- Combustion
- Wind & solar
- Storage
- In development
- Under construction
- Retired
- 10 · 100 · 1,000 MW
Map
- Combustion
- Wind & solar
- Storage
- In development
- Under construction
- Retired
Big Brown: location and 6 exact-grade projects within 25 km. Basemap: Protomaps, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Big Brown
Power plant · Coal
Key facts
Power plant · Coalran 75% of 2017 Retired- Capacity
- Capacity: sourceEIA-860M · Open licenseMW
- Commissioned
- 1971
- Net generation, 2017
- 7,836,989 MWh
- Grid
- 345 kV to Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (ERCO)
- Location
- Freestone County, Texas
- Operated by
- Luminant Generation Company LLC
Output
- Gas
- Coal
- Oil
Details
Who’s behind it
- Owner
- Vistra Energy
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- Technology
- Coal source: “Conventional Steam Coal”
- Age
- 55 years since 1971
All 3 attributes from EIA-860M Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Gem |
|
| EPA greenhouse gas reporting (GHGRP) |
|
| Balancing authority code | ERCO |
Retirement
EIA-860M September 2026StatusEvery generator EIA lists at this plant has retired. As of EIA-860M for September 2026.- Retired
- February 2018
- Capacity retired
- 1,186.8 MW
- Generators retired
- 2
| Generator | Technology | Nameplate | State | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Conventional Steam Coal | 593.4 MW | Retired | February 2018 |
| 2 | Conventional Steam Coal | 593.4 MW | Retired | February 2018 |
Grid
EIA-860 2025Grid fieldsAs the plant reported them to EIA-860 for 2025 (Schedule 2).- Grid voltage at the plant
- 345 kV
- Transmission or distribution system owner
- Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC
- Balancing authority
- Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc.
- NERC region
- TRE
Transmission lines within 25 km (10)
- 345 kV line (OSM way 172586886)
- 345 kV line (OSM way 172586889)
- 345 kV line (OSM way 172111113)
- 345 kV line (OSM way 172475144)
- 345 kV line (OSM way 172586890)
- 345 kV line (OSM way 172583761)
- 345 kV line (OSM way 172586884)
- 345 kV line (OSM way 172583768)
- 138 kV line (OSM way 1550045568)
- Oncor 345 kV line (OSM way 172583749)
Connection points within 25 km (4)
Can the connection be reused?
A plant that retires usually leaves its substation, transmission connection and interconnection agreement behind, and those may be reusable by a new project at the same site. FERC Order No. 845 lets an interconnection customer use surplus interconnection service at an existing site, and some transmission providers' tariffs let a replacement resource take over a retiring unit's interconnection service, usually within a set time after the retirement. Whether any such right still exists here, who holds it and on what terms depends on the owner, the transmission provider and timing; this page does not establish any of that.
Ownership
2 companies2| Company | Role | Share | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luminant Generation Company LLC | Operator | EIA-860M | ||
| Vistra Energy | Owner | 100.0% | 31 Dec 2023 | EPA GHGRP |
Timeline
- Stated Units 1, 2 scheduled to retire, 1,186.8 MW · EIA-860M
- In service · EIA-860M
Sources
7 sourcesSources EIA-860M · GEM · OpenStreetMap · ERCOT · EIA · EIA-860M Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory · EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program — facility register with parent-company shares (Envirofacts pub_dim_facility; FLIGHT)
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Sources
- EIA-860M Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory
- Global Energy Monitor — Global Integrated Power Tracker (unit-level power plants, eight technologies, all statuses)Global 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.
- OpenStreetMap power network, US — transmission lines and cables (69 kV and up, or voltage not tagged) and substations, from Geofabrik's US state extracts© OpenStreetMap contributors. Power lines, cables and substations filtered and reshaped by Inframation from the OpenStreetMap elements in Overture Maps' base/infrastructure theme; this derived database is available under the Open Database License 1.0 as GeoParquet files at https://tiles.inframation.io/grid/osm-power/ (latest.json names the current version's files; licence: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright)
- ERCOT GIS Report (Generator Interconnection Status)
- EIA Open Data bulk file — Electricity (ELEC.zip; monthly plant net generation and fuel consumption since 2001)Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electricity bulk data (Form EIA-923 monthly plant series)
- EIA-860M Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory
- EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program — facility register with parent-company shares (Envirofacts pub_dim_facility; FLIGHT)
Around this plant
Nearby
within 25 km| Project | Kind | Away | MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Brown Postponed | Coal | 0.0 km | 800 |
| Amerada Studied | Solar + storage | 7.3 km | 452.4 |
| Timber Cove Solar Studied | Solar | 10.8 km | 100.5 |
| Apex Bethel Energy Center Postponed | Storage | 15.3 km | 317 |
| Avant Prairie ESS Studied | Storage | 22.6 km | 201.7 |
| Armadillo Solar Center Under construction | Solar | 24.4 km | 150.5 |