Washington electricity supply and disposition, 2001-2024

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 electricity supply and disposition, 2001-2024

EIA State Electricity Profile Table 10 rows: generation, retail sales, direct use, losses, international trade and EIA's computed net interstate trade, with two derived ratios.

Unit of observation: One year for Washington.

wa-supply-disposition.csv text/csv · 1.9 KB (1,991 bytes)

All 24 rows 10 columns Download the file

All 24 rows

year calendar year	total_net_generation_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	retail_sales_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	direct_use_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	estimated_losses_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	international_imports_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	international_exports_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	net_interstate_trade_mwh megawatthours (MWh)	generation_to_retail_sales_ratio ratio	hydro_to_retail_sales_pct percent
2001	83048665	79666210	1345849	6230173	3152421	8209880	-10176675	1.04	68.7
2002	102765048	76491883	1375105	5737628	4361543	5548924	16434917	1.34	102.2
2003	100094691	78133501	1392566	5737197	3445319	5401791	11143844	1.28	91.8
2004	102165052	79981608	1394018	5860732	2228741	7076947	7523404	1.28	89.5
2005	101965850	83425200	522383	5575785	2532518	5537369	5979960	1.22	86.4
2006	108203155	85033335	759485	5513465	2429604	11086396	4932257	1.27	96.4
2007	106990217	85741947	624040	5426820	3622104	6880724	10572266	1.25	91.9
2008	110828451	87332884	650283	5563148	2973166	10246628	8868168	1.27	88.9
2009	104470133	90210002	887911	5742536	3150023	9328182	638330	1.16	80.8
2010	103472729	90379970	1043383	5583473	2211420	9164045	-1279785	1.14	75.6
2011	115262601	93724917	1003912	5791603	3045037	9805972	7387481	1.23	98
2012	116835473	92336441	818833	5000384	2246709	8420115	10927423	1.27	96.9
2013	114172916	92882723	1244298	4989626	1889261	8220860	7323509	1.23	84.1
2014	116334363	92140777	944590	4797765	1687101	9226485	9720493	1.26	86.2
2015	109287458	90116086	949246	4495499	3618887	6929097	9011902	1.21	81.5
2016	114086582	88885316	1028209	4639021	1514335	2292801	17652645	1.28	88.1
2017	115912078	91948172	991401	5001836	1814257	2883609	16260529	1.26	89.4
2018	116756729	90005791	987941	4642287	1435330	5447095	16546263	1.3	89.9
2019	106463608	91052796	889650	4937236	2409006	6289765	5475850	1.17	72.5
2020	116114468	86706144	841296	4829035	6831412	1880719	28818941	1.34	88.1
2021	110808401	88198668	849629	4149437	5333712	1413460	20967619	1.26	80.9
2022	116690498	90897320	750773	4916769	5786236	2118283	23957835	1.28	86.8
2023	102960605	89552630	675647	3966032	743231	10225872	-1170693	1.15	68.6
2024	102397711	89981629	445604	4198502	1232660	8777110	-385768	1.14	67.5

10 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Data year.	calendar year	observed
total_net_generation_mwh	integer	Table 10 Total net generation.	megawatthours (MWh)	observed
retail_sales_mwh	integer	Table 10 Total electric industry sales to ultimate customers in Washington.	megawatthours (MWh)	observed
direct_use_mwh	integer	Table 10 Direct use.	megawatthours (MWh)	observed
estimated_losses_mwh	integer	Table 10 Estimated losses (allocated by EIA from utility-level reports).	megawatthours (MWh)	estimated
international_imports_mwh	integer	Table 10 Total international imports (Canada).	megawatthours (MWh)	observed
international_exports_mwh	integer	Table 10 Total international exports.	megawatthours (MWh)	observed
net_interstate_trade_mwh	integer	Table 10 Net interstate trade; positive = net exporter to other states, negative = net importer. EIA computes it as a residual.	megawatthours (MWh)	estimated
generation_to_retail_sales_ratio	number	Total net generation divided by retail sales.	ratio	derived
hydro_to_retail_sales_pct	number	In-state conventional hydro generation as a percent of in-state retail sales. A volume ratio, not the share of hydro in what customers bought.	percent	derived

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.