Stafford, KS: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

ARK VALLEY ELEC COOP ASSN, INC, CITY OF RADIUM - (KS), CITY OF ST. JOHN - (KS), CITY OF STAFFORD - (KS), DS&O ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC., EVERGY KANSAS SOUTH, INC, MIDWEST ENERGY INC, NINNESCAH RURAL E C A INC, ROLLING HILLS ELECTRIC COOP, SEDGWICK COUNTY EL COOP ASSN INC, SOUTHERN PIONEER ELECTRIC COMPANY, WESTERN COOP ELECTRIC ASSN INC, WHEATLAND ELECTRIC COOP, INC

ISO / market

SPP (Southwest Power Pool)

Highest grid access

230 kV

Substations in county

12

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 13 serving utilities: 5.7 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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

21,811 employed in construction within ~120 km (18 of 21 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 Stafford

Below, Stafford in Kansas is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Stafford reaches 230 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 12 substations mapped, Stafford has a moderate spread of interconnection points.

Stafford falls inside the SPP market (Southwest Power Pool), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Stafford is the 8.0 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Stafford, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 5 of 13 serving utilities: 5.7 to 13.3¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

No interconnection-queue project is on record for Stafford, Kansas in the covered feeds, which reflects either genuine quiet or a queue not yet ingested. Nothing is on file for Stafford, Kansas in EIA-860M as planned or under construction, which counts as a measured zero. The balancing authority covering Stafford carries a grid carbon intensity of 871.526 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Stafford are 86.06 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Stafford, some 21,811 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources