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Barkley

Hydro power plant · Lyon County, Kentucky

Nameplate capacity
130 MW
Rank in Kentucky
#25
of 63 plants
In service since
1966
January 1966

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
USCE-Nashville District
County
Lyon County
Generating units
4
Share of state capacity
0.58%
Rank among hydro plants in Kentucky
#3 of 11
EIA plant code
1371

Generating units

Individual generating units at Barkley
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
1Conventional Hydroelectric33 MW37 MW1966Operating
2Conventional Hydroelectric33 MW37 MW1966Operating
3Conventional Hydroelectric33 MW37 MW1966Operating
4Conventional Hydroelectric33 MW37 MW1966Operating

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 Kentucky

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 130 MW solar plant and a 130 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 Kentucky power plants · What Kentucky actually generates