Power Plants in Iowa

Iowa's power sector in numbers

Bywatts maps 198 operating power plants with 15.5 GW of nameplate capacity in Iowa. Coal leads with 43% of that capacity across 19 plants, followed by Wind (33%) and Natural Gas (16%). The inventory also includes 31 plants (1.8 GW) that EIA-860 lists as retired and 1 never built; the largest retired plant is DUANE ARNOLD ENERGY CENTER (680 MW, retired 2020).

The largest operating plants are WALTER SCOTT JR ENERGY CENTER (1,779 MW, Coal, MIDAMERICAN ENERGY CO), GEORGE NEAL NORTH (1,046 MW, Coal, MIDAMERICAN ENERGY CO) and LOUISA (812 MW, Coal, MIDAMERICAN ENERGY CO).

Of the 198 operating plants with a recorded commissioning year, 101 came online in 2000 or later and 36 in 2010 or later; the busiest decade for new capacity was the 2000s (5.3 GW).

The largest operators by operating capacity are MIDAMERICAN ENERGY CO (28 plants, 8.0 GW), INTERSTATE POWER AND LIGHT CO (8 plants, 2.3 GW) and ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND CO (3 plants, 444 MW).

Retail electricity sales in Iowa reached 58.6 TWh in 2025, up 24.2% over ten years and up 6.6% year on year; residential customers took 25.8% of it. The average retail price across all sectors was 9.76 cents per kWh, up 16.9% since 2015.

The database also maps 11 named substations (none of the 5 with a recorded voltage is rated 345 kV or above), no data centers, 56 solar installers and 19 solar companies in Iowa.

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.