498th largest plant in Texas · 2735th nationally
Copper is a natural gas power plant in Texas with a nameplate capacity of 86.9 MW. It generates roughly 48.7k MWh per year — enough to power about 4,636 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 6% reflects intermittent or peaking operation.
| Plant Name | Copper |
|---|---|
| Operator | El Paso Electric Co |
| City | El Paso |
| County | El Paso County |
| State | Texas |
| ZIP | 79915 |
| Coordinates | 31.75690, -106.37500 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 86.9 MW | Operating | 1980 |
| NOₓ | 100 metric tons |
|---|
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 | WECC |
|---|---|
| Balancing Authority | El Paso Electric Company |
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.