Routt, CO: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CARBON POWER & LIGHT, INC, DESERET GENERATION & TRAN COOP, MOUNTAIN PARKS ELECTRIC, INC, PUBLIC SERVICE CO OF COLORADO, TOWN OF OAK CREEK - (CO), WAPA-- WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION, YAMPA VALLEY ELECTRIC ASSN INC

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

41

Industrial retail rate

9.1¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

4 of 7 serving utilities: 2.6 to 8.5¢/kWhLowest to highest industrial rate among the utilities serving this county (EIA-861 Sales to Ultimate Customers). A spread, not the county’s rate, and it covers only the serving utilities that report one.

Interconnection queue

None on record

Proposed generation

None on file (EIA-860M)Units filed with EIA as planned or under construction (Form EIA-860M). Declared intent from the federal inventory, not the interconnection queue and not guaranteed capacity.

Grid carbon intensity

803 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

183 Mgal/dAll uses, freshwater. Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

10,663 employed in construction within ~120 km (6 of 7 counties reporting)A large build needs hundreds of skilled construction workers on site for one to three years. A county with few of them within commuting range means bussing crews in, per diem, and housing, which is real cost and schedule risk. This counts people employed in construction within about a 120 km drive (BLS QCEW), summed across nearby counties. It is not labor known to be available: most are already committed to other projects, and no public data reveals who is free.

Grid conditions in Routt

Below, Routt in Colorado is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Routt reaches 345 kV, a high-voltage transmission class, at its strongest mapped point of grid access. With 41 substations mapped, Routt offers interconnection points across many locations.

Because Routt, Colorado sits outside an organized market, capacity and interconnection are handled by the utility and bilateral deals, not a market operator. The rate for Routt is the 9.1 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Routt, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 4 of 7 serving utilities: 2.6 to 8.5¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Across the covered feeds, Routt, Colorado carries no interconnection-queue project, from either real quiet or a feed not yet loaded. EIA-860M lists nothing planned or under construction for Routt, Colorado, which is a national filing and so a real zero. The balancing authority covering Routt carries a grid carbon intensity of 802.655 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Routt are 183.01 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Routt, some 10,663 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

These numbers for Routt are screening-grade context for the whole county, drawn from public data with the gaps left visible. Read the figures for Routt, Colorado together rather than one at a time: grid access matters less without substations near it, and a quiet queue reads differently inside an organized market than outside one. The next step for Routt, Colorado is an address-level interconnection study; the county figures here only narrow where to look. For Routt, Colorado, the source log below records where each figure comes from and when it was pulled, keeping the provenance visible.

Sources