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Nickajack

Hydro power plant · Marion County, Tennessee

Nameplate capacity
104 MW
Rank in Tennessee
#28
of 106 plants
In service since
1968
February 1968

Details

Primary fuel
Hydro
Technology
Conventional Hydroelectric
Operator
Tennessee Valley Authority
County
Marion County
Generating units
4
Share of state capacity
0.44%
Rank among hydro plants in Tennessee
#12 of 29
EIA plant code
3409

Generating units

Individual generating units at Nickajack
UnitTechnologyNameplateSummerOnlineStatus
2Conventional Hydroelectric28 MW27 MW1968Operating
1Conventional Hydroelectric27 MW28 MW1968Operating
3Conventional Hydroelectric24 MW25 MW1968Operating
4Conventional Hydroelectric24 MW25 MW1968Operating

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 Tennessee

Norris DamHydro131 MW
Boone DamHydro106 MW
Old HickoryHydro104 MW
OETN1Solar100 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 104 MW solar plant and a 104 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 Tennessee power plants · What Tennessee actually generates