Power Plants in California

California's power sector in numbers

Bywatts maps 874 operating power plants with 72.0 GW of nameplate capacity in California. Natural Gas leads with 51% of that capacity across 190 plants, followed by Hydro (19%) and Solar (10%). The inventory also includes 176 plants (14.9 GW) that EIA-860 lists as retired and 64 never built; the largest retired plant is SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION (2,254 MW, retired 2013).

The largest operating plants are DYNEGY MOSS LANDING POWER PLANT (2,802 MW, Natural Gas, DYNEGY -MOSS LANDING LLC), DIABLO CANYON (2,323 MW, Nuclear, PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO) and AES ALAMITOS LLC (1,997 MW, Natural Gas).

Of the 859 operating plants with a recorded commissioning year, 501 came online in 2000 or later and 370 in 2010 or later; the busiest decade for new capacity was the 2000s (21.1 GW).

The largest operators by operating capacity are PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO (71 plants, 7.9 GW), LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF WATER & POWER (25 plants, 5.5 GW) and DYNEGY -MOSS LANDING LLC (1 plant, 2.8 GW).

Retail electricity sales in California reached 238.0 TWh in 2025, down 8.9% over ten years and down 3.2% year on year; residential customers took 34.4% of it. The average retail price across all sectors was 27.63 cents per kWh, up 79.1% since 2015.

The database also maps 3,000 named substations (46 of the 1,422 with a recorded voltage are rated 345 kV or above), 54 data centers (operators include Equinix, Digital Realty and CoreSite), 1,955 solar installers and 496 solar companies in California.

Operating capacity by fuel

Retail electricity sales

Sources: HIFLD power-plant inventory (capacity, fuel, operator), EIA-860 (commissioning year, retirements, operable capacity), EIA retail sales and revenue series through January 2026. Counts are of plants Bywatts lists, not every generator in the state.