Mason, IL: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

ADAMS ELECTRIC COOP, AMEREN ILLINOIS COMPANY, MENARD ELECTRIC COOP, SPOON RIVER ELECTRIC COOP, INC

ISO / market

MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator)

Highest grid access

138 kV

Substations in county

8

Industrial retail rate

10.1¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

2 of 4 serving utilities: 1.6 to 19.7¢/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

17 projects, 2,502 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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

25,067 employed in construction within ~120 km (29 of 31 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 Mason

Below, Mason in Illinois is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Mason reaches 138 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 8 substations mapped, Mason has a moderate spread of interconnection points.

Mason falls inside the MISO market (Midcontinent Independent System Operator), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Mason is the 10.1 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Mason, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 2 of 4 serving utilities: 1.6 to 19.7¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Mason has 17 interconnection-queue projects on record, totalling 2,502.02 MW of requested capacity. Mason, Illinois has no EIA-860M generation on file, which reads as zero rather than as a gap. The balancing authority covering Mason carries a grid carbon intensity of 981.982 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Mason are 76.22 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Mason, some 25,067 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources