Jaybird

Hydro power plant · El Dorado County, California

Nameplate capacity
162 MW
Rank in California
#168
of 1,897 plants
In service since
1961
April 1961

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
Sacramento Municipal Util Dist
County
El Dorado County
Generating units
2
Share of state capacity
0.15%
Rank among hydro plants in California
#20 of 244
EIA plant code
431

Generating units

Individual generating units at Jaybird
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
H1Conventional Hydroelectric81 MW78 MW1961Operating
H2Conventional Hydroelectric81 MW78 MW1962Operating

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 162 MW solar plant and a 162 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