Walker, TX: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

CENTERPOINT ENERGY, ENTERGY TEXAS INC., HOUSTON COUNTY ELEC COOP INC, MID-SOUTH ELECTRIC COOP ASSN, NAVASOTA VALLEY ELEC COOP, INC, ONCOR ELECTRIC DELIVERY COMPANY LLC, SAM HOUSTON ELECTRIC COOP INC, SAN BERNARD ELECTRIC COOP, INC

ISO / market

ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

9

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

6 of 8 serving utilities: 5.9 to 9.2¢/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, 925 MW

Proposed generation

150 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

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

202,608 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 Walker

What follows is a screening-grade read of Walker, Texas, built only from named public datasets. Grid access in Walker extends to 345 kV, a high-voltage line class. The mapped layer places 9 substations across Walker, a moderate density.

Interconnection over Walker runs through the ERCOT market (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) and its rules. For Walker, the rate shown is the state industrial average of 6.5 cents per kWh (EIA-861), a state figure and not a county-specific one. Beneath that state average, the utilities serving Walker that report an industrial rate span 6 of 8 serving utilities: 5.9 to 9.2¢/kWh, shown as context and never as the county rate.

The queue feeds show 5 projects for Walker, totalling 925 MW of requested capacity. EIA-860M records 150 MW planned or under construction for Walker. Walker sits under a balancing authority that eGRID puts at 981.982 lb CO2 per MWh.

Walker withdrew 4.94 million gallons per day for all uses in the USGS 2015 data, which counts demand, not headroom. About 202,608 people are employed in construction within a 120 km commute of Walker (BLS QCEW), which frames staffing distance rather than free labour.

For Walker, treat this as screening-grade county context useful for narrowing a search rather than settling a site. Taken together, the figures for Walker, Texas describe the grid around a prospective site, drawn from public data with their gaps left visible on purpose. To move past screening in Walker, Texas, a specific address needs its own interconnection study, which this page does not attempt. The figures for Walker, Texas refresh as their public datasets do, and the exact sources and dates sit in the source log below this section.

Sources