Power Plants in North Carolina

North Carolina's power sector in numbers

Bywatts maps 205 operating power plants with 30.0 GW of nameplate capacity in North Carolina. Coal leads with 39% of that capacity across 12 plants, followed by Natural Gas (28%) and Nuclear (18%). The inventory also includes 33 plants (3.2 GW) that EIA-860 lists as retired and 5 never built; the largest retired plant is G G ALLEN (1,155 MW, retired 2024).

The largest operating plants are ROXBORO (2,558 MW, Coal, PROGRESS ENERGY CAROLINAS INC), MCGUIRE (2,441 MW, Nuclear, DUKE ENERGY CAROLINAS, LLC) and SHERWOOD H SMITH JR ENERGY COMPLEX (2,282 MW, Natural Gas, PROGRESS ENERGY CAROLINAS INC).

Of the 183 operating plants with a recorded commissioning year, 112 came online in 2000 or later and 71 in 2010 or later; the busiest decade for new capacity was the 1970s (6.3 GW).

The largest operators by operating capacity are DUKE ENERGY CAROLINAS, LLC (27 plants, 13.1 GW), PROGRESS ENERGY CAROLINAS INC (13 plants, 12.0 GW) and SOUTHERN POWER CO (2 plants, 1.9 GW).

Retail electricity sales in North Carolina reached 140.6 TWh in 2025, up 5.0% over ten years and up 2.7% year on year; residential customers took 45.9% of it. The average retail price across all sectors was 11.53 cents per kWh, up 23.0% since 2015.

The database also maps 820 named substations (none of the 8 with a recorded voltage is rated 345 kV or above), 4 data centers (operators include CaroNet, Dacentec and Netriplex), 193 solar installers and 89 solar companies in North Carolina.

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.