💧 EnergyIndex Hydro

Hydro on the U.S. grid, by the numbers.

Conventional hydroelectric generation — the original renewable, and the one most tied to snowpack and rainfall.

Get the monthly Hydro brief
EnergyIndex Hydro
91.41
Trailing-12-month generation vs. calendar 2020 = 100
Hydro share of U.S. generation
4.47%
July 2026
Generation, July 2026
20,266 GWh
Utility-scale, all sectors
Trailing 12 months vs. prior year
+8.3%
260,778 GWh over the last 12 months
Monthly generation, GWh — August 2023 to July 2026. Source: EIA.

What this index measures

The EnergyIndex Hydro series tracks conventional hydroelectric generation in the United States. Hydro output rises and falls with the water year, which makes it the clearest signal of how drought and snowpack shape the Western grid.

Who uses it

  • Western utilities and water districts
  • Agricultural and industrial power buyers in the Northwest
  • Climate and water researchers

Methodology

  1. Source. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Operational Data, monthly net generation, fuel type HYC (conventional hydroelectric (all sectors)), location US, sector 99 (all sectors). Units: thousand megawatt-hours, shown here as GWh.
  2. Share. Source generation divided by all-fuels generation (ALL) for the same month.
  3. Index level. Trailing-12-month generation divided by total generation in calendar 2020, times 100. 2020 = 100. A level of 150 means the last twelve months produced one-and-a-half times what 2020 did.
  4. Revisions. EIA revises recent months; we re-pull every six hours and restate without notice. The most recent month is preliminary.
  5. What this is not. Not a price, not a security, not investment advice. Nothing on this site is for sale or trade.

Latest data month: July 2026. Retrieved from EIA API v2.

Download this series as JSON · Full methodology

Monthly Hydro brief

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