Where Does LA's Electricity Actually Come From?
Straight from the official data: on the 2024 Power Content Labels filed with the California Energy Commission, LADWP's mix was 41% renewable, 30% natural gas, 15% nuclear and 11% coal & petroleum, while SCE's default mix was 35% renewable with 43% “unspecified” market power — and their emissions intensities were nearly identical. Below: the full side-by-side table, the end of LA's Utah coal era, why the gas share hides in the evening hours, and what the data means if you're considering rooftop solar.
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- On the official 2024 Power Content Labels, LADWP was 41% renewable and SCE's default mix was 35% renewable — both below the 45% California utility average.
- The two grids get there very differently: LADWP burns 30% natural gas plus 11% coal & petroleum it largely owns, while SCE reports just 8% gas but 43% “unspecified” market power, which is primarily fossil.
- Emissions intensity is nearly identical — 505 (LADWP) vs 515 (SCE) lbs CO2e/MWh — and California’s grid leans more on dispatchable (often gas) generation as solar fades in the evening — CAISO’s hourly grid data show this, though the annual Power Content Label itself does not.
Where this data comes from
Every California electricity retailer must file an annual Power Content Label with the California Energy Commission under the Power Source Disclosure program — a standardized annual disclosure (supplier reporting to the CEC) of the resources behind the electricity it sold. The latest labels cover calendar year 2024 (published in late 2025). All percentages below are taken directly from the CEC-published labels, not from marketing pages. If you're not sure which utility serves your address, start with our LA-area utility-by-city map.
LADWP vs SCE vs California average: the 2024 power mix
Los Angeles proper is served by LADWP, a municipal utility that owns most of its generation. Most surrounding cities — Burbank and Glendale aside — are served by SCE, an investor-owned utility that buys much of its power under contract and on the market. Here is what each mix actually looked like in 2024, side by side:
| Resource | LADWP | SCE (default) | CA utility avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| RPS-eligible renewables (total) | 41% | 35% | 45% |
| Solar | 15% | 19% | 23% |
| Wind | 14% | 11% | 14% |
| Geothermal | 9% | 4% | 5% |
| Eligible (small) hydro | 2% | 1% | 2% |
| Biomass & biogas | 0% | 0% | 2% |
| Large hydroelectric | 3% | 5% | 10% |
| Nuclear | 15% | 9% | 11% |
| Natural gas | 30% | 8% | 10% |
| Coal & petroleum | 11% | 0% | 2% |
| Unspecified power (market purchases, primarily fossil) | 0% | 43% | 22% |
| GHG intensity (lbs CO2e/MWh) | 505 | 515 | 359 |
Source: California Energy Commission, 2024 Power Content Labels for LADWP and Southern California Edison (Power Source Disclosure program). Percentages as published; columns may not sum to exactly 100% due to rounding.
Compare the mixes yourself
Toggle between your utility and the state average to see where the electricity actually comes from. These are 2024 CEC Power Content Label figures.
2024 power mix
Pick a utility.
Source: CEC 2024 Power Content Labels (LADWP, SCE) and the California average. “Unspecified/other” is market-purchased power the label does not attribute to a specific source; shares are rounded and may not sum to exactly 100%.
How to read the differences honestly
The headline numbers hide the most interesting part. LADWP's label is fully specified: as a municipal utility that owns or contracts nearly all of its generation, it can trace essentially every megawatt-hour — which is why its fossil share shows up plainly as 30% gas and 11% coal & petroleum. SCE's default label shows only 8% natural gas — but 43% “unspecified power,” electricity bought from the open market that can't be traced to a specific plant. The CEC's own label calls unspecified power “primarily fossil fuels.”
That's why the fairest single comparison is the greenhouse-gas intensity line: 505 lbs CO2e/MWh for LADWP vs 515 for SCE's default rate in 2024 — a near tie, and both well above the 359-lb California utility average. Neither LA-area grid is dirtier than the other in any meaningful sense; both are dirtier than the state as a whole. (SCE also sells opt-in “Green Rate” products with higher renewable content; the default rate is what most homes are on.)
One more caveat printed on every label: these percentages are a retail-sales accounting, not a real-time flow. They don't tell you what's on the wire at 8 p.m. — more on that below.
The coal in LA's mix: Intermountain, and what changed in 2025
The most surprising line for many Angelenos is that 11% coal & petroleum in LADWP's 2024 mix. It comes almost entirely from one plant: the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) in Delta, Utah, which has sent coal power to Los Angeles over a dedicated transmission line since the 1980s. That era just ended. Under the “IPP Renewed” project, the coal units were retired and replaced by new 840 MW natural-gas units designed to burn a 30% hydrogen blend at startup, transitioning to 100% hydrogen by 2045; the new units began commercial operation in July 2025. So 2024 was the last full calendar year of Utah coal in LA's mix — the 2025 label, due in late 2026, will be the first to reflect the switch.
| Resource | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RPS-eligible renewables | 35.6% | 39.5% | 41% |
| Natural gas | 34.5% | 32.4% | 30% |
| Coal (2024: coal & petroleum) | 12.6% | 10.3% | 11% |
| Nuclear | 13.3% | 13.9% | 15% |
| Large hydroelectric | 4.0% | 3.9% | 3% |
| GHG intensity (lbs CO2e/MWh) | 567 | 499 | 505 |
Source: CEC Power Content Labels for LADWP, 2022, 2023, and 2024. The 2024 label reports whole percentages and combines coal with petroleum, which explains the apparent one-point uptick; the trend across the decade is steadily down.
The gas share lives in the evening
Annual percentages flatten out a crucial daily pattern. California now has so much solar on the grid that midday net demand craters and then rockets back up at sunset — the famous “duck curve”, which the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports has been getting deeper every year as solar capacity grows. Someone has to fill that evening ramp, and in Southern California that someone is mostly natural gas. In EIA's analysis of a typical summer day (July–August 2020), California gas-fired generation more than doubled from about 10 GW at noon to about 22 GW by 7 p.m.
Practically: the kilowatt-hour you buy at noon is disproportionately solar; the kilowatt-hour you buy at 8 p.m. is disproportionately gas — on either utility. Grid batteries are changing this (California went from 0.2 GW of battery capacity in 2018 to 4.9 GW by April 2023, per EIA, and has kept building), but CAISO’s hourly data show the evening hours remain the fossil-heavy ones (the annual Power Content Label itself does not break out hours).
This is also exactly why solar billing now looks the way it does. SCE credits new rooftop systems under the Net Billing Tariff (often called NEM 3.0) — export credits vary hour by hour with the value of power on the grid, peaking on summer evenings when gas sets the price; there is no flat kWh-for-kWh credit. LADWP is a municipal utility outside CPUC jurisdiction and runs its own solar tariff on a different schedule. Details in how SCE solar billing works and LADWP's solar program in 2026.
Where the mixes are headed: SB 100
California law sets the destination. Under SB 100, retail electricity must hit at least 60% renewables by 2030 (the Renewables Portfolio Standard) and 100% renewable and zero-carbon by 2045. Against the 60%-by-2030 marker, LADWP's 41% and SCE's 35% renewable shares in 2024 show how much ground both must cover this decade — with the caveat, printed on the labels themselves, that formal RPS compliance is measured with renewable-energy certificates over multi-year periods, not by the label percentages. Directionally, both utilities' mixes — and their rate bases funding the transition — are being pushed toward the same 100% target.
What this means for an LA homeowner
Your address picks your mix
LA city addresses get LADWP's fully-owned, gas-and-(until 2025)-coal-heavy mix; most surrounding cities get SCE's market-heavy mix. Emissions-wise it's nearly a wash — 505 vs 515 lbs CO2e/MWh. Check which utility serves your city.
Midday rooftop output beats both grids
Every kWh your panels produce displaces grid power that averages roughly half a pound of CO2e — and once manufacturing is counted, lifecycle emissions of rooftop solar are still far below either mix. See the carbon-payback math.
The dirty hours are the pricey hours
Evening is when the grid leans on gas — and when time-of-use rates and SCE's export credits peak. That alignment is the whole argument for pairing panels with a battery that shifts solar into the evening.
The grid is improving — slowly
LADWP renewables went 35.6% → 41% in two years and Utah coal is now off the books. But at 2024's pace, waiting for a clean grid means waiting well into the 2040s; a rooftop system is clean at your meter now.
Two very different grids, one conclusion
LADWP and SCE take opposite routes to a nearly identical carbon intensity — one owns its fossil plants, the other buys unspecified market power. On either grid, a rooftop system runs with no operating emissions, and at midday it typically offsets grid power that still includes fossil generation (the exact marginal effect varies by hour and grid conditions), and the fossil share you do buy is concentrated in the evening hours a battery can cover.
Frequently asked
What percentage of LADWP's electricity is renewable?
Per the official 2024 Power Content Label, 41% of LADWP's power mix was RPS-eligible renewable: 15% solar, 14% wind, 9% geothermal, 2% eligible hydro. Another 18% was zero-carbon but not RPS-eligible (15% nuclear, 3% large hydro). The rest was natural gas (30%) and coal & petroleum (11%).
Does Los Angeles still get electricity from coal?
2024 was the last full year. LADWP's coal came almost entirely from the Intermountain Power Project in Delta, Utah — 11% of the 2024 mix. Under “IPP Renewed,” the coal units were retired and new 840 MW hydrogen-capable natural-gas units entered commercial operation in July 2025, designed to start on a 30% hydrogen blend and reach 100% hydrogen by 2045. The 2025 label, due in late 2026, will be the first to reflect the change.
Is SCE's electricity cleaner than LADWP's?
Not meaningfully. SCE's default label shows only 8% natural gas, but 43% “unspecified power” — untraceable market purchases the CEC describes as primarily fossil. The fairest comparison is emissions intensity: 515 lbs CO2e/MWh for SCE's default rate vs 505 for LADWP in 2024 — a near tie, and both above the 359-lb California utility average.
What is a Power Content Label?
An annual, standardized disclosure every California electricity retailer must file with the California Energy Commission under the Power Source Disclosure program. It reports the actual resource mix and greenhouse-gas intensity behind the previous calendar year's retail sales. It's an accounting of annual purchases — not a real-time picture of what's on the wire at any given hour.
What are California's SB 100 clean-energy targets?
SB 100 requires retail electricity to be at least 60% renewable by 2030 under the Renewables Portfolio Standard, and 100% renewable and zero-carbon by 2045. In 2024, LADWP stood at 41% RPS-eligible renewables and SCE's default rate at 35% — though formal RPS compliance is measured with renewable-energy certificates over multi-year periods, not label percentages.
Is rooftop solar cleaner than LA grid power?
At the meter, yes — panel output has zero operating emissions, while the 2024 grid averaged about 505–515 lbs of CO2e per MWh in the LA area. And your panels produce at midday, while the grid's hourly mix leans more on dispatchable (often gas) generation in the evening, per CAISO’s hourly grid data (the annual Power Content Label itself does not show hourly generation). Counting manufacturing, lifecycle emissions are still far lower than either grid mix — see our carbon-payback breakdown.
Related reading
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Get a free estimatePrepared by Cali Energy, July 2026. This article is for general educational purposes only and is not legal, tax, financial, engineering, or utility advice. Rates, incentives, codes, permit requirements, equipment specifications, prices, and program terms may change; figures and timelines are estimates, not guarantees. Confirm current requirements with the applicable utility, AHJ, program administrator, manufacturer, or a licensed professional. See our Content Disclaimer. Cali Energy · 19201 Parthenia St Unit E, Northridge, CA 91324 · CSLB #1032379 (B, C-10, C-39)