Essex, MA: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CITY OF PEABODY - (MA), FITCHBURG GAS & ELEC LIGHT CO, LIBERTY UTILITIES (GRANITE STATE ELECTRI, MASSACHUSETTS BAY TRANS AUTHORITY, MASSACHUSETTS ELECTRIC CO, NSTAR ELECTRIC COMPANY, PUBLIC SERVICE CO OF NH, TOWN OF DANVERS, TOWN OF GEORGETOWN - (MA), TOWN OF GROVELAND - (MA), TOWN OF IPSWICH - (MA), TOWN OF MARBLEHEAD - (MA), TOWN OF MERRIMAC - (MA), TOWN OF MIDDLETON, TOWN OF READING - (MA), TOWN OF ROWLEY - (MA), TOWN OF WAKEFIELD - (MA), UNITIL ENERGY SYSTEMS

ISO / market

ISONE (ISO New England)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

81

Industrial retail rate

19.4¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

5 of 18 serving utilities: 7.6 to 16.0¢/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

5 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

541 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

192,917 employed in construction within ~120 kmA 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 Essex

What follows is a screening-grade read of Essex, Massachusetts, built only from named public datasets. Grid access in Essex extends to 345 kV, a high-voltage line class. The mapped layer packs 81 substations into Essex, a dense spread of options.

Interconnection over Essex runs through the ISONE market (ISO New England) and its rules. For Essex, the rate shown is the state industrial average of 19.4 cents per kWh (EIA-861), a state figure and not a county-specific one. Beneath that state average, the utilities serving Essex that report an industrial rate span 5 of 18 serving utilities: 7.6 to 16.0¢/kWh, shown as context and never as the county rate.

The covered queue feeds list nothing for Essex, Massachusetts, which may be quiet or simply uningested. EIA-860M records 5 MW planned or under construction for Essex. Essex sits under a balancing authority that eGRID puts at 541.365 lb CO2 per MWh.

Essex withdrew 132.05 million gallons per day for all uses in the USGS 2015 data, which counts demand, not headroom. About 192,917 people are employed in construction within a 120 km commute of Essex (BLS QCEW), which frames staffing distance rather than free labour.

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

Sources