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Mount Elbert

Hydro power plant · Lake County, Colorado

Nameplate capacity
200 MW
Rank in Colorado
#37
of 326 plants
In service since
1981
June 1981

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Hydroelectric Pumped Storage
Operator
U S Bureau of Reclamation
County
Lake County
Generating units
2
Share of state capacity
0.87%
Rank among hydro plants in Colorado
#2 of 49
EIA plant code
6208

Generating units

Individual generating units at Mount Elbert
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
1Hydroelectric Pumped Storage100 MW115 MW1981Operating
2Hydroelectric Pumped Storage100 MW115 MW1984Operating

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 Colorado

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 200 MW solar plant and a 200 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 Colorado power plants · What Colorado actually generates