Home / Power plants / California / Cottonwood

Cottonwood

Hydro power plant · Inyo County, California

Nameplate capacity
1.6 MW
Rank in California
#1493
of 1,897 plants
In service since
2008
November 2008

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
Los Angeles Department of Water & Power
County
Inyo County
Generating units
2
Share of state capacity
0.00%
Rank among hydro plants in California
#222 of 244
EIA plant code
394

Generating units

Individual generating units at Cottonwood
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
1Conventional Hydroelectric0.8 MW1.2 MW2008Operating
2Conventional Hydroelectric0.8 MW1.2 MW2009Operating

Nameplate is the maximum rated output; summer capacity is what the unit can reliably deliver on a hot day, which is typically lower.

Similarly sized plants in California

About this data

From EIA’s inventory of operable generators, May 2026 release. Capacity is nameplate — the maximum rated output of the equipment, not what the plant actually generates over a year, which depends on how often it runs. A 1.6 MW solar plant and a 1.6 MW nuclear plant have the same entry here and produce very different amounts of electricity.

“In service since” is the earliest in-service date among the units still listed, so a site rebuilt around newer equipment can read as younger than the site itself. All California power plants · What California actually generates