Home / Power plants / Kentucky / Kentucky Dam

Kentucky Dam

Hydro power plant · Marshall County, Kentucky

Nameplate capacity
219 MW
Rank in Kentucky
#20
of 63 plants
In service since
1944
September 1944

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
Tennessee Valley Authority
County
Marshall County
Generating units
5
Share of state capacity
0.98%
Rank among hydro plants in Kentucky
#2 of 11
EIA plant code
1377

Generating units

Individual generating units at Kentucky Dam
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
1Conventional Hydroelectric45 MW44 MW1945Operating
4Conventional Hydroelectric45 MW43 MW1945Operating
5Conventional Hydroelectric45 MW45 MW1948Operating
2Conventional Hydroelectric42 MW45 MW1944Operating
3Conventional Hydroelectric42 MW45 MW1944Operating

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

Wolf CreekHydro270 MW
Sebree Solar, LLCSolar250 MW
Paddys RunNatural gas211 MW
Green River SolarSolar200 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 219 MW solar plant and a 219 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