core_ferc1__yearly_steam_plants_sched402

package: pudl

Annual time series of plant statistics for steam plants with a capacity of 25+ MW, internal combustion and gas-turbine plants of 10+ MW, and all nuclear plants.

Most-recent data:

2025

Processing:

Data has been cleaned and organized into well-modeled tables that serve as building blocks for downstream wide tables and analyses.

Source:

FERC Form 1 -- Annual Report of Major Electric Utilities (Schedule 402)

Primary key:

This table has no primary key. The best approximation for primary keys for this table would be: report_year, utility_id_ferc1, plant_name_ferc1. FERC does not publish plant IDs. The main identifying column is plant_name_ferc1 but that is a free-form string field and there are duplicate records.

Usage Warnings

  • FERC does not restrict respondents to report unique and non-duplicative plant records. There are sporadic instances of respondents reporting portions of plants and then the total plant (ex: unit 1, unit 2 and total). Use caution when aggregating.

  • FERC data is notoriously difficult to extract cleanly, and often contains free-form strings, non-labeled total rows and lack of IDs. See Notable Irregularities for details.

Columns
record_id

Identifier indicating original FERC Form 1 source record. format: {table_name}_{report_year}_{report_prd}_{respondent_id}_{spplmnt_num}_{row_number}. Unique within FERC Form 1 DB tables which are not row-mapped.

utility_id_ferc1

PUDL-assigned utility ID, identifying a FERC1 utility. This is an auto-incremented ID and is not expected to be stable from year to year.

report_year

Four-digit year in which the data was reported.

plant_name_ferc1

Name of the plant, as reported to FERC. This is a freeform string, not guaranteed to be consistent across references to the same plant.

plant_type

Type of plant.

construction_type

Type of plant construction ('outdoor', 'semioutdoor', or 'conventional'). Categorized by PUDL based on our best guess of intended value in FERC1 freeform strings.

construction_year

Year the plant's oldest still operational unit was built.

installation_year

Year the plant's most recently built unit was installed.

capacity_mw

Total installed (nameplate) capacity, in megawatts.

peak_demand_mw

Net peak demand for 60 minutes. Note: in some cases peak demand for other time periods may have been reported instead, if hourly peak demand was unavailable.

plant_hours_connected_while_generating

Hours the plant was connected to load while generating in the report year.

plant_capability_mw

Net plant capability in megawatts.

water_limited_capacity_mw

Plant capacity in MW when limited by condenser water.

not_water_limited_capacity_mw

Plant capacity in MW when not limited by condenser water.

avg_num_employees

The average number of employees assigned to each plant.

net_generation_mwh

Net electricity generation for the specified period in megawatt-hours (MWh).

capex_land

Cost of plant: land and land rights (USD).

capex_structures

Cost of plant: structures and improvements (USD).

capex_equipment

Cost of plant: equipment (USD).

capex_total

Total cost of plant (USD).

capex_per_mw

Cost of plant per megawatt of installed (nameplate) capacity. Nominal USD.

opex_operations

Production expenses: operations, supervision, and engineering (USD).

opex_fuel

Production expenses: fuel (USD).

opex_coolants

Cost of coolants and water (nuclear plants only)

opex_steam

Steam expenses.

opex_steam_other

Steam from other sources.

opex_transfer

Steam transferred (Credit).

opex_electric

Production expenses: electric expenses (USD).

opex_misc_power

Miscellaneous steam (or nuclear) expenses.

opex_rents

Production expenses: rents (USD).

opex_allowances

Allowances.

opex_engineering

Production expenses: maintenance, supervision, and engineering (USD).

opex_structures

Production expenses: maintenance of structures (USD).

opex_boiler

Maintenance of boiler (or reactor) plant.

opex_plants

Maintenance of electrical plant.

opex_misc_steam

Maintenance of miscellaneous steam (or nuclear) plant.

opex_production_total

Total operating expenses.

opex_per_mwh

Total production expenses (USD per MWh generated).

asset_retirement_cost

Asset retirement cost (USD).

core_ferc1__yearly_steam_plants_fuel_sched402

package: pudl

Annual time series of fuel cost and quantity for steam plants with a capacity of 25+ MW, internal combustion and gas-turbine plants of 10+ MW, and all nuclear plants.

Most-recent data:

2025

Processing:

Data has been cleaned and organized into well-modeled tables that serve as building blocks for downstream wide tables and analyses.

Source:

FERC Form 1 -- Annual Report of Major Electric Utilities (Schedule 402)

Primary key:

This table has no primary key.

Usage Warnings

  • The fuel_type_code_pudl is inferred from a free-form string field.

  • FERC data is notoriously difficult to extract cleanly, and often contains free-form strings, non-labeled total rows and lack of IDs. See Notable Irregularities for details.

Additional Details

This table is a subset of the steam plant table reported on page 402 of FERC Form 1.

Columns
record_id

Identifier indicating original FERC Form 1 source record. format: {table_name}_{report_year}_{report_prd}_{respondent_id}_{spplmnt_num}_{row_number}. Unique within FERC Form 1 DB tables which are not row-mapped.

utility_id_ferc1

PUDL-assigned utility ID, identifying a FERC1 utility. This is an auto-incremented ID and is not expected to be stable from year to year.

report_year

Four-digit year in which the data was reported.

plant_name_ferc1

Name of the plant, as reported to FERC. This is a freeform string, not guaranteed to be consistent across references to the same plant.

fuel_type_code_pudl

Simplified fuel type code used in PUDL

fuel_units

Reported unit of measure for fuel.

fuel_consumed_units

Consumption of the fuel type in physical unit. Note: this is the total quantity consumed for both electricity and, in the case of combined heat and power plants, process steam production.

fuel_mmbtu_per_unit

Heat content of the fuel in millions of Btus per physical unit.

fuel_cost_per_unit_burned

Average cost of fuel consumed in the report year per reported fuel unit (USD).

fuel_cost_per_unit_delivered

Average cost of fuel delivered in the report year per reported fuel unit (USD).

fuel_cost_per_mmbtu

Average fuel cost per MMBTU of heat content in nominal USD.