Brown, MN: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BENCO ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, BROWN COUNTY RURAL ELEC ASSN, NEW ULM PUBLIC UTILITIES COMM, NORTHERN STATES POWER CO - MINNESOTA, REDWOOD ELECTRIC COOP, RENVILLE-SIBLEY COOP PWR ASSN, SLEEPY EYE PUBLIC UTILITY COMM, SOUTH CENTRAL ELECTRIC ASSN, SPRINGFIELD PUBLIC UTILS COMM - (MN)

ISO / market

MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

32

Industrial retail rate

9.3¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

3 of 9 serving utilities: 6.6 to 9.7¢/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

982 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

27,377 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 Brown

For Brown, Minnesota, the following sections turn public grid records into a siting-oriented summary. The highest mapped voltage in Brown is 345 kV, in the high-voltage transmission class. Brown carries 32 substations, a dense footprint across the county.

For Brown, the MISO market (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) is the operator that handles interconnection and capacity. The state industrial average retail rate is 9.3 cents per kWh, drawn from EIA-861 and applied to Brown at the state level rather than as a county rate. The serving utilities in Brown that publish a rate range 3 of 9 serving utilities: 6.6 to 9.7¢/kWh, a spread kept separate from the state average.

For Brown, Minnesota, no queued project appears in the feeds currently covered. No generation is filed as planned or under construction in Brown, Minnesota in the federal EIA-860M inventory, a measured zero rather than missing data. Grid carbon intensity for Brown, via its balancing authority, is 981.982 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

USGS 2015 puts freshwater withdrawals across Brown at 4.75 million gallons per day for all uses, a measure of use, not spare supply. Within roughly a 120 km commute of Brown, about 27,377 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 Brown figures as screening-grade context: they describe the surrounding grid, not a specific parcel. The numbers for Brown, Minnesota 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 Brown, Minnesota turns on a study of a particular address, something no county-level page can stand in for. Every number shown for Brown, Minnesota traces to a public source listed below, with its retrieval date, so the provenance is auditable rather than asserted.

Sources