Texas produces more electricity than any other state, and the plants behind it are spread across a very large map. Our Texas directory holds 615 power plant listings, from wind farms around Big Spring to generating stations inside petrochemical complexes along the Gulf Coast. So many different owners run these sites that finding the right contact takes some background. This page explains how the system fits together and where to start.

How the Texas Power Plant System Is Built

Most Texas power plants are not public offices in the way a county clerk is. They are generating stations, wind and solar farms, cogeneration units and landfill-gas projects, and most belong to private companies. Some belong to city-owned utilities such as Austin Energy or CPS Energy in San Antonio, and others to member-owned electric cooperatives. Our listings cover all of these, so the first step is working out who owns the site you care about.

Texas also runs its power market differently from most states. The Texas Interconnection, managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), serves most of the state's electric load. Since a 1999 law restructured the industry, generators sell into a wholesale market, and customers in competitive areas pick their own retail provider. Municipal utilities and most cooperatives stayed out of that competition. In practice, the company that generates your power, the one that maintains the wires on your street and the one that bills you can be three separate businesses.

Not every part of Texas sits inside ERCOT. El Paso is on the Western grid, and parts of the Panhandle and East Texas connect to other regional grids. If you live in one of those areas, the market rules above apply differently, and the utility named on your bill matters even more.

Which Texas Agencies Oversee Power Plants

No single office handles everything. Depending on your question, one of these bodies is the right place to start:

Local government has a smaller role than many people expect. Texas counties have no general zoning authority, so wind and solar projects on rural land are usually shaped by landowner leases, state permits and sometimes tax-abatement agreements. Cities can regulate land use within their limits, and Houston is well known for having no traditional zoning code. That is one reason plant siting looks so different from one Texas city to the next.

Gulf Coast Industrial Plants Versus West Texas Wind Country

Harris County has the most listings of any Texas county, at 42, and its entries show how industrial the Houston area is. Aes Deepwater on Light Company Road in Pasadena and the Houston Chemical Complex Battleground Power Plant in Deer Park are two examples. Farther east and south you find Engineered Carbons Echo Cogeneration in Orange, Air Products Port Arthur in Jefferson County and Basf Corp Power Plant in Freeport. Many of these units sit inside chemical or refining complexes, supply steam and electricity to the host facility, and operate behind security gates. For access or questions, contact the main office of the complex rather than the generating unit.

Move west and the picture changes. Howard County has 23 listings, and Big Spring leads all Texas cities with 22, including Ec&R Panther Creek Wind Farm II on McDonald Road North. Nolan County, around Sweetwater, has 12, among them Txu Sweetwater Generating Plan on County Road 119. Farther out are Alamo 6 near Fort Stockton, Exc Wind 9 in Sunray, Dewind Frisco in Gruver and Grandview Wind Farm near Panhandle. Wind projects are often monitored remotely, so a listed address may be a field office or a gate on a county road rather than a staffed front desk.

The big cities sit between these two extremes. Austin Energy Pv Project on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Covel Gardens Gas Recovery in San Antonio, Ameresco Dallas on Log Cabin Road, Lon C Hill in Corpus Christi, Ty Cooke in Lubbock and Harrington in Amarillo show a mix of solar, landfill gas and utility-owned stations. Bexar County alone has 24 listings, which makes it the second busiest county in our records.

Contacting a Texas Power Plant Office: What to Expect

Our records show very few phone numbers for these sites. Borger Plant on Farm to Market Road 1559 in Hutchinson County lists 806-274-7213. For most others, start with the owner's corporate or customer line, which you can usually find on a utility bill or the company website. Call before you visit. Industrial plants control entry for safety and security reasons, and walk-ins are normally turned away.

Match your problem to the right contact. A power outage goes to your local delivery utility, such as CenterPoint Energy around Houston, Oncor around Dallas or AEP Texas along the Coastal Bend, not to the generating plant. A billing dispute goes to your retail provider first, then to the PUC. Noise, odor or smoke concerns go to TCEQ, which has regional offices around the state. Records from city-owned utilities can be requested under the Texas Public Information Act.

When you do reach someone, have the plant's full name, street address and county ready. Many Texas plants changed owners or names over the decades, so older names such as Central Power & Light-Es Joslin Pwr Sta Power Plant in Point Comfort can still appear in public records. If a name returns nothing, search by address and county instead.

Power plant facilities in Texas include a mix of federal, state, and municipally owned generation assets that contribute to the region's overall electricity supply. Texas'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 296 cities across Texas. They are spread across 162 counties.

Areas with the highest concentration of power plant locations include Big Spring, Houston, San Antonio, often reflecting proximity to water resources, fuel supply infrastructure, or industrial demand centers.

Residents of Texas 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

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y

Residents of Texas 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 Texas, contacting the state's public utility commission is often the best starting point.

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

What Changed for Texas Power Plants Since 2021

Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 changed how Texans think about power plants. Generators of many kinds went offline during the freeze, and millions of customers lost electricity for days. The Legislature responded with new requirements, including weatherization standards for power generators and closer coordination between ERCOT and the PUC. If you live near a plant, you may see it described as weatherized in utility communications. That label refers to these standards.

Texas has since created the Texas Energy Fund, run through the PUC, to support new gas-fired generation that can run on demand. Meanwhile wind and solar projects keep spreading across West Texas and the Panhandle, and their output depends heavily on the long transmission lines built to carry it to the cities. The result is a power plant map that keeps shifting, so older listings and newer ones sit side by side.

Local patterns still differ. Austin sits in Travis County, which has 20 listings and a city-owned utility. Nueces County has 14, concentrated around Corpus Christi, where industrial plants cluster near the port. Check the county before you contact anyone, because the right utility and the right regulator can change at a county line.

Power Plant Questions Texans Ask

No single agency covers everything. The Public Utility Commission of Texas oversees utilities and retail providers and registers power generation companies. ERCOT operates the main grid and handles requests to connect new plants. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permits air emissions and water discharges. The Railroad Commission regulates the gas pipelines that fuel many plants. Federal bodies such as the EPA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission add their own rules. Pick the agency that matches your issue: billing goes to the PUC, emissions go to TCEQ, and local outages go to your utility.

Call your local transmission and distribution utility, not the generating plant. In much of the Houston area that is CenterPoint Energy, around Dallas it is often Oncor, and along the Coastal Bend it is frequently AEP Texas. Austin Energy and CPS Energy are city-owned and handle their own customers. Your retail electricity provider sends the bill but does not repair lines. Use the utility's outage line or app, and during widespread events watch local emergency management updates for restoration news.

There is no standard public tour program. Most plants are working industrial sites with safety, security and regulatory limits, and nuclear stations are the most restricted. Some utilities and wind operators host school groups or community events by arrangement. Write to the owner's community relations or corporate office well ahead of time and explain who is coming and why. Do not drive up to a gate unannounced. Wind farm access roads often cross private ranchland, and entering without permission can count as trespassing under Texas law.

Our database shows 22 listings in Big Spring and 23 in Howard County. West Texas has steady wind, wide open land and, since the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones transmission build-out of the early 2010s, lines that carry that power east to the big cities. A single wind project can also appear as several phases or separate units, such as Ec&R Panther Creek Wind Farm II, which raises the count compared with one large station. A high listing number therefore reflects project structure as well as total generating capacity.

For air, odor and water concerns, file a complaint with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which has regional offices across the state. Write down the date, time, wind direction, what you saw or smelled, and the plant or complex name. In Harris County, the county's pollution control department also takes environmental reports. Call 911 for fires, explosions or immediate danger. Noise complaints are more local, because Texas counties have limited authority, so check whether your city has a noise ordinance.

Yes. El Paso lies outside ERCOT and belongs to the Western Interconnection, and the city is served by El Paso Electric. As a result, ERCOT market rules and retail provider choice do not apply there the way they do in Houston or Dallas. Our records show 9 listings in El Paso, including Hoover Company on Hoover Avenue. If you live there, contact your utility directly for outages and service questions, and use the PUC for complaints it can handle.