Whatcom, WA: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BC HYDRO, CITY OF BLAINE - (WA), CITY OF SUMAS - (WA), OKANOGAN COUNTY ELEC COOP, INC, PUD NO 1 OF WHATCOM COUNTY, PUGET SOUND ENERGY INC

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

500 kV

Substations in county

68

Industrial retail rate

6.9¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

2 of 5 serving utilities: 4.7¢/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

642 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

39,427 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 Whatcom

Everything here about Whatcom, Washington comes from public federal and state records, with the gaps left visible. Whatcom reaches 500 kV, a high-voltage transmission class, at its strongest mapped point of grid access. With 68 substations mapped, Whatcom offers interconnection points across many locations.

Because Whatcom, Washington sits outside an organized market, capacity and interconnection are handled by the utility and bilateral deals, not a market operator. The rate for Whatcom is the 6.9 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Whatcom, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 2 of 5 serving utilities: 4.7¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

No interconnection-queue project is on record for Whatcom, Washington in the covered feeds, which reflects either genuine quiet or a queue not yet ingested. EIA-860M lists nothing planned or under construction for Whatcom, Washington, which is a national filing and so a real zero. The balancing authority covering Whatcom carries a grid carbon intensity of 641.69 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Whatcom are 109.22 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Whatcom, some 39,427 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources