Washington conventional hydro share and national rank, 2001-2025

What this dataset measures

Tests two common claims: that hydropower supplies most of Washington's electricity, and that Grand Coulee is the largest U.S. power plant. Both depend on the measure used (in-state generation versus delivered power; capacity versus annual output), so the release keeps each measure separate.

Geography

Washington State, United States

Unit of observation

Mostly one state-year; plant tables are one EIA plant in 2025.

Update cadence

Immutable research release; EIA annual data for 2026 would be published as a new version.

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

Washington conventional hydro share and national rank, 2001-2025

Hydro share of in-state net generation and Washington's rank among the 50 states and DC for conventional hydroelectric generation.

Unit of observation: One year for Washington.

wa-hydro-annual.csv text/csv · 1.8 KB (1,894 bytes)

All 25 rows 10 columns Download the file

All 25 rows

year calendar year	total_net_generation_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	hydro_net_generation_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	hydro_share_pct percent	non_hydro_net_generation_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	wa_hydro_rank_among_states rank (1 = most)	us_hydro_net_generation_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	wa_share_of_us_hydro_pct percent	second_ranked_state USPS state code	second_ranked_state_hydro_mwh megawatthours (MWh)
2001	83048669	54733895	65.9	28314774	1	216961044	25.2	OR	28644552
2002	102765048	78166664	76.1	24598384	1	264328832	29.6	OR	34413167
2003	100094691	71756783	71.7	28337908	1	275806327	26	CA	36370704
2004	102165052	71575700	70.1	30589352	1	268417305	26.7	CA	34140929
2005	101965850	72074649	70.7	29891201	1	270321255	26.7	CA	39631867
2006	108203155	82007629	75.8	26195526	1	289246415	28.4	CA	48047380
2007	106990217	78829195	73.7	28161022	1	247509975	31.8	OR	33587439
2008	110828451	77636758	70.1	33191693	1	254831384	30.5	OR	33805024
2009	104470133	72932704	69.8	31537429	1	273445095	26.7	OR	33033513
2010	103472729	68288383	66	35184346	1	260203069	26.2	CA	33430870
2011	115262601	91817702	79.7	23444899	1	319354903	28.8	CA	42557467
2012	116835473	89464355	76.6	27371118	1	276240218	32.4	OR	39410178
2013	114172916	78155087	68.5	36017829	1	268565383	29.1	OR	33097667
2014	116334363	79463144	68.3	36871219	1	259366620	30.6	OR	35261936
2015	109287458	73404916	67.2	35882542	1	249080085	29.5	OR	31253851
2016	114086582	78345809	68.7	35740773	1	267812153	29.3	OR	34549366
2017	115912078	82182855	70.9	33729223	1	300332930	27.4	CA	42363141
2018	116756729	80883377	69.3	35873352	1	292523989	27.7	OR	35442773
2019	106463608	66018323	62	40445285	1	287873730	22.9	CA	38354769
2020	116114468	76409659	65.8	39704809	1	285273894	26.8	OR	31920643
2021	110808401	71379357	64.4	39429044	1	251584843	28.4	NY	28765477
2022	116690500	78916435	67.6	37774065	1	254788667	31	OR	31304316
2023	102960605	61445849	59.7	41514756	1	245002339	25.1	CA	32381318
2024	102397711	60736309	59.3	41661402	1	242896055	25	CA	29453931
2025	101670382	64661722	63.6	37008660	1	241302576	26.8	OR	28706260

10 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Data year.	calendar year	observed
total_net_generation_mwh	integer	Washington total net generation, all sources and producer types.	megawatthours (MWh)	observed
hydro_net_generation_mwh	integer	Conventional hydroelectric net generation (excludes pumped storage).	megawatthours (MWh)	observed
hydro_share_pct	number	Hydro share of in-state net generation.	percent	derived
non_hydro_net_generation_mwh	integer	Total minus conventional hydro.	megawatthours (MWh)	derived
wa_hydro_rank_among_states	integer	Rank of Washington's conventional hydro generation among the 50 states and DC.	rank (1 = most)	derived
us_hydro_net_generation_mwh	integer	Sum of conventional hydro across the 50 states and DC.	megawatthours (MWh)	derived
wa_share_of_us_hydro_pct	number	Washington share of U.S. conventional hydro generation.	percent	derived
second_ranked_state	string	State with the second-largest conventional hydro generation that year.	USPS state code	derived
second_ranked_state_hydro_mwh	integer	That state's conventional hydro generation.	megawatthours (MWh)	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• dataset-parts.json Documentation · application/json · 71.3 KB (73,000 bytes)

  Sources, tables, events, saved analyses and replications of this dataset version, as JSON.

• source-manifest.json Source manifest · application/json · 2 KB (2,088 bytes)

  URL, byte length and SHA-256 of every downloaded source file.

• README.md Documentation · text/markdown · 2.1 KB (2,149 bytes)

  Contents, definitions and reproduction steps.

