Cherokee, NC: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN EMC - (GA), DUKE ENERGY CAROLINAS, LLC, FORT LOUDOUN ELECTRIC COOP, TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY, TOWN OF MURPHY - (NC), TRI-STATE ELECTRIC MEMBER CORP

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

161 kV

Substations in county

22

Industrial retail rate

7.8¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

3 of 6 serving utilities: 5.0 to 7.8¢/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

641 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

73,251 employed in construction within ~120 km (43 of 45 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 Cherokee

Below, Cherokee in North Carolina is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Cherokee reaches 161 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 22 substations mapped, Cherokee offers interconnection points across many locations.

Sitting outside any organized market, Cherokee, North Carolina handles interconnection through its utility rather than a central operator. The rate for Cherokee is the 7.8 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Cherokee, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 3 of 6 serving utilities: 5.0 to 7.8¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Across the covered feeds, Cherokee, North Carolina carries no interconnection-queue project, from either real quiet or a feed not yet loaded. Cherokee, North Carolina has no EIA-860M generation on file, which reads as zero rather than as a gap. The balancing authority covering Cherokee carries a grid carbon intensity of 641.018 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Cherokee are 17.2 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Cherokee, some 73,251 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources