36th largest plant in Texas · 344th nationally
Tenaska Frontier Generation Station is a natural gas power plant in Texas with a nameplate capacity of 940 MW. It generates roughly 4.2M MWh per year — enough to power about 397,520 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 51% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time. At 877 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 (940 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 | Tenaska Frontier Generation Station |
|---|---|
| Operator | Tenaska Frontier Partners Ltd |
| City | Shiro |
| County | Grimes County |
| State | Texas |
| ZIP | 77876 |
| Coordinates | 30.59240, -95.91780 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STG1 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 390 MW | Operating | 2000 |
| GTG1 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 183 MW | Operating | 2000 |
| GTG2 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 183 MW | Operating | 2000 |
| GTG3 | Natural Gas Fired Combined Cycle | Natural Gas | 183 MW | Operating | 2000 |
| Owner | Location | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tanaska Grimes Partners Lp | Omaha, NE | 7425.0% |
| Montana Grimes Frontier Lp | Omaha, NE | 2475.0% |
| Tenaska Vi Partners Lp | Omaha, NE | 47.0% |
| Diamond Frontier Llc | Omaha, NE | 28.0% |
| Montana Grimes County Llc | Omaha, NE | 25.0% |
Ownership reported to EIA Form 860. Percentages reflect reported generator-level ownership share, averaged when a plant has multiple generators.
| CO₂ | 1.8M metric tons |
|---|---|
| SO₂ | 9 metric tons |
| NOₓ | 632 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 877 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 | Electric Reliability Council Of Texas, 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.