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Summit Lake

Natural gas power plant · Union County, Iowa

Nameplate capacity
119 MW
Rank in Iowa
#72
of 305 plants
In service since
1973
July 1973

Details

Primary fuel
Natural gas
Technology
Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine
Operator
Central Iowa Power Cooperative
County
Union County
Generating units
5
Share of state capacity
0.48%
Rank among natural gas plants in Iowa
#13 of 42
EIA plant code
1206

Generating units

Individual generating units at Summit Lake
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
GT2Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine35 MW27 MW1975Operating
GT1Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine27 MW29 MW1973Operating
R1Natural Gas Internal Combustion Engine19 MW18 MW2021Operating
R2Natural Gas Internal Combustion Engine19 MW18 MW2021Operating
R3Natural Gas Internal Combustion Engine19 MW18 MW2021Operating

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 Iowa

Macksburg Wind ProjectWind120 MW
Earl F WisdomNatural gas119 MW
Storm Lake 1Wind114 MW
Contrail Wind FarmWind112 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 119 MW solar plant and a 119 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 Iowa power plants · What Iowa actually generates