figures are as of October 2026.
Data as of
What the operating table contains
The operating table is the existing fleet as EIA Form EIA-860M lists it: 28,423 generating units in service, 28,422 of which state a capacity. The form reports one row per generator, so a plant with several generators appears as several rows and a row is never a whole facility. The table covers 15 technologies and 65 grid operators and balancing authorities, and 739 rows name no grid.
The database also holds 2,675 completed entries from grid operator queues that are marked operating. They restate plants Form EIA-860M already lists, often more than once, so none of the operating figures on this site count them.
Location and dating are strong: 100% of rows have coordinates, 100% name a county and 100% carry the date the unit entered service. Ownership is the weak field: a developer is attributed to 7.6% of operating units, against 50.8% of planned ones. The operating table answers what is running where much better than it answers who built it.
Unit counts and capacity tell different stories. Solar has the most units at 8,315, but it holds 168.9 GW. Natural Gas has 6,910 units and 584.6 GW, so its units are much larger on average. Read the capacity column when you want the size of a fleet, and the unit column when you want to know how many sites a company would have to visit.
Operating capacity by technology
| Technology | Units | Capacity | Share of capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Gas | 6,910 | 584.6 GW | 41.4% |
| Coal | 446 | 181.6 GW | 12.9% |
| Solar | 8,315 | 168.9 GW | 12% |
| Wind | 1,582 | 167.1 GW | 11.8% |
| Nuclear | 96 | 103.7 GW | 7.3% |
| Hydro | 4,133 | 102.3 GW | 7.2% |
| Battery Storage | 1,134 | 54.5 GW | 3.9% |
| Oil | 3,790 | 30.5 GW | 2.2% |
| 7 other technologies | 2,017 | 19.8 GW | 1.4% |
Operating capacity by state
| State | Units | Capacity | Share of capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 2,490 | 204.8 GW | 14.5% |
| California | 3,235 | 109.6 GW | 7.8% |
| Florida | 753 | 81 GW | 5.7% |
| Illinois | 1,092 | 53.9 GW | 3.8% |
| Pennsylvania | 661 | 53.3 GW | 3.8% |
| Arizona | 466 | 45 GW | 3.2% |
| New York | 2,052 | 44.4 GW | 3.1% |
| Georgia | 576 | 43.5 GW | 3.1% |
| North Carolina | 1,232 | 40 GW | 2.8% |
| Oklahoma | 327 | 36.8 GW | 2.6% |
Operating capacity by grid operator
| Grid operator | Units | Capacity | Share of capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| PJM Interconnection | 4,056 | 230 GW | 16.3% |
| Midcontinent ISO (MISO) | 5,027 | 217.3 GW | 15.4% |
| ERCOT | 2,290 | 182 GW | 12.9% |
| Southwest Power Pool (SPP) | 1,665 | 104.8 GW | 7.4% |
| California ISO (CAISO) | 2,858 | 100.3 GW | 7.1% |
| Southern Company | 797 | 71.6 GW | 5.1% |
| New York ISO (NYISO) | 2,013 | 45.8 GW | 3.2% |
| Tennessee Valley Authority | 468 | 44.7 GW | 3.2% |
How old the operating fleet is
| Entered service | Units | Capacity | Share of capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1950 | 1,986 | 18.6 GW | 1.3% |
| 1950s | 896 | 35.7 GW | 2.5% |
| 1960s | 1,186 | 74.5 GW | 5.3% |
| 1970s | 1,440 | 215.2 GW | 15.2% |
| 1980s | 1,758 | 147.8 GW | 10.5% |
| 1990s | 1,917 | 76.2 GW | 5.4% |
| 2000s | 4,679 | 314.5 GW | 22.3% |
| 2010s | 7,651 | 236.6 GW | 16.7% |
| 2020s | 6,910 | 294 GW | 20.8% |
For an operating unit the date is when it entered service. For a planned unit it is an expectation, which is why the two tables word it differently.
How complete the operating table is
| Capacity | 100% (28,422 of 28,423) |
|---|---|
| County | 100% (28,423 of 28,423) |
| Grid (balancing authority) | 97.4% (27,684 of 28,423) |
| Coordinates | 100% (28,423 of 28,423) |
| In-service date | 100% (28,423 of 28,423) |
| Developer attributed | 7.6% (2,167 of 28,423) |
The full field-by-field breakdown for every table is on the coverage page.
What is an operating power plant in this table?
An operating power plant is, in this table, a generating unit that EIA Form EIA-860M lists as in service. A plant with more than one generator is split into one row per generator.
Using the operating table with the planned one
Approved accounts can set the operating fleet of a state next to what is planned there, using the same filters on both tables: state, grid, developer, capacity, county and year. The filtered result exports to CSV or Excel. The seven-day trial covers all five tables and exports up to 250 rows.
Source. U.S. Energy Information Administration Form EIA-860M (operating generators), compiled by FieldProspects.
Related pages
- Data Every dataset in the database, with how many rows it holds and how complete it is.
- Samples and trial What you can look at before you pay, and what the full database adds.
- Developers The companies behind power projects, with attributed project counts and benchmark figures.
- Contacts How many people are in the database, by seniority and department, at which kinds of company.
- Interconnection queue data Planned projects from the grid operator queues, combined into a single table.
- Coverage rates How complete each field is, table by table, including where developer attribution is thin.
- Data centers Planned and operating data centers with the power they draw, where it is known.
- Investors and lenders Screen the pipeline by technology, grid and sponsor before you underwrite it.
- MISO Planned and operating projects on the MISO grid, by technology, state and in-service year.
- Battery storage Planned and operating battery storage in the database, by state, grid and in-service year.
- Largest solar developers Solar developers ranked by attributed project count and capacity, with how much of the market is attributed.
- FieldProspects vs Cleanview A dated comparison of what each product costs and includes, using only public information.
- About What FieldProspects is, what is in the database, and where the data comes from.