• quality-report.md Quality report · text/markdown · 1.3 KB (1,311 bytes)

  Cross-checks and data-quality notes.

• build.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 15.1 KB (15,416 bytes)

  Reads the EIA and Commerce source files and writes every table (Node.js 20 + SheetJS).

• build_payload.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 40.7 KB (41,716 bytes)

  Writes the release files and this dataset's FactHub content.

Sources

1. U.S. Energy Information Administration, State Historical Tables: Net Generation by State by Type of Producer by Energy Source, 1990-2025 (Final, released September 2026) Primary source for annual Washington net generation by energy source and for the state hydro ranking (EIA-923 and predecessor forms).

   Retrieved October 9, 2026. U.S. federal government work (public domain). Linked as a public record; the source file is not redistributed. Its SHA-256 is recorded here and in source-manifest.json.

   Archived copy captured October 9, 2026

2. U.S. Energy Information Administration, State Electricity Profile tables for Washington (data year 2024) Table 10 (supply and disposition: retail sales, international trade, net interstate trade) and cross-check of Table 5 generation totals.

   Retrieved October 9, 2026. U.S. federal government work (public domain). Linked as a public record; the source file is not redistributed. Its SHA-256 is recorded here and in source-manifest.json.

   Archived copy captured October 9, 2026

3. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-860 Annual Electric Generator Report, 2025 final data (eia8602025.zip, file 3_1_Generator_Y2025.xlsx, sheet Operable) Generator-level nameplate, summer and winter capacity used to rank U.S. plants by capacity.

   Retrieved October 9, 2026. U.S. federal government work (public domain). Linked as a public record; the source file is not redistributed. Its SHA-256 is recorded here and in source-manifest.json.

   Archived copy captured October 9, 2026

4. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-923 Power Plant Operations Report, 2025 final data (f923_2025.zip, Schedules 2-5, Page 1 Generation and Fuel Data) Plant-level 2025 net generation used to rank U.S. plants by annual output.

   Retrieved October 9, 2026. U.S. federal government work (public domain). Linked as a public record; the source file is not redistributed. Its SHA-256 is recorded here and in source-manifest.json.

   Archived copy captured October 9, 2026

5. Washington State Department of Commerce, Fuel Mix Disclosure Consumption-side check: the aggregate 2024 fuel mix of electricity Washington utilities reported delivering to Washington customers.

   Retrieved October 9, 2026. Washington State public record. Linked as a public record; the source file is not redistributed. Its SHA-256 is recorded here and in source-manifest.json.

   Archived copy captured October 9, 2026

6. Washington State Department of Commerce, chart "Washington electric utilities aggregate 2024 fuel mix" (image on the Fuel Mix Disclosure page) The labeled percentages transcribed into the wa-utility-fuel-mix-2024 table.

   Retrieved October 9, 2026. Washington State public record. Linked as a public record; the source file is not redistributed. Its SHA-256 is recorded here and in source-manifest.json.

7. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Grand Coulee Dam: About Operator statement of Grand Coulee generating capacity (6,809 MW) and typical output (up to 21 billion kWh), used as a replication check.

   Retrieved October 9, 2026. U.S. federal government work (public domain). Linked as a public record; the source file is not redistributed. Its SHA-256 is recorded here and in source-manifest.json.

   Archived copy captured October 9, 2026

8. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Today in Energy, "Drought conditions reduce hydropower generation, particularly in the Pacific Northwest" (November 7, 2024) Context on 2023-2024 Pacific Northwest hydro conditions; states Grand Coulee net summer capacity as 6.7 GW.

   Retrieved October 9, 2026. U.S. federal government work (public domain). Linked as a public record; the source file is not redistributed. Its SHA-256 is recorded here and in source-manifest.json.

   Archived copy captured October 9, 2026

9. Washington State Department of Ecology, news release, April 16, 2024 drought declaration Dates the 2024 statewide drought emergency and the 2023 emergency covering 12 watersheds.

   Retrieved October 9, 2026. Washington State public record. Linked as a public record; the source file is not redistributed. Its SHA-256 is recorded here and in source-manifest.json.

   Archived copy captured October 9, 2026

Limitations and reproducibility

Fully reproducible from public downloads with Node.js 20 and SheetJS.: source-manifest.json lists every downloaded file with URL and SHA-256; build.js regenerates every table from those files and build_payload.js regenerates the release. The Commerce fuel-mix percentages are transcribed from a chart and are typed into build.js.

• Net generation measures electricity produced by plants located in Washington, not the electricity Washington customers use; Washington trades large volumes with other states and Canada.
• Conventional hydro excludes pumped storage, which EIA reports separately and which is near zero or negative in Washington.
• Washington's hydro output depends on Columbia River Basin water supply, so any single year can differ from the long-run pattern; 2023 and 2024 were drought years.
• Plant rankings use EIA plant codes and 2025 data only; capacity rankings use year-end operable generators.
• The consumption-side fuel mix covers 2024 only and includes 15.44% unspecified power.