Power Plants in Tennessee

Tennessee's power sector in numbers

Bywatts maps 53 operating power plants with 20.2 GW of nameplate capacity in Tennessee. Coal leads with 47% of that capacity across 7 plants, followed by Hydro (21%) and Nuclear (18%). The inventory also includes 7 plants (1.1 GW) 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 BULL RUN (950 MW, retired 2023).

The largest operating plants are CUMBERLAND (2,600 MW, Coal, TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY), SEQUOYAH (2,441 MW, Nuclear, TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY) and GALLATIN (1,918 MW, Coal, TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY).

Of the 53 operating plants with a recorded commissioning year, 12 came online in 2000 or later and 5 in 2010 or later; the busiest decade for new capacity was the 1970s (6.1 GW).

The largest operators by operating capacity are TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY (32 plants, 19.1 GW), USCE-NASHVILLE DISTRICT (6 plants, 457 MW) and BROOKFIELD RENEWABLE POWER (2 plants, 206 MW).

Retail electricity sales in Tennessee reached 106.6 TWh in 2025, up 6.9% over ten years and up 3.5% year on year; residential customers took 42.5% of it. The average retail price across all sectors was 11.58 cents per kWh, up 24.5% since 2015.

The database also maps 968 named substations (23 of the 313 with a recorded voltage are rated 345 kV or above), 6 data centers (operators include Lumen Technologies, H5 Data Centers and IRIS), 82 solar installers and 30 solar companies in Tennessee.

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.