Electric generating plantEIA plant no. 1385

Dale

Type
Conventional Steam Coal
Status
Retired April 2016
Nameplate (when running)
216 MW
Units
4
In service since
1954–1960
Operator
East Kentucky Power Coop, Inc
Location
Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky

Dale is retired. EIA's monthly generator inventory (EIA-860M, August 2026) lists every generator at this coal plant as retired; the last one retired in April 2016. It is not counted among Kentucky's operating plants or in any ranking on this site.

The figures below describe the plant when it ran: equipment from EIA Form 860 (2024).

The 216 MW is nameplate capacity: the most this plant's generators are rated to produce, not what it actually generates. EPA eGRID reports no positive net generation for it this year.

How it works

A steam plant burning coal

coal insteamwater returns1boiler burns coal2steam spins turbine3generator4cooling condenses steam
  1. A boiler burns coal to turn water into high-pressure steam.
  2. The steam pushes through a turbine, spinning it thousands of times a minute.
  3. The turbine's shaft turns a generator, which sends power to the grid.
  4. Spent steam is cooled back into water — by a cooling tower, a lake or a river — and pumped back to the boiler.

Why the numbers look like this: a boiler and turbine this size take hours to bring up from cold, so steam plants were built to run steadily for long stretches. A steam plant with a low capacity factor is usually being held in reserve, or run only through the hottest and coldest weeks.

This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.

Natural GasCoalOilHydroelectricSolarBiomass

Location

Address1925 Ford Road
CityWinchester
CountyClark County
StateKentucky
ZIP40391
Coordinates37.88060, -84.26190
OperatorEast Kentucky Power Coop, Inc

Generators (4)

IDTechnologyFuelNameplate capacityStatusOnline
3Conventional Steam CoalBituminous Coal81.0 MWRetired1957
4Conventional Steam CoalBituminous Coal81.0 MWRetired1960
1Conventional Steam CoalBituminous Coal27.0 MWRetired1954
2Conventional Steam CoalBituminous Coal27.0 MWRetired1954

Grid context

NERC RegionSERC
Balancing AuthorityPJM Interconnection, LLC

About Coal plants

Coal plants burn pulverized coal to boil water and spin steam turbines. They emit substantial CO₂, SO₂, and NOₓ along with mercury and particulate matter. Modern units include scrubbers and selective catalytic reduction; older units are increasingly being retired or converted to natural gas as economics shift.

Other plants in Clark County

View all plants in Clark County →

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