Nicollet, MN: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BENCO ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, BROWN COUNTY RURAL ELEC ASSN, CITY OF SAINT PETER, MINNESOTA VALLEY ELECTRIC COOP, NEW ULM PUBLIC UTILITIES COMM, NORTHERN STATES POWER CO - MINNESOTA, RENVILLE-SIBLEY COOP PWR ASSN

ISO / market

MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

24

Industrial retail rate

9.3¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

2 of 7 serving utilities: 9.5 to 9.7¢/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

982 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

85,369 employed in construction within ~120 kmA 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 Nicollet

For Nicollet, Minnesota, the following sections turn public grid records into a siting-oriented summary. The highest mapped voltage in Nicollet is 345 kV, in the high-voltage transmission class. Nicollet carries 24 substations, a dense footprint across the county.

For Nicollet, the MISO market (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) is the operator that handles interconnection and capacity. The state industrial average retail rate is 9.3 cents per kWh, drawn from EIA-861 and applied to Nicollet at the state level rather than as a county rate. The serving utilities in Nicollet that publish a rate range 2 of 7 serving utilities: 9.5 to 9.7¢/kWh, a spread kept separate from the state average.

Nicollet, Minnesota has nothing in the interconnection queue across the feeds covered here, quiet or uningested. For Nicollet, Minnesota, the EIA-860M inventory shows no planned or under-construction generation, a measured absence. Grid carbon intensity for Nicollet, via its balancing authority, is 981.982 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

USGS 2015 puts freshwater withdrawals across Nicollet at 6.39 million gallons per day for all uses, a measure of use, not spare supply. Within roughly a 120 km commute of Nicollet, about 85,369 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 Nicollet figures as screening-grade context: they describe the surrounding grid, not a specific parcel. The numbers for Nicollet, Minnesota 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 Nicollet, Minnesota turns on a study of a particular address, something no county-level page can stand in for. Every number shown for Nicollet, Minnesota traces to a public source listed below, with its retrieval date, so the provenance is auditable rather than asserted.

Sources