4th largest plant in Rhode Island · 1200th nationally
Ocean State Power is a natural gas power plant in Rhode Island with a nameplate capacity of 254 MW. It generates roughly 1.3M MWh per year — enough to power about 125,935 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 59% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time. At 971 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 (254 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 | Ocean State Power |
|---|---|
| Operator | Ocean State Power Co |
| City | Harrisville |
| County | Providence County |
| State | Rhode Island |
| ZIP | 02830 |
| Coordinates | 42.00972, -71.66891 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GEN3 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 88.6 MW | Operating | 1990 |
| GEN1 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 82.8 MW | Operating | 1990 |
| GEN2 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 82.8 MW | Operating | 1990 |
| CO₂ | 642.2k metric tons |
|---|---|
| SO₂ | 3 metric tons |
| NOₓ | 141 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 971 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 | NPCC |
|---|---|
| Balancing Authority | Iso New England Inc. |
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.