Niobrara, WY: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

BLACK HILLS ELECTRIC COOP, INC, BLACK HILLS POWER, INC., NIOBRARA ELECTRIC ASSN, INC, TOWN OF LUSK - (WY), WAPA-- WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION

ISO / market

NON_ISO (Not in an organized wholesale market)

Highest grid access

69 kV

Substations in county

15

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

1 of 5 serving utilities: 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

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

1,870 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

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 Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

1,265 employed in construction within ~120 km (7 of 8 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 Niobrara

Below, Niobrara in Wyoming is described from public data as a starting point for siting diligence. The highest mapped voltage in Niobrara is 69 kV, a sub-transmission class that usually serves distribution rather than a single large load. With 15 substations mapped, Niobrara has a moderate spread of interconnection points.

Sitting outside any organized market, Niobrara, Wyoming handles interconnection through its utility rather than a central operator. The rate for Niobrara is the 8.7 cents per kWh state industrial average (EIA-861), the same figure the map colours by. Across Niobrara, reported per-utility industrial rates cover 1 of 5 serving utilities: 9.1¢/kWh, offered only as context beneath the state figure.

The covered queue feeds list nothing for Niobrara, Wyoming, which may be quiet or simply uningested. Nothing is on file for Niobrara, Wyoming in EIA-860M as planned or under construction, which counts as a measured zero. The balancing authority covering Niobrara carries a grid carbon intensity of 1,869.537 lb CO2 per MWh in eGRID.

Reported freshwater withdrawals for all uses in Niobrara are 44.31 million gallons per day in the USGS 2015 compilation, existing demand rather than water free for a new load. Around Niobrara, some 1,265 people work in construction within about a 120 km commute (BLS QCEW), a measure of reach, not of available crews.

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

Sources