This page is for people who own land in Texas and have heard that power users, such as data centers, are looking for sites. It explains what makes a property more or less useful for power, in plain words. It does not put a price on your land.
What moves land value for power use
Distance to a high-voltage line and a substation
A large power user connects at high voltage. In Texas that usually means a 138 kV or 345 kV line, and a substation to tie into. Every extra mile of new line adds cost and time, so land close to both draws more interest. Voltane measures the distance from a property to the nearest transmission line, with its voltage, and to the nearest substation. Distance is a proxy for the cost of a tie-in. It does not say the line has room.
How crowded the queue is
A good location that many projects want is worth less to the next one in line. Voltane counts the projects and megawatts waiting in the ERCOT interconnection queue in the same county, with the month of the report. A crowded county means competition and a longer wait. A quiet county is not proof that the grid there has room.
Flood and buildable acres
Deeded acres are not buildable acres. Mapped flood zones, wetlands, protected land and steep ground all come out first. Voltane measures what is left as buildable acres, using FEMA flood maps and other public layers. Mapped boundaries are not a survey, and conditions on the ground can differ.
One buildable block of about 500 acres
A large campus needs its buildable land in one piece, not scattered across a ranch. Voltane looks for the largest single buildable block on a property and checks it against a 500-acre target. The 500-acre figure is a Voltane planning assumption, not a rule. Smaller blocks can suit smaller projects.
Gas nearby
Some projects plan to make their own power on site while they wait for a grid connection, and that takes gas. Voltane measures the distance to the nearest major gas pipeline in the U.S. Energy Information Administration's public pipeline layer. That layer shows major lines only. It says nothing about spare capacity, pressure or whether an operator will agree to supply.
What nobody can tell you from a map
Land sold with power is priced per megawatt of power that can be delivered to it, not per acre. The same acres can be worth very different amounts depending on how much power can reach them, and when. Few of these sales are public, so there is little to compare against. The value on your county appraisal roll is set for property tax. It is not a market price, and land under an agricultural-use appraisal can be carried far below what a buyer would pay. Only a utility study can say how much power a site can get.
Ask for a summary of public data on your property
Tell us which property you mean, and we will email you a summary of what public data shows for it: the nearest lines and substation, the queue in the county, flood and buildable acres, and gas nearby, each with its source and date. The summary is public data only. It is not an offer and it does not put a price on the property.
Thanks. We will email you a summary of what public data shows for this property. Voltane is a neutral data service: it does not buy, option or broker land, and does not act as your agent.
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Voltane is a neutral data service. It does not buy, option or broker land, and it does not act as your agent or as anyone else's. For a price, speak to a licensed appraiser or broker. For legal questions, speak to a lawyer.
Related
- Texas SB 6 large-load cost calculator: what a large power user must post before a grid study, and why a signed option on land counts.
- How Voltane estimates time to power
- Texas county siting data
Developing or siting a project?
Voltane screens Texas land against transmission, substations, the ERCOT queue, flood and gas, with a source and a date on every fact.