Middlesex, MA: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

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 ASHBURNHAM - (MA), TOWN OF BELMONT - (MA), TOWN OF BRAINTREE - (MA), TOWN OF CONCORD - (MA), TOWN OF GROTON - (MA), TOWN OF HUDSON - (MA), TOWN OF LITTLETON - (MA), TOWN OF MIDDLETON, TOWN OF READING - (MA), TOWN OF WAKEFIELD - (MA), TOWN OF WELLESLEY - (MA)

ISO / market

ISONE (ISO New England)

Highest grid access

450 kV

Substations in county

101

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

7 of 17 serving utilities: 7.6 to 15.1¢/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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

208,330 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 Middlesex

For Middlesex, Massachusetts, the following sections turn public grid records into a siting-oriented summary. The highest mapped voltage in Middlesex is 450 kV, in the high-voltage transmission class. Middlesex carries 101 substations, a dense footprint across the county.

For Middlesex, the ISONE market (ISO New England) is the operator that handles interconnection and capacity. The state industrial average retail rate is 19.4 cents per kWh, drawn from EIA-861 and applied to Middlesex at the state level rather than as a county rate. The serving utilities in Middlesex that publish a rate range 7 of 17 serving utilities: 7.6 to 15.1¢/kWh, a spread kept separate from the state average.

For Middlesex, Massachusetts, no queued project appears in the feeds currently covered. Federal filings (EIA-860M) list 5 MW of generation as planned or under construction in Middlesex. Grid carbon intensity for Middlesex, via its balancing authority, is 541.365 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

USGS 2015 puts freshwater withdrawals across Middlesex at 87.87 million gallons per day for all uses, a measure of use, not spare supply. Within roughly a 120 km commute of Middlesex, about 208,330 people are employed in construction (BLS QCEW), which speaks to how far crews for a multi-year build would travel, not to labour known to be free.

Read the Middlesex figures as screening-grade context: they describe the surrounding grid, not a specific parcel. The numbers for Middlesex, Massachusetts qualify one another, so grid access, substation density, market membership, and rate are meant to be read as a set, not in isolation. Past this screening view, siting in Middlesex, Massachusetts turns on a study of a particular address, something no county-level page can stand in for. Every number shown for Middlesex, Massachusetts traces to a public source listed below, with its retrieval date, so the provenance is auditable rather than asserted.

Sources