571st largest plant in Texas · 3972nd nationally
Port Arthur Texas Refinery is a natural gas power plant in Texas with a nameplate capacity of 38.4 MW. It generates roughly 234.8k MWh per year — enough to power about 22,366 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 70% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time. At 598 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits below the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
| Plant Name | Port Arthur Texas Refinery |
|---|---|
| Operator | Total Petrochemicals Usa Inc |
| City | Port Arthur |
| County | Jefferson County |
| State | Texas |
| ZIP | 77642 |
| Coordinates | 29.96494, -93.89128 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GEN1 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 38.4 MW | Operating | 1988 |
| CO₂ | 70.2k metric tons |
|---|---|
| SO₂ | 2 metric tons |
| NOₓ | 192 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 598 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 | SERC |
|---|---|
| Balancing Authority | Midcontinent Independent Transmission System Operator, 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.