Deer Lodge, MT: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

NORTHWESTERN ENERGY LLC - (MT), VIGILANTE ELECTRIC COOP, INC

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

230 kV

Substations in county

6

Industrial retail rate

7.0¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

1 of 2 serving utilities: 1.8¢/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

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

1,583 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

2,832 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 Deer Lodge

Below, Deer Lodge in Montana is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Deer Lodge reaches 230 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 6 substations mapped, Deer Lodge has a moderate spread of interconnection points.

Because Deer Lodge, Montana sits outside an organized market, capacity and interconnection are handled by the utility and bilateral deals, not a market operator. The rate for Deer Lodge is the 7.0 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Deer Lodge, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 1 of 2 serving utilities: 1.8¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

No interconnection-queue project is on record for Deer Lodge, Montana in the covered feeds, which reflects either genuine quiet or a queue not yet ingested. Nothing is on file for Deer Lodge, Montana in EIA-860M as planned or under construction, which counts as a measured zero. The balancing authority covering Deer Lodge carries a grid carbon intensity of 1,583.022 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Deer Lodge are 72.03 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Deer Lodge, some 2,832 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

These numbers for Deer Lodge are screening-grade context for the whole county, drawn from public data with the gaps left visible. Read the figures for Deer Lodge, Montana 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 Deer Lodge, Montana is an address-level interconnection study; the county figures here only narrow where to look. For Deer Lodge, Montana, the source log below records where each figure comes from and when it was pulled, keeping the provenance visible.

Sources