- Clean firm
- Operating
- 10 · 100 · 1,000 MW
Map
- Clean firm
- Operating
Big Bend Dam: location. Basemap: Protomaps, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Big Bend Dam
Power plant · Hydro
Key facts
Power plant · Hydroran 16% of 2025 Operating- Capacity
- Capacity: sourceEIA-860M · Open licenseMW
- Commissioned
- 1964
- Net generation, 2025
- 745,769 MWh
- Grid
- 230 kV to WAPA-- Western Area Power Administration (SWPP)
- Location
- Buffalo County, South Dakota
- Operated by
- USACE-OmahaSourceEIA-860M Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory
Operations
- Net generation, 2025
- 745,769
MWh - Fuel burned, 2025
- 2,544,564
MMBtu - Capacity factor, 2025
- 15.8
% - Heat rate, 2025
- Not stated
| Year | Net generation (MWh) | Fuel burned (MMBtu) | Capacity factor | Heat rate (Btu/kWh) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 745,769 | 2,544,564 | 15.8% | — |
| 2024 | 812,996 | 2,773,942 | 17.2% | — |
| 2023 | 770,542 | 2,629,088 | 16.3% | — |
| 2022 | 782,870 | 2,671,152 | 16.6% | — |
| 2021 | 887,779 | 7,851,518 | 18.8% | — |
| 2020 | 1,022,097 | 8,960,724 | 21.6% | — |
| 2019 | 1,525,056 | 13,580,622 | 32.3% | — |
| 2018 | 1,193,249 | 10,863,339 | 25.3% | — |
| 2017 | 954,403 | 8,792,913 | 20.2% | — |
| 2016 | 726,338 | 6,705,552 | 15.4% | — |
| 2015 | 843,567 | 7,861,200 | 17.9% | — |
| 2014 | 1,032,493 | 9,819,009 | 21.9% | — |
| 2013 | 742,763 | 7,086,702 | 15.8% | — |
| 2012 | 1,106,245 | 10,527,029 | 23.4% | — |
| 2011 | 1,599,724 | 15,542,917 | 33.9% | — |
| 2010 | 939,594 | 9,166,680 | 19.9% | — |
| 2009 | 666,457 | 6,504,620 | 14.1% | — |
| 2008 | 466,998 | 4,601,800 | 9.9% | — |
| 2007 | 467,404 | 4,619,822 | 9.9% | — |
| 2006 | 666,899 | 6,614,971 | 14.1% | — |
| 2005 | 598,564 | 5,985,041 | 12.7% | — |
| 2004 | 700,475 | 7,020,160 | 14.8% | — |
| 2003 | 820,450 | 8,402,228 | 17.4% | — |
| 2002 | 816,777 | 8,309,072 | 17.3% | — |
| 2001 | 609,816 | 6,301,229 | 12.9% | — |
How these are worked out
Net generation and fuel burned are the monthly figures EIA publishes in its bulk electricity file, from the plant's Form 923 reports; a year is the sum of its months. Capacity factor is a full year's net generation over today's nameplate capacity times the hours in that year (8,784 in a leap year), so a plant uprated or partly retired since reads against its current size; heat rate is fuel burned over net generation, for plants that burn fuel. A year with fewer than twelve months stated has no capacity factor, and a value outside the plausible range is left blank rather than shown. By month, the charts apply the same rules to each month's own hours and fuel.
Sources
3 sourcesSources
- EIA-860M
- GEMGlobal Integrated Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, September 2026 release (https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-integrated-power-tracker), CC BY 4.0. Modified by Inframation: TransitionZero-sourced rows removed; statuses and technologies mapped to Inframation's vocabulary; figures aggregated. Copyright © Global Energy Monitor. Global Integrated Power Tracker, September 2026 release. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- EIASource: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electricity bulk data (Form EIA-923 monthly plant series)