Hampden, MA: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CITY OF CHICOPEE - (MA), CITY OF HOLYOKE - (MA), CITY OF RUSSELL - (MA), CITY OF WESTFIELD - (MA), CONNECTICUT LIGHT & POWER CO, FARMINGTON RIVER POWER COMPANY, FITCHBURG GAS & ELEC LIGHT CO, MASSACHUSETTS ELECTRIC CO, NSTAR ELECTRIC COMPANY, TOWN OF CHESTER, TOWN OF SOUTH HADLEY - (MA)

ISO / market

ISONE (ISO New England)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

42

Industrial retail rate

19.4¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

6 of 11 serving utilities: 7.6 to 17.8¢/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

10 MW planned or under constructionUnits 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

541 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

202,540 employed in construction within ~120 km (25 of 26 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 Hampden

This page gathers the public grid evidence for Hampden, Massachusetts that bears on a large new load. The highest mapped voltage in Hampden is 345 kV, in the high-voltage transmission class. Hampden carries 42 substations, a dense footprint across the county.

For Hampden, the ISONE market (ISO New England) is the operator that handles interconnection and capacity. The state industrial average retail rate is 19.4 cents per kWh, drawn from EIA-861 and applied to Hampden at the state level rather than as a county rate. The serving utilities in Hampden that publish a rate range 6 of 11 serving utilities: 7.6 to 17.8¢/kWh, a spread kept separate from the state average.

Hampden, Massachusetts has nothing in the interconnection queue across the feeds covered here, quiet or uningested. Federal filings (EIA-860M) list 10 MW of generation as planned or under construction in Hampden. Grid carbon intensity for Hampden, via its balancing authority, is 541.365 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

USGS 2015 puts freshwater withdrawals across Hampden at 51.16 million gallons per day for all uses, a measure of use, not spare supply. Within roughly a 120 km commute of Hampden, about 202,540 people are employed in construction (BLS QCEW), which speaks to how far crews for a multi-year build would travel, not to labour known to be free.

Read the Hampden figures as screening-grade context: they describe the surrounding grid, not a specific parcel. The numbers for Hampden, Massachusetts qualify one another, so grid access, substation density, market membership, and rate are meant to be read as a set, not in isolation. Past this screening view, siting in Hampden, Massachusetts turns on a study of a particular address, something no county-level page can stand in for. Every number shown for Hampden, Massachusetts traces to a public source listed below, with its retrieval date, so the provenance is auditable rather than asserted.

Sources