the.com/power plant

means A facility that generates electricity on an industrial scale, usually by converting heat, motion, or chemical energy into electrical current.

from A straightforward industrial-age compound: 'power' (capacity to do work, from Old French 'pouair', ultimately Latin 'posse', to be able) joined to 'plant' in its sense of a fixed set of machinery or works — a sense that grew in the 1700s–1800s from 'plant' meaning equipment or apparatus, itself traceable to the Latin 'planta' (sprout, something planted and set down). So a 'power plant' is literally a 'works' planted on a piece of land to produce power — the phrase is factory-era English, not borrowed or folk-twisted, just two plain words bolted together as the grid grew.