Watauga, NC: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BLUE RIDGE ELEC MEMBER CORP - (NC), DUKE ENERGY CAROLINAS, LLC, DUKE ENERGY PROGRESS - (NC), MOUNTAIN ELECTRIC COOP, INC, NEW RIVER LIGHT & POWER CO

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

161 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

3 of 5 serving utilities: 7.4 to 7.9¢/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

485 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

51,917 employed in construction within ~120 km (40 of 45 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 Watauga

Everything here about Watauga, North Carolina comes from public federal and state records, with the gaps left visible. Watauga reaches 161 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 10 substations mapped, Watauga has a moderate spread of interconnection points.

Because Watauga, 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 Watauga is the 7.8 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Watauga, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 3 of 5 serving utilities: 7.4 to 7.9¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Across the covered feeds, Watauga, North Carolina carries no interconnection-queue project, from either real quiet or a feed not yet loaded. EIA-860M lists nothing planned or under construction for Watauga, North Carolina, which is a national filing and so a real zero. The balancing authority covering Watauga carries a grid carbon intensity of 484.617 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Watauga are 5.57 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Watauga, some 51,917 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources