30th largest plant in New Mexico · 1882nd nationally
Rio Bravo is a natural gas power plant in New Mexico with a nameplate capacity of 150 MW. It generates roughly 552.3k MWh per year — enough to power about 52,598 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 42% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time. At 1379 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits above the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
| Plant Name | Rio Bravo |
|---|---|
| Operator | Public Service Co Of Nm |
| City | Albuquerque |
| County | Bernalillo County |
| State | New Mexico |
| ZIP | 87105 |
| Coordinates | 35.02600, -106.64400 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GT1 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 150 MW | Operating | 2000 |
| CO₂ | 380.9k metric tons |
|---|---|
| SO₂ | 2 metric tons |
| NOₓ | 118 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 1379 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 | Public Service Company Of New Mexico |
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.