Sargent, ND: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BASIN ELECTRIC POWER COOP, CASS COUNTY ELEC COOP INC, DAKOTA VALLEY ELEC COOP INC, LAKE REGION ELECTRIC ASSN, INC - (SD), MONTANA-DAKOTA UTILITIES CO, NORTHERN ELECTRIC COOP, INC, NORTHWESTERN ENERGY - (SD), OTTER TAIL POWER CO, TRAVERSE ELECTRIC COOP, INC, WAPA-- WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION

ISO / market

SPP (Southwest Power Pool)

Highest grid access

400 kV

Substations in county

20

Industrial retail rate

7.5¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

6 of 10 serving utilities: 1.1 to 10.4¢/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

4 projects, 445 MW

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

982 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

13,140 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 Sargent

Everything here about Sargent, North Dakota comes from public federal and state records, with the gaps left visible. Sargent reaches 400 kV, a high-voltage transmission class, at its strongest mapped point of grid access. With 20 substations mapped, Sargent has a moderate spread of interconnection points.

Sargent falls inside the SPP market (Southwest Power Pool), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Sargent is the 7.5 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Sargent, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 6 of 10 serving utilities: 1.1 to 10.4¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Sargent has 4 interconnection-queue projects on record, totalling 445 MW of requested capacity. Nothing is on file for Sargent, North Dakota in EIA-860M as planned or under construction, which counts as a measured zero. The balancing authority covering Sargent carries a grid carbon intensity of 981.982 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Sargent are 10.3 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Sargent, some 13,140 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources