Tag:power=plant
 power = plant
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| Description |
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An industrial facility where power (electricity, useful heat, biogas) is produced by individual power generator units. 
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| Rendering in OSM Carto |
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| Group: power |
| Used on these elements |
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| Useful combination |
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| See also |
Status: approved
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| Tools for this tag |
A power plant (601-03-01, also referred to as a generating station, power station, or powerhouse) is a large-scale facility for the generation of energy. A plant in OpenStreetMap may contain a number of generators, which are the actual elements of the plant responsible for generating energy.
Power plants may also be responsible for storing energy: in the case of electric power plants this is most commonly through hydroelectric pumped storage, although battery storage plants are becoming more common.
Smaller-scale distributed power generation (such as rooftop solar panels, micro-hydro, and wind turbines not part of a larger wind farm) should not be tagged as a power plant, but with the power=generator tag alone. As a guideline, generators producing less than 1 MW should not normally be tagged as power plants.
Recommended tagging
Draw an area 
around the perimeter of the power plant - there is usually an obvious barrier=* at the perimeter.
| Key | Value | Comment | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
power |
plant |
Defines this area as a power plant. | Basic tag |
name |
name | The name of the plant. | Recommended |
operator |
operator | Name of the company that operates the power plant. | Recommended |
start_date |
date (YYYY-MM-DD) | Date when the construction was finished, using  ISO 8601. |
Recommended |
landuse |
industrial |
Most enclosed power plants are industrial facilities | Strongly recommended for enclosed plants if not already inside a larger landuse=industrial
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plant:source |
List of energy sources used by individual generators within the plant. Multiple fuels should be separated by semicolons (example: plant:source=coal;gas) |
Recommended | |
plant:method |
method | The method by which the power plant works | Optional |
plant:output:* |
rated output | The rated output of the whole facility, often available in operator public documentation. The tagging is consistent with generator:output:*=*: a co-generation plant would have for example plant:output:electricity=* and plant:output:steam=* keys. They accept numeric values or yes if the exact rating is unknown. |
Recommended |
plant:storage |
rated storage capacity | The amount of energy the plant can store. | Recommended for storage plants |
wikidata |
Wikidata ID | Allows for more structured citations for plant attributes and linking to other databases. Also used to render the Infobox map on English Wikipedia. | Recommended for plants having Wikidata page |
Plants under construction
If a power plant is under construction, the construction: lifecycle prefix should be added to the power tag (i.e. construction:power=plant instead of power=plant). This prefix should not be added to any other tags. The landuse=construction tag should also be used for enclosed power plants.
Power plants should be tagged as under construction until any part of the plant has commenced operation (it is common for wind farms to start exporting electricity before they are fully completed).
Plants under construction are visible on Open Infrastructure Map.
Dispersed power plants
Most conventional power plants consist of a single fenced industrial area which is dedicated to the power plant - these are mapped as you usually would tag any facility in OSM, as an area . Occasionally, a power plant may be split between two or more separate areas, and these should be mapped as a multipolygon 
.
However, in some cases (such as onshore wind, tidal, hydroelectric and some photovoltaic plants), a set of generators and other structures is spread across an area of unrelated land use. We call this a dispersed power plant, and these plants require special treatment.
Each generator - such as a wind turbine, or group of photovoltaic panels - should be tagged as power=generator. These generators are combined together in a type=site relation, along with any other facilities involved such as power=substations.
Site relations should only be used when no perimeter surrounds the generators, and no perimeter way should be present in the relation.
| Way or node | Recurrence? | Refers to | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
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1 or more | All (output or intermediate) power generators of the power plant. | Mandatory |
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0 or more | All substations of the power plant. | Recommended |
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0 or more | Any facility, building or component directly involved in the power plant process (let's not add parking, for instance) | Optional |
Dispersed power plants are not rendered on the standard tile layer, but they are shown on Open Infrastructure Map, and they are understood by many external data consumers.
Example
Whitelee Wind Farm in Scotland is an onshore wind farm which has no fixed perimeter. The public is welcome to wander around the area between the turbines, which is a mix of forest and peatland - definitely not industrial! Because of this, it's mapped as a dispersed power plant: 2593160 2593160.
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Satellite view of Whitelee Wind Farm, an onshore wind farm with no external perimeter -
Whitelee Wind Farm rendered as a dispersed power plant on Open Infrastructure Map
Offshore wind farms
Offshore wind farms are normally mapped as areas, not as dispersed power plants. The area around an offshore wind farm often has restrictions on navigation, so this area can also be tagged with the appropriate Seamark tags.
Multiple operators
As discussed on tagging mailing list, power plant areas and perimeters would be pretty hard to map when many different operators share the same location on a generation site. A simple rule to make the distinguishing between operators is to create a separate area for each one. Two or more power plants would directly be created. In general, only one company is operating a power plant, so if two or more operators are present on a site, we could have two different power plants or two different components for power generation. In all cases, we mustn't map it in one single area. Each area will have different operator=* values and potentially as many name=*. The key point is still the ownership of the land occupied by the power plant. Furthermore and often, room is reserved besides actual power plants for future extensions. This room should be included in the power plant area if it's fenced along with the main production site.
Examples
Solar: Verrerie solar power plant, France
A 34 ha solar farm producing 24 MW of electricity when sun comes up in south of France. With a little aerial imagery help, generators are taken as groups of solar cells for sake of simplicity. It is possible to use for each photovoltaic module but it's really expensive in mapping time.
The plant has two perimeters, so is tagged as a multipolygon: 3501886 3501886
type=multipolygonpower=plantplant:source=solarplant:output:electricity=24 MWoperator=Akuo Energyname=Centrale solaire de Verreriestart_date=2013-06-14
Offshore wind: Burbo Bank Wind Farm, UK
Burbo Bank is an offshore wind farm, which is tagged as an area to allow the appropriate Seamark tags to be used. The individual wind turbines are tagged with power=generator within this area: 327949356
327949356
power=plantplant:source=windplant:output:electricity=348 MWoperator=Ørsted A/Sname=Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farmseamark:type=production_areaseamark:production_area:category=wind_farm
Onshore wind: Clyde Wind Farm, UK
The Clyde wind farm is a large onshore wind farm consisting of 206 turbines spread around a large area. This dispersed power plant is tagged as a relation: 6949277 6949277
type=sitepower=plantplant:source=windplant:output:electricity=522 MWoperator=SSEname=Clyde Wind Farm
Fossil fuel: Vaires-sur-marne combustion power plant, France
Vaires-sur-Marne used to host a coal power plant which was decommissioned and then destroyed to reuse the site for cleaner combustion turbines. Currently, 3 combustion turbines of 185 MW each feed the power 225 kV power grid in the Paris area: 260698234 260698234
barrier=fencepower=plantplant:source=oilplant:output:electricity=555 MWoperator=EDFname=Centrale électrique de Vaires-sur-Marnewikidata=Q2944735
Hydroelectric
For more information on tagging hydroelectric plants, see the approved proposal for hydro power mapping.
Hoover Dam, Nevada, USA
A famous dam built in early 1900s next to Las Vegas, USA. A substation collects the power from 19 generators to transmit to the power grid. The lake also allows authorities to feed nearby towns with fresh water. Since each component isn't linked by a fenced perimeter, a relation is used to map this power plant in OSM: 1652352 1652352
type=sitepower=plantplant:source=hydroplant:output:electricity=2080 MWoperator=U.S. Bureau of Reclamationname=Hoover damstart_date=1936wikidata=Q172822
Génissiat Dam, France
Génissiat Dam is a run-of-the-river power plant relying on a big concrete structure to get a 23 km long lake on the Rhone river. It is hosting 6 power generators inside the dam connected to penstocks and outlets ducts. The waterway corresponding to river is diverted in dedicated ways corresponding to penstocks intakes. As many major generator and plants in Europe, the EIC code is tagged with ref:EU:ENTSOE_EIC=*.
80667335 80667335
waterway=dampower=plantplant:source=hydroplant:output:electricity=420 MWoperator=CNRname=Barrage de Génissiatref:EU:ENTSOE_EIC=17W100P100P0319Cwikidata=Q681294height=104start_date=1947
Roselend Dam, France
Roselend Dam is a wide electricity production site built in French Alps. Water is stored in a huge lake and goes through 60 km long tunnels ending into the La Bathie underground power plant. The choice is made to bring all the stuff inside a unique relation instead of the single power plant cavern. Power is sent to the power grid by the Albertville power substation Albertville power substation
4500049 4500049
type=sitepower=plantplant:source=hydroplant:output:electricity=600 MWoperator=EDFname=Centrale de La Bathieref:EU:ENTSOE_EIC=17W100P100P0280Dwikidata=Q15918216
Nuclear: Gravelines Nuclear power plant
Gravelines is the most powerful nuclear electricity generation site in France. 6 units can be found there, with 910 MW output each. Nuclear reactors are split into two map features with power=generator on the building building hosting the steam turbine. The dome hosting the most radioactive parts and the fission reaction can be described as a steam generator, only as a bonus since it's not the place which actually produce electricity, relatively to generator:plant=*. The surrounding way carefully follows the fence around the power plant.
As many major generator and plants in Europe, each Gravelines units EIC code are given with ref:EU:ENTSOE_EIC=*
85203514 85203514
power=plantplant:source=nuclearplant:output:electricity=5460 MWoperator=EDFname=Centrale Nucléaire de Gravelinesstart_date=1975wikidata=Q1739407
See also
power=generator, a device which converts one form of energy to another, for example, an electrical generator.power=substation, a facility which controls the flow of electricity in a power network with transformers, switchgear or compensators.ref:EU:ENTSOE_EIC=*- Proposed features/Power generation refinement, the approved proposal.