Stearns, MN: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

AGRALITE ELECTRIC COOP, ALLETE, INC., CITY OF SAUK CENTRE - (MN), EAST CENTRAL ENERGY, KANDIYOHI POWER COOP, MEEKER COOP LIGHT & POWER ASSN, MELROSE PUBLIC UTILITIES, NORTHERN STATES POWER CO - MINNESOTA, RUNESTONE ELECTRIC ASSN, STEARNS COOPERATIVE ELEC ASSN, WRIGHT-HENNEPIN COOP ELEC ASSN

ISO / market

MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator)

Highest grid access

400 kV

Substations in county

80

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

8 of 11 serving utilities: 8.2 to 10.9¢/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

2 projects, 350 MW

Proposed generation

6 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

982 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

74,994 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 Stearns

Read on for the public power picture of Stearns in Minnesota, assembled for data center siting. At 400 kV, Stearns carries high-voltage transmission at its strongest mapped point. Stearns contains 80 mapped substations, a dense footprint that spreads interconnection options across many points.

Wholesale activity over Stearns clears through the MISO market (Midcontinent Independent System Operator), whose footprint sets how interconnection requests and capacity are handled. Stearns carries the state industrial average retail rate of 9.3 cents per kWh from EIA-861, applied statewide. For Stearns, the per-utility spread is 8 of 11 serving utilities: 8.2 to 10.9¢/kWh, which qualifies but never replaces the state average.

Stearns carries 2 projects in the interconnection queue, totalling 350 MW of requested capacity. In Stearns, 6 MW is filed as planned or under construction in the federal EIA-860M inventory. In eGRID, the balancing authority over Stearns shows 981.982 lb CO2 per MWh.

For Stearns, the USGS 2015 compilation records 41.75 million gallons per day of all-use freshwater withdrawals, not water available to a new load. Stearns sits within commuting range of roughly 74,994 construction workers (BLS QCEW, about 120 km), most already committed elsewhere.

Every figure for Stearns here is screening-grade and describes the county as a whole, not any single parcel within it. None of the figures for Stearns, Minnesota settles a site on its own; each one qualifies the others, and all of them come from public federal and state datasets. Settling a site in Stearns, Minnesota requires a study of the specific parcel, a step beyond the county-level picture drawn here. Sources and data dates for Stearns, Minnesota are logged directly below, so each figure on this page can be traced back to its public dataset.

Sources