Where Electricity Gets Made in New Hampshire

New Hampshire produces more electricity than its roughly 1.4 million residents consume, and the plants behind that output are scattered across the whole state. Our directory holds 83 power plant records, from river hydro stations in the North Country to wood-fired and gas-fired units in the south. This page explains how those facilities are organized, who oversees them, and what you can realistically do with a listing.

One practical point first. A power plant is not a service counter. Most sites are fenced industrial properties with no public lobby, no walk-in hours and no staff assigned to answer general questions. The address in a listing tells you which town hosts the facility and which county it falls in. It does not mean you can arrive and ask for a permit, a job application or a bill adjustment.

Listings also differ in age and status. The Amoskeag Hydroelectric Station on Fletcher Street in Manchester is one of the older hydro sites on the Merrimack River. The General Electric Meters Division Power Plant on Main Street in Somersworth, by its name, points to an industrial site rather than a utility-scale generator. Before you plan anything around a listing, confirm that the plant still operates and find out who owns it today, because ownership has changed hands often since the 1990s.

Hydroelectric Stations on the Androscoggin, Merrimack and Connecticut Rivers

Water power built New Hampshire's mill towns, and it still shapes the list. Berlin has more listings than any other city in our data, and the Androscoggin River explains much of that. The Gorham Hydroelectric Station on Power House Road and the Errol Hydroelectric Project on Hydro Drive sit on the same river system. Both are in Coos County, along with the Berlin Gorham entry at 972 Main Street and the Psnh - Lost Nation Generating Station on Lost Nation Road in Northumberland.

Farther south, the Merrimack River carries the heaviest industrial history. In Merrimack County you will find Rolfe Canal Hydro on Washington Street in Concord, the Hooksett entry on Merrimack Street and the Hydro Power Plant on Commercial Street in Boscawen. Downstream in Hillsborough County, the Amoskeag station in Manchester and the Mine Falls Generating Station on Riverside Street in Nashua continue the chain toward Massachusetts.

The Connecticut River, which forms the western border with Vermont, is home to the Comerford Power Plant on New Hampshire Route 135 in Monroe and S C Moore on Saint Johnsbury Road in Littleton. Both are in Grafton County, the county with the most listings in our database. Ayers Island in Bristol sits on the Pemigewasset River, and Dodge Falls Associates in Bath sits on the Ammonoosuc.

Hydro sites matter to people who live or play near them. Releases can raise river levels within minutes below a dam. If you fish, paddle or walk the bank downstream of one of these stations, obey posted warnings and stay out of the tailrace, the channel that carries water away from the turbines. Many licensed projects provide boat launches or fishing access, and the terms of the federal license decide what the public may use.

Wood, Waste and Gas: Plants Beyond the River Valleys

Not every listing runs on water. Forests cover most of New Hampshire, so wood-fired generation has a long local record. Indeck Energy-Alexandria on Smith River Road in Alexandria, Dg Whitefield on Airport Road in Whitefield and Springfield Power on Fisher Corner Road in Springfield are examples that burn wood chips supplied by regional loggers and sawmills. These small plants usually buy fuel within a short haul, which keeps money circulating in rural communities.

The Wheelabrator Claremont Facility on Grissom Lane in Claremont, in Sullivan County, carries the name of a company best known for waste-to-energy operations. Plymouth Cogeneration Lp Power Plant on Tobey Road in Plymouth is a cogeneration listing, a type of plant that can supply both electricity and useful heat to a nearby customer.

Along the Seacoast, Rockingham County hosts Essential Power Newington on Old Dover Road, Schiller on Gosling Road in Portsmouth and the Hampton Facility on Merrill Industrial Drive. Seabrook Station, New Hampshire's only operating nuclear plant, also sits in the county. In Bow, Merrimack on River Road is the best-known fossil plant, long associated with coal, and its future has been a subject of public debate.

Which New Hampshire Agencies Oversee Power Plants

No single office handles everything. Oversight is split by what the plant does, and knowing the split saves you from calling the wrong agency.

State law has also separated generation from delivery since the electric restructuring of the 1990s. Public Service Company of New Hampshire, now part of Eversource, sold its fossil plants years ago, so many plants today belong to independent owners. The company that owns a plant is rarely the one that sends your bill. Eversource, Unitil, Liberty Utilities and the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative deliver power to homes, and you can buy supply from a competitive supplier or stay on your utility's default service.

Rural Grafton, Coos and Carroll Versus the Southern Cities

Geography changes how these facilities touch daily life. In Berlin, Franklin, Tamworth and Bath, a plant may be one of the larger taxpayers and employers in town, and neighbors often know its operators by name. In Manchester, Nashua and Concord, plants sit inside dense neighborhoods and near parks, so questions tend to involve river access, noise and redevelopment rather than jobs.

Rural distances matter too. A trip from Errol to Concord is a long drive, so phone and email beat showing up in person. Start with the owner's website or the utility named on your bill. For a pending project, search the Site Evaluation Committee's public docket. For an environmental concern, contact DES. For an emergency near any facility, call 911 first.

