Cherokee, TX: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CHEROKEE COUNTY ELEC COOP ASSN, DEEP EAST TEXAS ELEC COOP INC, ENTERGY TEXAS INC., HOUSTON COUNTY ELEC COOP INC, JASPER-NEWTON ELEC COOP, INC, LYNTEGAR ELECTRIC COOP, INC, ONCOR ELECTRIC DELIVERY COMPANY LLC, RUSK COUNTY ELECTRIC COOP, INC, SAM HOUSTON ELECTRIC COOP INC, SOUTHWESTERN ELECTRIC POWER CO, TRINITY VALLEY ELEC COOP INC, UPSHUR RURAL ELEC COOP CORP, WOOD COUNTY ELECTRIC COOP, INC

ISO / market

ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

18

Industrial retail rate

6.5¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

11 of 13 serving utilities: 5.6 to 9.0¢/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

3 projects, 1,325 MW

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

734 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

28,266 employed in construction within ~120 km (21 of 22 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

Everything here about Cherokee, Texas comes from public federal and state records, with the gaps left visible. Cherokee reaches 345 kV, a high-voltage transmission class, at its strongest mapped point of grid access. With 18 substations mapped, Cherokee has a moderate spread of interconnection points.

Cherokee falls inside the ERCOT market (Electric Reliability Council of Texas), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Cherokee is the 6.5 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Cherokee, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 11 of 13 serving utilities: 5.6 to 9.0¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Cherokee has 3 interconnection-queue projects on record, totalling 1,324.77 MW of requested capacity. EIA-860M lists nothing planned or under construction for Cherokee, Texas, which is a national filing and so a real zero. The balancing authority covering Cherokee carries a grid carbon intensity of 734.003 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Cherokee are 376.79 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Cherokee, some 28,266 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, Texas 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, Texas is an address-level interconnection study; the county figures here only narrow where to look. For Cherokee, Texas, the source log below records where each figure comes from and when it was pulled, keeping the provenance visible.

Sources