Catawba, NC: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BLUE RIDGE ELEC MEMBER CORP - (NC), CITY OF NEWTON - (NC), DUKE ENERGY CAROLINAS, LLC, ENERGYUNITED ELEC MEMBER CORP, RUTHERFORD ELEC MEMBER CORP, TOWN OF MAIDEN - (NC)

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

500 kV

Substations in county

66

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

4 of 6 serving utilities: 5.8 to 8.0¢/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

50 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

485 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

120,990 employed in construction within ~120 km (37 of 39 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 Catawba

Everything here about Catawba, North Carolina comes from public federal and state records, with the gaps left visible. Catawba reaches 500 kV, a high-voltage transmission class, at its strongest mapped point of grid access. With 66 substations mapped, Catawba offers interconnection points across many locations.

Because Catawba, North Carolina sits outside an organized market, capacity and interconnection are handled by the utility and bilateral deals, not a market operator. The rate for Catawba is the 7.8 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Catawba, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 4 of 6 serving utilities: 5.8 to 8.0¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Across the covered feeds, Catawba, North Carolina carries no interconnection-queue project, from either real quiet or a feed not yet loaded. Catawba has 50 MW of planned or under-construction generation on file in EIA-860M. The balancing authority covering Catawba carries a grid carbon intensity of 484.617 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Catawba are 859.29 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Catawba, some 120,990 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources