Union, NM: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

FARMERS ELECTRIC COOP, INC - (NM), RITA BLANCA ELECTRIC COOP, INC, SOUTHEAST COLORADO POWER ASSN, SOUTHWESTERN ELECTRIC COOP INC - (NM), SOUTHWESTERN PUBLIC SERVICE CO, SPRINGER ELECTRIC COOP, INC, TRI-COUNTY ELECTRIC COOP, INC (OK)

ISO / market

SPP (Southwest Power Pool)

Highest grid access

135 kV

Substations in county

4

Industrial retail rate

5.9¢/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: 4.5 to 9.1¢/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

190 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

394 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

561 employed in construction within ~120 km (5 of 6 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 Union

Everything here about Union, New Mexico comes from public federal and state records, with the gaps left visible. Union reaches 135 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. Only 4 substations is mapped in Union, New Mexico, keeping interconnection points few.

Union falls inside the SPP market (Southwest Power Pool), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Union is the 5.9 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Union, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 4 of 7 serving utilities: 4.5 to 9.1¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

The covered queue feeds list nothing for Union, New Mexico, which may be quiet or simply uningested. Union has 190 MW of planned or under-construction generation on file in EIA-860M. The balancing authority covering Union carries a grid carbon intensity of 394.248 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Union are 37.14 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Union, some 561 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources