Skip to content
Gridcensus

Rancho Penasquitos

Brownfield

San Diego, San Diego, California · San Diego County Water Auth

Legacy capacity
5
MW

Rancho Penasquitos is a former hydro site in San Diego, San Diego, California, retired 2022-10-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 5 MW of generation, so the grid hookup, transmission rights, and often cooling-water access are already in place — collapsing the speed-to-power timeline versus a greenfield build.

Former use & capacity

Former useformer hydro site
Site typeretired_plant
Existing capacity5 MW
Retirement date2022-10-01
EIA plant ID#56615

Grid hookup & remediation

Nearest substation1.5 mi
Operator address12298 Alemania Road, San Diego, CA, 92129
Why this site is datacenter-attractive: a former hydro site of this scale leaves behind a high-capacity grid interconnection that a new load can re-use, frequently shaving years off the interconnection queue. Retired-plant sites also tend to be already zoned for heavy industrial use with established road, rail, and water infrastructure.

Site conditions & market — San Diego County

County-level intelligence for this site's location — the power economics, water, hazard, connectivity, and workforce a developer screens before ever visiting. Assembled from FEMA NRI, BLS QCEW, FCC BDC, USGS water-use, and EIA.

Market & workforce

Total employment (laborshed)1,288,281
IT / tech employment2,857
Construction employment89,344
Land value$36,053/acre

Power economics & interconnection

Commercial power rate25.32¢/kWh
Industrial power rate19.33¢/kWh
Load growth (FERC-714)1.3%

Water & cooling

Water stressHigh
Public water supply408.8 MGD
Industrial water use1.6 MGD
Cooling degree days1,000
Mean annual temp59°F

Hazard, flood & connectivity

FEMA risk index48.0 · Relatively High
Fiber providers19 · 38% served

County-level context — address-level utility offerings and flood zoning vary within the county. Confirm site-specific service with the utility and a Phase I ESA.

Nearby brownfield & retired-generation sites

A proximity screen of other retired-plant, contaminated, and EPA-flagged sites near Rancho Penasquitos — the environmental neighborhood, ranked by legacy grid capacity.

SiteFormer useLegacy MWDistanceCleanup status
Silver Gateoil plant24716.6 mi—
Carlsbad Energy Centernatural gas plant10619.0 mi—
Escondido Energy Centernatural gas plant4413.1 mi—
P Plantnatural gas plant55.7 mi—
Alvarado Hydro Facilityformer hydro site411.5 mi—
San Diego State Universitynatural gas plant311.3 mi—
Otay Landfill Compostingformer landfill site—22.1 micleanup_complete

Derived from GridCensus's retired-generator & EPA brownfield dataset. Not a substitute for an ASTM E1527 Phase I environmental radius report.

Get alerts

Track Rancho Penasquitos

Get an email when its DC-readiness score, available capacity, or interconnection-queue status changes.

No spam. Just the alerts you asked for.

Nearby datacenter candidate sites

Scored candidate sites near Rancho Penasquitos, ranked by DC Readiness.

Candidate sites near Rancho Penasquitos
SiteTypeStateCountyVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
MIGUELSubstation-AdjacentCASan Diego County500 kV1,000 MW8.2 yrs60.0
PENASQUITOSSubstation-AdjacentCASan Diego County230 kV300 MW8.2 yrs57.1
MISSIONSubstation-AdjacentCASan Diego County230 kV300 MW8.2 yrs57.0
FRIARSSubstation-AdjacentCASan Diego County230 kV300 MW8.2 yrs57.0
STATION FSubstation-AdjacentCASan Diego County230 kV300 MW8.2 yrs56.9
OLD TOWNSubstation-AdjacentCASan Diego County230 kV300 MW8.2 yrs56.8
CALPEAK PE 7Substation-AdjacentCASan Diego County230 kV300 MW8.2 yrs56.8
Silver GateBrownfieldCASan Diego County69 kV247 MW5.7 yrs56.7

Nearby internet exchanges

See all datacenter sites in California →

Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.

Brownfield attributes are derived from EIA retired-generator and EPA public data. Existing capacity reflects the retired plant's historical nameplate, not deliverable interconnection for a new load. Confirm reusable interconnection rights, remediation status, and site availability with the utility, ISO, and current owner.

Go deeper than the public screen

This page shows a public slice of the GridCensus dataset for Rancho Penasquitos, San Diego, San Diego, California. Pro and Enterprise plans unlock the full 147,272-site catalog, raw sub-scores, parcel ownership, interconnection-queue detail, saved searches, and programmatic API access.