17th largest plant in Virginia · 667th nationally
Bear Garden is a natural gas power plant in Virginia with a nameplate capacity of 559 MW. It generates roughly 3.0M MWh per year — enough to power about 287,917 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 62% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time. At 834 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits above the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
Ghost bars are each month's theoretical maximum (559 MW nameplate × hours in the month). Filled bars are actual net generation reported to EIA Form 923. The gap between them is capacity factor made visible.
| Plant Name | Bear Garden |
|---|---|
| Operator | Virginia Electric & Power Co |
| City | New Canton |
| County | Buckingham County |
| State | Virginia |
| ZIP | 23123 |
| Coordinates | 37.69556, -78.28528 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1C | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 262 MW | Operating | 2011 |
| 1B | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 152 MW | Operating | 2011 |
| 1A | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 145 MW | Operating | 2011 |
| CO₂ | 1.3M metric tons |
|---|---|
| SO₂ | 6 metric tons |
| NOₓ | 75 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 834 lb/MWh |
Annual totals and CO₂ rate reported by EPA eGRID for 2023. Reference averages are approximate U.S.-wide figures from the same dataset.
| NERC Region | SERC |
|---|---|
| Balancing Authority | Pjm Interconnection, Llc |
Natural gas plants are the workhorse of the modern grid. Combined-cycle units achieve very high efficiency and can ramp up and down quickly to balance variable renewables. They emit roughly half the CO₂ per MWh of coal and far less of other pollutants, but they still release upstream methane during fuel extraction.