Powered Land Method and Data Center Site Selection Criteria

What powered land means

Powered land is a site where power can be delivered at data center scale, with a date. We publish the power, the land and the demand for each place, and the sources behind them.

The DCMI Power Readiness Score

One number from 0 to 100 per state, county and site, labelled DC Market Insights calculation. A factor with no data is left out and named on the page; the score is then the share of the points we can measure. With fewer than 50 weight points measured, no score is shown. Every change is logged with its date and reason.

• Time to power: 30 points.
• Available or freeing MW: 20 points.
• Grid congestion and queue backlog: 10 points.
• Policy: 15 points.
• Land and permitting: 10 points.
• Fiber and latency to the nearest hub: 10 points.
• Water stress: 5 points.

How each factor is measured

• Time to power: the earliest year a developer, utility or government source states for a site in the place. This year or earlier gets 30 points, and each year later takes 6 off.
• Available or freeing MW: plants scheduled to retire by 2030, retired in the last 24 months or idle, from EIA-860M. Within 25 km for a site, in the county for a county, in the state for a state. Full points at 1,000 MW for a site or county and 5,000 MW for a state.
• Queue backlog: active interconnection queue MW in the state against operating plant MW. Scored only where the ISO queue file is loaded.
• Policy: state rules in force from our Power and Policy tracker. A moratorium sets the factor to zero; restrictions and large-load tariffs take points off; incentives add points.
• Land and permitting: the best site in the place by status and stated acres.
• Fiber and latency: live data centers we track within 50 km, or in the state for a state page.
• Water stress: from a public water-stress index, once it is loaded.

Data rules

• Every value has a source, a quote and a check date. Sites come from developer, utility or government sources only.
• Substation locations are never published: they are counted by county only.
• A private parcel is shown at county level unless the owner listed it publicly.
• MW is shown in the source's own words. We never estimate MW that no source states.
• Large-load queue entries with no named customer are listed as undisclosed and tied to no site.