Benson, ND: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BASIN ELECTRIC POWER COOP, CAVALIER RURAL ELEC COOP, INC, CITY OF MADDOCK - (ND), NODAK ELECTRIC COOP INC, NORTHERN PLAINS ELECTRIC COOP, OTTER TAIL POWER CO, WAPA-- WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION

ISO / market

SPP (Southwest Power Pool)

Highest grid access

230 kV

Substations in county

27

Industrial retail rate

7.5¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

5 of 7 serving utilities: 1.1 to 8.4¢/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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

1,008 employed in construction within ~120 km (10 of 13 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 Benson

Below, Benson in North Dakota is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Benson reaches 230 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 27 substations mapped, Benson offers interconnection points across many locations.

Benson falls inside the SPP market (Southwest Power Pool), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Benson is the 7.5 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Benson, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 5 of 7 serving utilities: 1.1 to 8.4¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Across the covered feeds, Benson, North Dakota carries no interconnection-queue project, from either real quiet or a feed not yet loaded. Nothing is on file for Benson, North Dakota in EIA-860M as planned or under construction, which counts as a measured zero. The balancing authority covering Benson carries a grid carbon intensity of 981.982 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Benson are 1.13 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Benson, some 1,008 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources