Galveston, TX: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CENTERPOINT ENERGY, ENTERGY TEXAS INC., JACKSON ELECTRIC COOP, INC - (TX), SAN BERNARD ELECTRIC COOP, INC, TEXAS-NEW MEXICO POWER CO

ISO / market

MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

51

Industrial retail rate

6.5¢/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: 5.9 to 8.9¢/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

11 projects, 2,943 MW

Proposed generation

750 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

734 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

245,101 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 Galveston

The material below frames Galveston, Texas for a prospective large load, drawing only on public sources. Grid access in Galveston extends to 345 kV, a high-voltage line class. The mapped layer packs 51 substations into Galveston, a dense spread of options.

Interconnection over Galveston runs through the MISO market (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) and its rules. For Galveston, the rate shown is the state industrial average of 6.5 cents per kWh (EIA-861), a state figure and not a county-specific one. Beneath that state average, the utilities serving Galveston that report an industrial rate span 3 of 5 serving utilities: 5.9 to 8.9¢/kWh, shown as context and never as the county rate.

The queue feeds show 11 projects for Galveston, totalling 2,943.22 MW of requested capacity. EIA-860M records 750 MW planned or under construction for Galveston. Galveston sits under a balancing authority that eGRID puts at 734.003 lb CO2 per MWh.

Galveston withdrew 6.03 million gallons per day for all uses in the USGS 2015 data, which counts demand, not headroom. About 245,101 people are employed in construction within a 120 km commute of Galveston (BLS QCEW), which frames staffing distance rather than free labour.

For Galveston, treat this as screening-grade county context useful for narrowing a search rather than settling a site. Taken together, the figures for Galveston, Texas describe the grid around a prospective site, drawn from public data with their gaps left visible on purpose. To move past screening in Galveston, Texas, a specific address needs its own interconnection study, which this page does not attempt. The figures for Galveston, Texas refresh as their public datasets do, and the exact sources and dates sit in the source log below this section.

Sources