Ouachita, LA: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CLAIBORNE ELECTRIC COOP, INC, ENTERGY LOUISIANA LLC, NORTHEAST LOUISIANA POWER COOP INC.

ISO / market

MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator)

Highest grid access

500 kV

Substations in county

23

Industrial retail rate

6.2¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

3 serving utilities: 5.2 to 19.4¢/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

14 projects, 3,587 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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

9,445 employed in construction within ~120 km (20 of 24 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 Ouachita

Below, Ouachita in Louisiana is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Ouachita reaches 500 kV, a high-voltage transmission class, at its strongest mapped point of grid access. With 23 substations mapped, Ouachita offers interconnection points across many locations.

Ouachita falls inside the MISO market (Midcontinent Independent System Operator), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Ouachita is the 6.2 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Ouachita, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 3 serving utilities: 5.2 to 19.4¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Ouachita has 14 interconnection-queue projects on record, totalling 3,587 MW of requested capacity. EIA-860M lists nothing planned or under construction for Ouachita, Louisiana, which is a national filing and so a real zero. The balancing authority covering Ouachita carries a grid carbon intensity of 981.982 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Ouachita are 68.59 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Ouachita, some 9,445 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources