Big Creek 3
Southern California Edison CompanyFresno County
Big Creek 3 is a hydroelectric facility with 174.5 MW of EIA-reported nameplate capacity in Fresno County, California, registered as EIA Plant ID 319. Southern California Edison Co owns and operates the plant. Constructed in 1923, Big Creek Powerhouse No. 3 was the largest hydroelectric generating plant in the western United States at the time. It was later expanded to five generating units and remains part of Southern California Edison’s Big Creek Hydroelectric System. Commercial operation began in 1923.
Mapped infrastructure geometry associated with this asset.
Conventional Hydroelectric
Big Creek 3 is operating.
CAISO
EIA plant 319 · Inventory for Sep 2026.
| Generator | Technology | Status | Power (MW) | Energy (MWh) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Conventional Hydroelectric | Operating | 34 | Unknown |
| 2 | Conventional Hydroelectric | Operating | 34 | Unknown |
| 3 | Conventional Hydroelectric | Operating | 34 | Unknown |
| 4 | Conventional Hydroelectric | Operating | 36 | Unknown |
| 5 | Conventional Hydroelectric | Operating |
Similar plants ranked by technology, capacity, and distance.
Current generator records and technology attributes reported through EIA-860.
| Generator | Capacity | Technology | Operation | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 34 MW 34 MW summer | Conventional Hydroelectric HY | Oct 1923 | Operating |
| 2 | 34 MW 34 MW summer | Conventional Hydroelectric HY | Sep 1923 | Operating |
| 3 | 34 MW 33 MW summer | Conventional Hydroelectric HY | Oct 1923 | Operating |
| 4 | 36 MW 36 MW summer | Conventional Hydroelectric HY | Apr 1948 | Operating |
| 5 | 36.5 MW 36.5 MW summer |
Monthly EIA generation history and recent market-resource behavior where linked telemetry is available.
Deterministic links to ERCOT market resources, price records, outage disclosures, queue records, and nearby infrastructure. Candidate joins remain labeled until corroborated.
Source-backed project transactions, agreements, land records, permits, and environmental disclosures. Portfolio and adjacent-project facts remain explicitly scoped.
Parties, market resources, and identifiers tied to this asset, with owner, operator, developer, EPC, compliance provider, and interconnecting entity roles kept separate.
Project milestones and public references behind the asset profile.
Big Creek Powerhouse No. 3 was constructed and its first three generating units were placed on SCE’s lines during 1923. The historical record identifies the powerhouse as the largest hydroelectric generating plant in the western United States at that time.
CAISO · Fresno County
| 36.5 |
| Unknown |
Monthly generation is reported through EIA-923. Capacity factor uses the current EIA nameplate capacity and is shown only for complete calendar years.
| Largest reported plants | Capacity | State | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mountainview Generating Station | 1,036.8 MW | CA | |
| Cathode (Hinson) BESS | 200 MW | CA | |
| J S Eastwood | 199.8 MW | CA | |
| Mammoth Pool | 190 MW | CA | |
| Big Creek 3Current | 174.5 MW | CA | |
| Separator (Etiwanda) BESS | 112.5 MW | CA | |
| Big Creek 4 | 100 MW | CA | |
| Big Creek 1 | 88.4 MW | CA |
Portfolio membership follows the latest EIA-860 reporting entity. It does not imply ultimate ownership.
View full reporting portfolioEIA-860 lists generator 2 with this operating date.
EIA-860 lists generator 1, generator 3 with this operating date.
EIA-860 lists generator 4 with this operating date.
EIA-860 lists generator 5 with this operating date.
Southern California Edison filed a new-license application for Big Creek No. 3, FERC Project No. 120. The existing project was described as one powerhouse, Dam 6 and forebay, a water-conveyance system, and five turbine-generator units.
Big Creek 3 Unit 3 experienced an unplanned outage after generator field poles failed. SCE subsequently planned field-pole refurbishment and stator inspection work.
Answered from the published record above. Questions whose inputs this profile does not carry are omitted rather than estimated.
Big Creek 3 reports 174.5 MW hydroelectric of operating nameplate capacity. These technology ratings do not establish a common export limit. Source: EIA Sep 2026.
Big Creek 3 is a Conventional Hydroelectric facility in Fresno County, CA, participating in the CAISO market.
Big Creek 3 is in Fresno County, CA, inside the CAISO balancing area.
Big Creek 3 is operated by Southern California Edison Co according to the EIA generator inventory. Reporting membership does not by itself establish ultimate ownership.
Big Creek 3 reports a commercial operation date of 1923. Current status: operating. Source: EIA Sep 2026.
Big Creek 3 reported 760.2 GWh over the twelve months to 2026-07. Figures are net generation as filed to EIA-923.
Big Creek 3 on the Southern California Edison Company system.
By capacity, Big Creek 3 ranks #83 of 1,356 operating plants of the same technology nationally. It ranks #12 of 210 in CA.
Plants within 25 km, nearest first, regardless of technology. Proximity is straight-line distance between mapped plant coordinates; it does not by itself establish a shared point of interconnection.
