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Brownlee

Hydro power plant · Washington County, Idaho

Nameplate capacity
675 MW
Rank in Idaho
#1
of 155 plants
In service since
1958
August 1958

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
Idaho Power Co
County
Washington County
Generating units
5
Share of state capacity
10.27%
Rank among hydro plants in Idaho
#1 of 76
EIA plant code
811

Generating units

Individual generating units at Brownlee
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
5Conventional Hydroelectric225 MW218 MW1980Operating
1Conventional Hydroelectric113 MW127 MW1959Operating
2Conventional Hydroelectric113 MW109 MW1958Operating
3Conventional Hydroelectric113 MW125 MW1958Operating
4Conventional Hydroelectric113 MW124 MW1958Operating

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 Idaho

DworshakHydro465 MW
Langley Gulch Power PlantNatural gas319 MW

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 675 MW solar plant and a 675 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 Idaho power plants · What Idaho actually generates