The amount of hydropower generated in the Western US last year was the lowest it’s been in more than two decades. Hydropower generation in the region fell by 11 percent during the 2022–2023 water year compared to the year prior, according to preliminary data from the Energy Information Administration’s Electricity Data Browser — its lowest point since 2001. That includes states west of the Dakotas and Texas, where 60 percent of the nation’s hydropower was generated.
Western states typically rely on slowly melting snowpack for water during dry summer months, but much of that snowpack vanished with the heat in May. That left the Northwest with below-average water supply for the rest of the water year. Hydropower in Washington and Oregon fell by at least 20 percent during the last water year. Combined, the two states normally make up 37 percent of the nation’s hydropower capacity.