Beaufort, NC: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CITY OF WASHINGTON - (NC), DUKE ENERGY PROGRESS - (NC), EDGECOMBE-MARTIN COUNTY E M C, TIDELAND ELECTRIC MEMBER CORP, TOWN OF BELHAVEN - (NC), VIRGINIA ELECTRIC & POWER CO

ISO / market

PJM (PJM Interconnection)

Highest grid access

230 kV

Substations in county

43

Industrial retail rate

7.8¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

5 of 6 serving utilities: 7.9 to 10.8¢/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

482 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

25,305 employed in construction within ~120 km (27 of 28 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 Beaufort

Everything here about Beaufort, North Carolina comes from public federal and state records, with the gaps left visible. Beaufort reaches 230 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 43 substations mapped, Beaufort offers interconnection points across many locations.

Beaufort falls inside the PJM market (PJM Interconnection), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Beaufort is the 7.8 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Beaufort, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 5 of 6 serving utilities: 7.9 to 10.8¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

The covered queue feeds list nothing for Beaufort, North Carolina, which may be quiet or simply uningested. Beaufort, North Carolina has no EIA-860M generation on file, which reads as zero rather than as a gap. The balancing authority covering Beaufort carries a grid carbon intensity of 481.506 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Beaufort are 32.04 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Beaufort, some 25,305 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources