33rd largest plant in Virginia · 1814th nationally
Covington Facility is a natural gas power plant in Virginia with a nameplate capacity of 161 MW. It generates roughly 663.1k MWh per year — enough to power about 63,148 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 47% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time.
Ghost bars are each month's theoretical maximum (161 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 | Covington Facility |
|---|---|
| Operator | Westrock Corp |
| City | Covington |
| County | Alleghany County |
| State | Virginia |
| ZIP | 24426 |
| Coordinates | 37.79972, -79.99470 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GEN7 | Wood/Wood Waste Biomass | Wood/Wood Waste | 82.4 MW | Operating | 2013 |
| GEN4 | Wood/Wood Waste Biomass | Black Liquor | 34.0 MW | Operating | 1980 |
| GEN5 | Conventional Steam Coal | Bituminous Coal | 34.0 MW | Operating | 1989 |
| GEN1 | Conventional Steam Coal | Bituminous Coal | 10.5 MW | Retired | 1939 |
| GEN2 | Conventional Steam Coal | Bituminous Coal | 10.5 MW | Retired | 1946 |
| GEN3 | Conventional Steam Coal | Bituminous Coal | 10.5 MW | Operating | 1951 |
| GEN6 | Wood/Wood Waste Biomass | Black Liquor | 5.5 MW | Retired | 1930 |
| SO₂ | 618 metric tons |
|---|---|
| NOₓ | 433 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 | 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.