Write down the plant's exact name and street address from the listing, the date and time of your concern, and attach photos if you have them. Agencies respond faster to specifics than to general complaints.

Power plant facilities in New Hampshire include a mix of federal, state, and municipally owned generation assets that contribute to the region's overall electricity supply. New Hampshire's energy mix and the number of publicly owned facilities reflect the state's natural resources, regulatory environment, and historical development of its utility infrastructure.

Power Plant locations are available in 47 cities across New Hampshire. They are spread across 9 counties.

Areas with the highest concentration of power plant locations include Berlin, Tamworth, Franklin, often reflecting proximity to water resources, fuel supply infrastructure, or industrial demand centers.

Residents of New Hampshire who are customers of a municipal or public power utility can contact their local power authority for billing assistance, energy efficiency programs, and information about planned outages or infrastructure upgrades in their service area.

Power Plant by Counties

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Residents of New Hampshire who receive electricity service from a publicly owned utility can visit or contact that utility's customer service office to learn about outage reporting, billing options, and energy assistance programs. For information about a specific power generation facility in New Hampshire, contacting the state's public utility commission is often the best starting point.

Browse Power Plant by county across New Hampshire to find the nearest location.

Planning Around Power Plants in New Hampshire Towns

Power plants affect planning in ways that are easy to overlook until you buy a house or start a business near one. In New Hampshire, a plant's location often shapes local property tax, truck traffic and river access, so check the town's planning and assessing offices before you commit to a site.

Host communities sometimes negotiate payments or agreements with plant owners, and those discussions happen at selectboard and planning board meetings. Annual town meeting, held in March in most towns, gives voters a say on budgets that depend on that tax base.

Weather is the other factor. The December 2008 ice storm left hundreds of thousands of customers without power across the state, and most outages in rural areas come from damaged lines, not from generation. A nearby plant does not guarantee fast restoration, since your utility restores service circuit by circuit.

Winter demand also matters. Cold snaps push heating and electric demand up together, and ISO New England sometimes asks for conservation during extreme events. A flashlight, a battery radio and a few days of drinking water are more useful than knowing which plant serves you.

Finally, treat our listings as a starting point. Names and owners change, and a few entries may refer to sites that no longer generate. Confirm details with the owner, the town or the responsible agency before you rely on them.

Power Plant Questions New Hampshire Residents Ask

Large projects go to the Site Evaluation Committee under RSA 162-H. The statute covers electric generating facilities of 30 megawatts or more, and the committee can also take smaller projects when a petitioner asks and it finds state-level review is warranted. It holds public hearings, accepts comments from towns and residents, and issues a certificate with conditions if it approves. Smaller plants generally rely on separate permits, such as DES air or wetlands permits, plus local planning and zoning approval. If a project is proposed near you, ask your town office which route it is taking and check the committee's public docket for filings and hearing dates.

Usually not without arranging it in advance. Most sites are secured industrial properties, and security rules apply even at small hydro stations. Some owners run occasional tours or education programs, and licensed hydro projects often provide public fishing or boating access near the dam. Contact the owner through its website or main office rather than appearing at the gate. Give your name, group size and preferred dates, and expect to wear closed-toe shoes and follow safety instructions if a tour is approved. Never enter fenced areas, dam structures or tailrace zones on your own, because water levels can change without warning.

Call your electric utility, not the plant. The company named on your bill, such as Eversource, Unitil, Liberty Utilities or the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, runs the lines and dispatches repair crews. Most offer an outage hotline and an online outage map, and the contact number is printed on your bill. Treat every downed wire as live. Report it to the utility, and call 911 if it is sparking or blocking a road. If service problems continue or restoration seems unreasonably slow, the Public Utilities Commission takes consumer complaints about utility service quality.

Yes. New Hampshire opened its electricity market to competition in the late 1990s, so most customers can pick a competitive supplier for the energy portion of the bill. Your local utility still delivers the power and handles outages and delivery charges, whichever supplier you choose. If you do nothing, you stay on the utility's default service, whose rate is reviewed and approved by the Public Utilities Commission. Before switching, compare the price per kilowatt-hour, the contract length and any early termination fee. The commission publishes a list of licensed suppliers and takes complaints about marketing or billing practices.

Together they account for 30 of the 83 records in our database, and the reasons are geography and fuel. The Androscoggin, Connecticut, Pemigewasset and Ammonoosuc rivers drop through steep terrain, which suits hydroelectric stations. The North Country also has large working forests that supply wood-fired plants. Small towns such as Berlin, Bath, Bristol and Whitefield became generation sites because water, wood or both were close at hand. Southern New Hampshire has fewer sites in some places but larger ones in others, including Seabrook Station on the coast. Compare the Grafton County and Coos County pages to see what each area hosts.

Start by documenting the problem with dates, times, photos and, if possible, a short audio or video clip. Then contact the plant owner, since many issues are resolved at that level. If the concern involves smoke, odor, wastewater or wetlands, report it to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, which holds the plant's permits. For nuisance noise or local zoning questions, contact your town's code enforcement officer or health officer. Dam safety concerns go to the DES Dam Bureau. For anything that looks like an immediate danger, such as a fire or a spill, call 911 first.