EIA-860 Operating Generators

Each record describes one generating unit, including its nameplate capacity, technology and prime mover, primary energy source, operating status, owner or operator, balancing authority, and the latitude and longitude of its plant. It is the standard reference for understanding what physical generation exists on the grid, where it sits, and how it is fueled. Annual final filings give the authoritative year-end picture, while the monthly EIA-860M updates track newly proposed, added, and retired units between annual releases, making it useful for tracking the fleet's evolving capacity mix and the buildout of new resources.

Query contract

Resolve the latest inventory snapshot first with a single SELECT max(event_time) under the same balancing-authority filter, then pin event_time to that exact value in the counting SELECT. Never count across snapshots.

Analysis rules

A plant count is uniqExact(plant_id); a unit count is count(). The two differ (multi-generator plants), so name which one you report.Fuel identity is the technology column (for example 'Solar Photovoltaic', 'Batteries'), with energy_source_code as the fuel-code alternative; filter one of them explicitly rather than matching plant names.

Interpretation

EIA inventory snapshots are monthly with a multi-month publication delay, so the operating fleet shown trails the present by several months. Nameplate capacity is not dispatch, availability, or output.

Plans

See available download and API access options. View pricing

MCP

Connect an MCP client and load the contract with describe_data before calling query_data.ERCOT MCPCAISO MCPNYISO MCPPJM MCPSPP MCPMISO MCPISO-NE MCPBPA MCPGreat Britain MCPAPI reference

HTTP endpoint

POST /api/v1/datasets/eia860_operating_generators/query

Full history

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