Power Plants in Minnesota

Minnesota's power sector in numbers

Bywatts maps 215 operating power plants with 16.3 GW of nameplate capacity in Minnesota. Natural Gas leads with 33% of that capacity across 26 plants, followed by Coal (31%) and Wind (16%). The inventory also includes 36 plants (995 MW) that EIA-860 lists as retired, 2 partly retired with no operable units of their recorded fuel and 2 never built; the largest retired plant is TACONITE HARBOR ENERGY CENTER (252 MW, retired 2023).

The largest operating plants are SHERCO (2,469 MW, Coal, XCEL ENERGY), PRAIRIE ISLAND (1,186 MW, Nuclear, XCEL ENERGY) and BOSWELL ENERGY CENTER (1,073 MW, Coal, MINNESOTA POWER INC).

Of the 200 operating plants with a recorded commissioning year, 107 came online in 2000 or later and 25 in 2010 or later; the busiest decade for new capacity was the 1970s (6.7 GW).

The largest operators by operating capacity are XCEL ENERGY (14 plants, 8.0 GW), GREAT RIVER ENERGY (8 plants, 1.6 GW) and MINNESOTA POWER INC (15 plants, 1.4 GW).

Retail electricity sales in Minnesota reached 65.7 TWh in 2025, down 1.3% over ten years and up 1.8% year on year; residential customers took 35.5% of it. The average retail price across all sectors was 12.67 cents per kWh, up 32.9% since 2015.

The database also maps 309 named substations (4 of the 301 with a recorded voltage are rated 345 kV or above), 5 data centers (operators include Cologix, First Properties and Implex), 98 solar installers and 70 solar companies in Minnesota.

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.