29th largest plant in Massachusetts · 3274th nationally
Waters River is a natural gas power plant in Massachusetts with a nameplate capacity of 64.9 MW. It generates roughly 4.3k MWh per year — enough to power about 410 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 1% reflects intermittent or peaking operation. At 892 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits above the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
| Plant Name | Waters River |
|---|---|
| Operator | City Of Peabody - (Ma) |
| City | Peabody |
| County | Essex County |
| State | Massachusetts |
| ZIP | 01960 |
| Coordinates | 42.54295, -70.92831 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 43.6 MW | Operating | 1990 |
| 1 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 21.3 MW | Operating | 1971 |
| CO₂ | 1.9k metric tons |
|---|---|
| NOₓ | 11 metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 892 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.