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Upper Gorge

Hydro power plant · Mono County, California

Nameplate capacity
38 MW
Rank in California
#529
of 1,897 plants
In service since
1953
June 1953

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
Los Angeles Department of Water & Power
County
Mono County
Generating units
1
Share of state capacity
0.03%
Rank among hydro plants in California
#75 of 244
EIA plant code
407

Generating units

Individual generating units at Upper Gorge
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
1Conventional Hydroelectric38 MW37 MW1953Operating

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 38 MW solar plant and a 38 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