Wise

Hydro power plant · Placer County, California

Nameplate capacity
16 MW
Rank in California
#745
of 1,897 plants
In service since
1986
December 1986

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
County
Placer County
Generating units
2
Share of state capacity
0.02%
Rank among hydro plants in California
#96 of 244
EIA plant code
292

Generating units

Individual generating units at Wise
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
1Conventional Hydroelectric14 MW14 MW2017Operating
2Conventional Hydroelectric2.8 MW3.2 MW1986Operating

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 16 MW solar plant and a 16 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