Where your electricity comes from
PSE owns about 3,600 megawatts of generation and contracts for thousands more. Half of what it delivered in 2024 was fossil fuel. Here is the whole system: every plant, every major contract, the fuel mix since 2015, and how the average home spends its kilowatt-hours.
PSE’s territory and its generation fleet
Territory from PSE’s service-area map: electric in all of Kitsap, Skagit, Thurston and Whatcom counties and parts of Island, King (not Seattle), Kittitas and Pierce (not Tacoma); gas in parts of King, Kittitas, Lewis, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston. Plant capacities and ownership shares from the fiscal 2025 Form 10-K; site markers are placed by town or river reach and are approximate to a few miles (worth double-checking). Off-map resources are listed below the table. Other counties are coloured by their principal electric provider for context.
What PSE delivered, 2015 → 2024
Percent of MWh by fuel, Commerce disclosure method
Before 2018 Commerce assigned a regional mix to market purchases, which inflated the coal share; from 2019 “unspecified” purchases are reported separately. Coal left PSE’s rates on Jan 1, 2026 when its 25% of Colstrip 3 & 4 passed to NorthWestern Energy at no cost. Sources: Commerce reports for 2015, 2019, 2022, 2023; PSE’s 2024 disclosure.
PSE vs. Washington vs. the US
Share of delivered / generated electricity by fuel
Washington figure is the Commerce statewide delivered mix for 2023 (hydro 49%). The US figure is EIA’s 2025 net generation. PSE’s hydro is mostly contracted from the Chelan, Douglas and Grant county PUDs on the mid-Columbia, not owned.
Why the mix matters for the bill
Washington’s Climate Commitment Act prices carbon. Because PSE burns more gas and (until this year) coal than most Washington utilities, it buys more allowances, and those costs flow to customers. In August 2025 a Climate Commitment Act charge added 4.3% to residential electric bills; the January 2026 power-cost order added $28 a month before offsetting credits.
Ecology’s 2026 Clean Fuel Standard values put PSE’s delivered electricity at 107.9 grams CO₂e per megajoule. The state grid averages 63.6. Seattle City Light, which is almost entirely hydro, is 8.6.
Carbon intensity of delivered electricity
gCO₂e / MJ, Ecology 2026 (based on 2024 fuel mix)
Every owned plant and major contract
Net maximum capacity at Dec 31, 2025. PSE says its owned plus contracted resources total about 7,980 MW.
| Resource | Type | Location | MW | PSE share / status |
|---|
Colstrip is out of rates, not out of the ground
PSE joined the Montana coal project in 1971 and held 25% of Units 3 & 4 (370 MW). A 2022 sale to Talen collapsed in bankruptcy. On July 30, 2024 PSE agreed to hand its share to NorthWestern Energy for nothing; the transfer completed Jan 1, 2026. PSE keeps its share of cleanup liabilities, and NorthWestern now owns 55% of a plant that keeps running. The UTC also ordered PSE to refund $6.84 million in over-collected Colstrip costs starting January 2026.
The mid-Columbia contracts are the bargain
Public PUD dams built in the 1950s and 60s supply PSE about 910 MW under contracts running to 2029–2052 (Rocky Reach and Rock Island 35%, Wells 17.3%, Priest Rapids and Wanapum 4.8% each). A new 20-year Chelan contract from 2031 drops PSE’s share to 25%. This is the same cheap federal-and-PUD hydro that public utilities get preferential access to through BPA.
CETA: coal-free 2025, carbon-neutral 2030, 100% clean 2045
PSE’s first Clean Energy Implementation Plan targeted 63% clean by 2025. In 2024 PSE asked to cut its interim target to 48%; the UTC refused in a split vote. PSE reports clean resources supplied 50.6% of load over 2022–2025 at about $820 million in incremental cost. Public-interest groups say its 2026 rate case still leans on a 17-year gas-plant contract and two new gas peakers.
How the electricity gets used
PSE retail sales by customer class
Gigawatt-hours per year, Form 10-K
Homes are 54% of PSE’s retail load and growing; commercial load fell after 2015 and has not recovered. PSE is winter-peaking: record demand of 4,912 MW on Dec 10, 2009, and a new record on Jan 12–13, 2024 (MW not published). PSE forecasts winter peak rising from 4,753 MW in 2024 to 6,717 MW by 2045 before efficiency and demand response.
Where a Washington home’s kWh go
kWh per household per year, EIA RECS 2020 (Washington)
Averages are for households using each end use. Electric space heating and water heating are the two biggest levers, which is why PSE’s largest rebates are for heat pumps and heat-pump water heaters. About 60% of Washington homes heat with electricity. PSE’s average residential customer used 10,501 kWh in 2024 (875 kWh/month); PSE’s rate notices assume a “typical” 800 kWh.
Where the gas comes from
All of PSE’s gas arrives by one interstate pipeline, Williams’ Northwest Pipeline, fed by Canadian producers in British Columbia and Alberta (via Enbridge Westcoast, NGTL and Foothills) and Rocky Mountain supply (via GTN). PSE owns one-third of and operates the Jackson Prairie storage field near Chehalis, a 44 billion cubic foot reservoir in use since 1970, and opened an 8-million-gallon LNG plant in Tacoma in 2022.
PSE delivered 885 million therms to 881,000 gas customers in 2025, down from 1 billion therms in 2022 as customers switch to heat pumps and winters warm. The average residential gas customer used 700 therms in 2024 at $1.39 per therm.