Santeetlah

Hydro power plant · Graham County, North Carolina

Nameplate capacity
45 MW
Rank in North Carolina
#91
of 930 plants
In service since
1928
June 1928

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower LP
County
Graham County
Generating units
2
Share of state capacity
0.11%
Rank among hydro plants in North Carolina
#11 of 38
EIA plant code
54898

Generating units

Individual generating units at Santeetlah
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
1Conventional Hydroelectric23 MW20 MW1928Operating
2Conventional Hydroelectric23 MW20 MW1928Operating

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 North Carolina

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 45 MW solar plant and a 45 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 North Carolina power plants · What North Carolina actually generates