Swisher, TX: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

AEP TEXAS NORTH COMPANY, BAILEY COUNTY ELEC COOP ASSN, CITY OF TULIA, DEAF SMITH ELECTRIC COOP, INC, GREENBELT ELECTRIC COOP, INC, LAMB COUNTY ELECTRIC COOP, INC, LIGHTHOUSE ELECTRIC COOP, INC, SOUTH PLAINS ELECTRIC COOP INC, SOUTHWESTERN PUBLIC SERVICE CO, SWISHER ELECTRIC COOP, INC

ISO / market

ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

24

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

7 of 10 serving utilities: 4.9 to 13.1¢/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

5 projects, 2,049 MW

Proposed generation

601 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

872 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

17,274 employed in construction within ~120 km (14 of 19 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 Swisher

Below, Swisher in Texas is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Swisher reaches 345 kV, a high-voltage transmission class, at its strongest mapped point of grid access. With 24 substations mapped, Swisher offers interconnection points across many locations.

Swisher falls inside the ERCOT market (Electric Reliability Council of Texas), which governs how its interconnection requests and capacity move. The rate for Swisher is the 6.5 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Swisher, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 7 of 10 serving utilities: 4.9 to 13.1¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

Swisher has 5 interconnection-queue projects on record, totalling 2,048.92 MW of requested capacity. Swisher has 601 MW of planned or under-construction generation on file in EIA-860M. The balancing authority covering Swisher carries a grid carbon intensity of 871.526 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Swisher are 67.78 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Swisher, some 17,274 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources