Gaston, NC: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BROAD RIVER ELECTRIC COOP, INC, CITY OF CHERRYVILLE - (NC), CITY OF GASTONIA - (NC), CITY OF KINGS MOUNTAIN - (NC), CITY OF LINCOLNTON - (NC), DUKE ENERGY CAROLINAS, LLC, ENERGYUNITED ELEC MEMBER CORP, RUTHERFORD ELEC MEMBER CORP, TOWN OF DALLAS - (NC), TOWN OF HUNTERSVILLE - (NC), YORK ELECTRIC COOP INC

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

500 kV

Substations in county

107

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 11 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

240 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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

130,232 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 Gaston

Everything here about Gaston, North Carolina comes from public federal and state records, with the gaps left visible. Gaston reaches 500 kV, a high-voltage transmission class, at its strongest mapped point of grid access. With 107 substations mapped, Gaston offers interconnection points across many locations.

Because Gaston, 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 Gaston is the 7.8 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Gaston, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 5 of 11 serving utilities: 5.8 to 8.0¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

The covered queue feeds list nothing for Gaston, North Carolina, which may be quiet or simply uningested. Gaston has 240 MW of planned or under-construction generation on file in EIA-860M. The balancing authority covering Gaston carries a grid carbon intensity of 484.617 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Gaston are 409.3 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Gaston, some 130,232 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources