What time to power means
Time to power is the gap between asking for a grid connection and having power delivered at the site. It is usually counted in months or years, and it ends at the energization date.
Two sites with the same land and the same price can have very different times to power. That is why many teams now screen for power first and land second.
What drives it
- Distance to transmission lines and substations at the right voltage.
- How many other projects are asking to connect nearby.
- Network upgrades the utility has to build first.
- Studies, agreements, financial security and permits.
- Lead times for large equipment such as transformers and breakers.
- Whether on-site generation can cover the gap before grid power arrives.
How Voltane estimates it
For Texas sites, Voltane gives time to power as an estimate with a range, not a single date. The range comes from the public history of past ERCOT generation interconnection requests in similar places.
This is generation queue history, not large-load history, and large-load requests follow a different process. It is not a schedule and not a date any utility has agreed to. The method is public: how Voltane estimates time to power.
Questions people ask
Is time to power the same as the energization date?
No. Time to power is a length of time. The energization date is the day the connection is first switched on. Time to power ends at that date.
Can anyone guarantee a time to power?
Only the utility and the grid operator can commit to a date, and they do it in signed agreements after studies. Anything before that, including a Voltane estimate, is a range based on past projects.
Why does time to power matter more than land price?
A large project earns nothing until it has power. A cheap site that waits years for a connection can cost more than an expensive site that connects sooner.
Related
More glossary
- What is powered land?
- What is a powered shell?
- What is large load interconnection?
- What is a point of interconnection?
- What is an interconnection queue?
- What is queue position?
- What is ERCOT?
- What is an ERCOT load zone?
Need a site, or have one?
Tell us what you need and Voltane finds, reports on and prices candidate sites in ERCOT. Or bring a site you already have for a path-to-power report (by request for now).