451st largest plant in California · 3754th nationally
Elk Hills Cogen is a natural gas power plant in California with a nameplate capacity of 46.6 MW. It generates roughly 8.0k MWh per year — enough to power about 758 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 2% reflects intermittent or peaking operation. At 894 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits above the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
| Plant Name | Elk Hills Cogen |
|---|---|
| Operator | California Resources Elk Hills Llc |
| City | Tupman |
| County | Kern County |
| State | California |
| ZIP | 93276 |
| Coordinates | 35.47915, -119.73746 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U1 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 23.3 MW | Standby | 1994 |
| U2 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 23.3 MW | Standby | 1994 |
| CO₂ | 3.6k metric tons |
|---|---|
| NOₓ | 10 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 894 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 | WECC |
|---|---|
| Balancing Authority | California Independent System Operator |
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.