30th largest plant in Louisiana · 1007th nationally
Westlake Plaquemine is a natural gas power plant in Louisiana with a nameplate capacity of 306 MW. It generates roughly 1.5M MWh per year — enough to power about 140,941 average U.S. homes.
Its capacity factor of 55% puts it in the middle range — running steadily but not full-time. At 609 lb CO₂/MWh, its emission rate sits below the national grid average of roughly 800 lb/MWh.
| Plant Name | Westlake Plaquemine |
|---|---|
| Operator | Westlake Chemicals & Vinyls Llc |
| City | Plaquemine |
| County | Iberville County |
| State | Louisiana |
| ZIP | 70765 |
| Coordinates | 30.25860, -91.18500 |
This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.
| ID | Technology | Fuel | Capacity | Status | Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X773 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 102 MW | Operating | 1997 |
| X774 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 102 MW | Operating | 1997 |
| X775 | Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine | Natural Gas | 102 MW | Operating | 1997 |
| CO₂ | 450.9k metric tons |
|---|---|
| SO₂ | 12 metric tons |
| NOₓ | 1.2k metric tons |
| CO₂ Rate | 609 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.