Watts Bar Hydro

OperatingHydro

Ranked #3 of 29 Hydro plants in TN#109 of 1454 nationally

174.6 MW Hydro operating in Rhea, TN — Tennessee Valley Authority

EIAGEMWD

174.6 MW

Nameplate Capacity

Generators

units

Conventional Hydroelectric

Technology

1942

Operating Since

Location

Coordinates

35.6197, -84.7855

County

Rhea, TN

Nearby Plants

Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
Nuclear2539.8 MW · 2.0 km

Ownership & Operator

Field	EIA	GEM	Wikidata
Operator	Tennessee Valley Authority	Tennessee Valley Authority	—
Owner(s)	Tennessee Valley Authority	Tennessee Valley Authority	—
Status	Operating	operating	—

Ownership Chain

About

Watts Bar Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Meigs and Rhea counties in Tennessee, United States. The dam is one of nine dams on the main Tennessee River channel operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s to provide flood control and electricity and to help create a continuous navigable channel along the entire length of the river. The dam is the technical boundary between the 39,090-acre (15,820 ha) Watts Bar Lake— which it impounds— and 36,240-acre (14,670 ha) Chickamauga Lake, which stretches from the dam's tailwaters southward to Chattanooga.

Read more on Wikipedia

Watts Bar Hydro is a hydroelectric power plant located in Rhea County, Tennessee. The plant is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Commissioned in 1942, it utilizes conventional hydroelectric technology and has a total capacity of 174.6 MW distributed across five generators. The plant's primary fuel source is water (WAT).

In the most recent year of available data, Watts Bar Hydro generated 895,606 MWh of electricity, achieving a capacity factor of 58.1%. The plant operates within the Tennessee Valley Authority balancing authority area and the SERC NERC region. Watts Bar Hydro ranks as the 3rd largest hydroelectric plant out of 13 in Tennessee, and 109th out of 194 nationally.

Generated from EIA, GEM, and public data sources