10th largest plant in Oregon · 763rd nationally
Port Westward is a natural gas power plant in Oregon with a nameplate capacity of 483 MW. It generates roughly 3.1M MWh per year — enough to power about 292,147 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 72% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time. At 819 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 (483 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 | Port Westward |
|---|---|
| Operator | Portland General Electric Co |
| City | Clatskanie |
| County | Columbia County |
| State | Oregon |
| ZIP | 97016 |
| Coordinates | 46.17894, -123.17204 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 312 MW | Operating | 2007 |
| 2 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 171 MW | Operating | 2007 |
| CO₂ | 1.3M metric tons |
|---|---|
| SO₂ | 5 metric tons |
| NOₓ | 86 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 819 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 | Portland General Electric Company |
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.