Hidalgo, TX: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

AEP TEXAS CENTRAL COMPANY, MAGIC VALLEY ELECTRIC COOP INC, MEDINA ELECTRIC COOP, INC, NUECES ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, ONCOR ELECTRIC DELIVERY COMPANY LLC

ISO / market

ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

56

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: 7.5 to 24.7¢/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

26 projects, 4,749 MW

Proposed generation

160 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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

12,538 employed in construction within ~120 km (4 of 7 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 Hidalgo

The material below frames Hidalgo, Texas for a prospective large load, drawing only on public sources. Grid access in Hidalgo extends to 345 kV, a high-voltage line class. The mapped layer packs 56 substations into Hidalgo, a dense spread of options.

Interconnection over Hidalgo runs through the ERCOT market (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) and its rules. For Hidalgo, 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 Hidalgo that report an industrial rate span 3 of 5 serving utilities: 7.5 to 24.7¢/kWh, shown as context and never as the county rate.

The queue feeds show 26 projects for Hidalgo, totalling 4,749.35 MW of requested capacity. EIA-860M records 160 MW planned or under construction for Hidalgo. Hidalgo sits under a balancing authority that eGRID puts at 734.003 lb CO2 per MWh.

Hidalgo withdrew 287.09 million gallons per day for all uses in the USGS 2015 data, which counts demand, not headroom. About 12,538 people are employed in construction within a 120 km commute of Hidalgo (BLS QCEW), which frames staffing distance rather than free labour.

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

Sources