Grid · Analysis

LA Owns a Slice of a Nuclear Plant in Arizona

LADWP holds a minority share of Palo Verde, the largest power producer in the country. Here is how many of your megawatts it covers, and what the plant's licenses mean for the city's clean energy math.

BY THE RENEWABLE ENERGY LA EDITORS · FILED OCTOBER 26, 2026 · 6 MIN READ ·

The reading from your bill

If you pay a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bill, the electricity that runs your air conditioner through an October heat spell comes from a mix the city publishes once a year. Most people never read it. Tucked into that mix, next to the desert solar farms and the battery sites this desk usually covers, is a slice of a nuclear plant about 300 miles east, out in the Arizona desert west of Phoenix.

That plant is the Palo Verde Generating Station, and by annual electricity produced it is the largest single power producer in the United States, per federal energy data. LA does not own much of it. The share it does own, though, runs around the clock in any weather, which is a different kind of useful than a panel on your roof. Here is what this desk can pin down, and what it honestly cannot, about where those megawatts come from.

The share LA actually holds

Palo Verde has three reactors and a combined capacity on the order of 3,900 megawatts, enough to supply millions of homes. Arizona Public Service operates the plant and owns the largest piece. The rest is split among a handful of western utilities, and LADWP is one of them, holding a minority stake of roughly 5.7 percent at last public report.

Do the arithmetic and that share works out to a couple hundred megawatts, on the order of 220, that LA can count as its own. A megawatt is roughly the draw of a few hundred homes on a hot afternoon, so this is a real and steady block, not a rounding error. LADWP lists Palo Verde as carbon free in its published power content, alongside hydro and the growing solar and wind the city buys.

Why a steady block pairs with the desert

Solar is cheap and plentiful in the basin, but it clocks out at sundown, right as people come home and switch on the air conditioning. Batteries cover part of that evening gap, charging on midday sun and discharging into the peak. Neither cares much for a week of haze or a winter storm, when output can sag for days at a time.

A nuclear block behaves the opposite way. It runs flat out, day and night, through heat and marine layer alike, which is why planners call it baseload (the steady floor of power that is always on under the daily peaks and valleys). The honest version is that Palo Verde is less a competitor to LA's desert solar and storage than a partner to it, the steady floor under a swinging roof. How large that floor should be, as the city chases its clean targets, is a real and unsettled debate.

What the license renewals mean

Every nuclear plant runs on a license from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and those licenses expire. Palo Verde's three units were relicensed for an additional 20 years, which on public filings carries their authorized operation into roughly the mid-2040s. That matters to LA because the city has set a goal of a 100 percent clean power supply, with a target year that has moved earlier in recent planning, to around 2035.

If Palo Verde keeps running, LA keeps a carbon free block on the books without building anything new. If it retires, or if LA sells or lets its share lapse, the city has to replace that steady floor with some mix of transmission, storage, and firm clean power that mostly does not exist yet at the needed scale. Which path the city takes is a decision for its elected board and its integrated resource plan, not something settled on this wall.

Worth watching this month

1. Watch for LADWP's next annual Power Content Label, where the Palo Verde share shows up as a line a ratepayer can actually read.

2. The California Energy Commission's statewide Power Source Disclosure filings, usually posted each year, let you cross-check the city's numbers against the state's.

3. Any NRC inspection or licensing notice for Palo Verde, routine in most years, is worth a glance for anything that would touch the plant's authorized run into the 2040s.

4. LADWP board agendas and integrated resource plan updates will signal whether the city treats its nuclear share as a keeper or a thing to replace.

5. A hot, hazy stretch like this one is the real-world test, so watch whether the steady block and the batteries hold the evening peak without a call to conserve.

Where this dispatch reads

NRC, Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/palo.html, Government regulator; license status, renewal dates, and inspection records for the three units.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, electricity data, www.eia.gov/electricity, Government data that confirms Palo Verde as the largest U.S. power producer by annual generation.
California Energy Commission, Power Source Disclosure Program, www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/power-source-disclosure-program, Government program; statewide power content filings you can use to cross-check a utility's supply mix.
LADWP, power content and resources, www.ladwp.com/account/customer-service/environmental-information, The utility's own disclosure of its supply mix, including its Palo Verde share listed as carbon free.
Arizona Public Service, Palo Verde Generating Station, www.aps.com/en/About/Our-Company/Power-Plants/Palo-Verde-Generating-Station, The plant operator's description of capacity, the three reactors, and the ownership group.

Questions readers have asked

How much of my LADWP power comes from Palo Verde?

LADWP owns a minority share of the plant, roughly 5.7 percent at last public report, which works out to a couple hundred megawatts. The exact portion of your supply varies year to year and shows up in the utility's annual power content label.

Is nuclear counted as clean in LA's goals?

Yes. LADWP lists Palo Verde output as carbon free in its published power content, so it counts toward the city's clean energy targets even though it is not renewable in the way solar and wind are.

Where is the plant, and is it near LA?

Palo Verde sits in the Arizona desert west of Phoenix, roughly 300 miles east of Los Angeles. Its power reaches the basin over long distance transmission lines.

Will the plant still be running when LA hits its clean goal?

Probably, based on current licenses. The NRC has relicensed the three units into roughly the mid-2040s, though plants can retire earlier for economic reasons, and the city's own target year has shifted in recent planning.