Converse, WY: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BLACK HILLS POWER, INC., PACIFICORP, WAPA-- WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION, WHEATLAND RURAL ELEC ASSN, INC

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

230 kV

Substations in county

28

Industrial retail rate

8.7¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

2 of 4 serving utilities: 7.7 to 9.1¢/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

None on record

Proposed generation

998 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

1,870 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

4,195 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 Converse

Below, Converse in Wyoming is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. Converse reaches 230 kV at its highest mapped voltage, a transmission class that can carry a substantial interconnection where capacity exists. With 28 substations mapped, Converse offers interconnection points across many locations.

Converse, Wyoming is not inside an organized market, which leaves interconnection to the utility and bilateral contracts. The rate for Converse is the 8.7 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Converse, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 2 of 4 serving utilities: 7.7 to 9.1¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

The covered queue feeds list nothing for Converse, Wyoming, which may be quiet or simply uningested. Converse has 998 MW of planned or under-construction generation on file in EIA-860M. The balancing authority covering Converse carries a grid carbon intensity of 1,869.537 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Converse are 188.5 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Converse, some 4,195 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources