Polk, MN: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CITY OF EAST GRAND FORKS - (MN), CITY OF FOSSTON - (MN), CITY OF NIELSVILLE - (MN), CLEARWATER-POLK ELEC COOP INC, NODAK ELECTRIC COOP INC, NORTHERN STATES POWER CO - MINNESOTA, OTTER TAIL POWER CO, P K M ELECTRIC COOP, INC, RED LAKE ELECTRIC COOP, INC, RED RIVER VALLEY COOP PWR ASSN, WAPA-- WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION, WILD RICE ELECTRIC COOP, INC

ISO / market

MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator)

Highest grid access

230 kV

Substations in county

27

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

3 of 12 serving utilities: 5.4 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

9 projects, 1,438 MW

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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

16,934 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 Polk

The material below frames Polk, Minnesota for a prospective large load, drawing only on public sources. At 230 kV, Polk sits in the transmission class that a large load would look to. The mapped layer packs 27 substations into Polk, a dense spread of options.

Interconnection over Polk runs through the MISO market (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) and its rules. For Polk, the rate shown is the state industrial average of 9.3 cents per kWh (EIA-861), a state figure and not a county-specific one. Beneath that state average, the utilities serving Polk that report an industrial rate span 3 of 12 serving utilities: 5.4 to 9.7¢/kWh, shown as context and never as the county rate.

The queue feeds show 9 projects for Polk, totalling 1,438 MW of requested capacity. EIA-860M lists nothing planned or under construction for Polk, Minnesota, which is a national filing and so a real zero. Polk sits under a balancing authority that eGRID puts at 981.982 lb CO2 per MWh.

Polk withdrew 16.34 million gallons per day for all uses in the USGS 2015 data, which counts demand, not headroom. About 16,934 people are employed in construction within a 120 km commute of Polk (BLS QCEW), which frames staffing distance rather than free labour.

For Polk, treat this as screening-grade county context useful for narrowing a search rather than settling a site. Taken together, the figures for Polk, Minnesota describe the grid around a prospective site, drawn from public data with their gaps left visible on purpose. To move past screening in Polk, Minnesota, a specific address needs its own interconnection study, which this page does not attempt. The figures for Polk, Minnesota refresh as their public datasets do, and the exact sources and dates sit in the source log below this section.

Sources