Cope

Natural gas power plant · Orangeburg County, South Carolina

Nameplate capacity
417 MW
Rank in South Carolina
#19
of 214 plants
In service since
1996
January 1996

Details

Primary fuel
Natural gas
Technology
Natural Gas Steam Turbine
Operator
Dominion Energy South Carolina, Inc
County
Orangeburg County
Generating units
1
Share of state capacity
1.53%
Rank among natural gas plants in South Carolina
#8 of 20
EIA plant code
7210

Generating units

Individual generating units at Cope
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
ST1Natural Gas Steam Turbine417 MW415 MW1996Operating

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 South Carolina

WilliamsCoal660 MW
Fairfield Pumped StorageHydro587 MW
J Strom ThurmondHydro362 MW
Darlington CountyNatural gas316 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 417 MW solar plant and a 417 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 South Carolina power plants · What South Carolina actually generates