Ellsworth, KS: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

ARK VALLEY ELEC COOP ASSN, INC, CITY OF HOLYROOD - (KS), DS&O ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC., EVERGY KANSAS CENTRAL, INC, EVERGY KANSAS SOUTH, INC, FLINT HILLS RURAL E C A, INC, MIDWEST ENERGY INC, ROLLING HILLS ELECTRIC COOP, WESTERN COOP ELECTRIC ASSN INC, WHEATLAND ELECTRIC COOP, INC

ISO / market

SPP (Southwest Power Pool)

Highest grid access

230 kV

Substations in county

8

Industrial retail rate

8.0¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

5 of 10 serving utilities: 7.6 to 13.3¢/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

872 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

7,065 employed in construction within ~120 km (19 of 20 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 Ellsworth

Below, Ellsworth in Kansas is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Ellsworth reaches 230 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 8 substations mapped, Ellsworth has a moderate spread of interconnection points.

Ellsworth falls inside the SPP market (Southwest Power Pool), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Ellsworth is the 8.0 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Ellsworth, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 5 of 10 serving utilities: 7.6 to 13.3¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Across the covered feeds, Ellsworth, Kansas carries no interconnection-queue project, from either real quiet or a feed not yet loaded. EIA-860M lists nothing planned or under construction for Ellsworth, Kansas, which is a national filing and so a real zero. The balancing authority covering Ellsworth carries a grid carbon intensity of 871.526 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Ellsworth are 2.73 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Ellsworth, some 7,065 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources