Lee, NC: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CENTRAL ELECTRIC MEMBERSHIP CORP. - (NC), DUKE ENERGY CAROLINAS, LLC, DUKE ENERGY PROGRESS - (NC), RANDOLPH ELECTRIC MEMBER CORP

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

230 kV

Substations in county

10

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 serving utilities: 7.8 to 9.6¢/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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

113,235 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 Lee

Below, Lee in North Carolina is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Lee reaches 230 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 10 substations mapped, Lee has a moderate spread of interconnection points.

Because Lee, 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 Lee is the 7.8 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Lee, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 4 serving utilities: 7.8 to 9.6¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

No interconnection-queue project is on record for Lee, North Carolina in the covered feeds, which reflects either genuine quiet or a queue not yet ingested. EIA-860M lists nothing planned or under construction for Lee, North Carolina, which is a national filing and so a real zero. The balancing authority covering Lee carries a grid carbon intensity of 481.506 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Lee are 11.08 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Lee, some 113,235 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources