Skip to content
Gridcensus

Rainbow (MT)

Brownfield

Great Falls, Cascade, Montana · NorthWestern Energy (MT Hydro)

Legacy capacity
37
MW

Rainbow (MT) is a former hydro site in Great Falls, Cascade, Montana, retired 2013-04-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 37 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 capacity37 MW
Retirement date2013-04-01
EIA plant ID#2193

Grid hookup & remediation

Nearest substation0.4 mi
Operator address336 Rainbow Dam Road, Great Falls, MT, 59404
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 — Cascade 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)31,035
Construction employment2,730
Land value$1,234/acre
Datacenter tax incentiveproperty_tax_abatement

Power economics & interconnection

Commercial power rate8.22¢/kWh
Industrial power rate6.45¢/kWh
Load growth (FERC-714)0.4%

Water & cooling

Water stressMedium-High
Public water supply12.8 MGD
Industrial water use0.6 MGD
Cooling degree days400
Mean annual temp42°F

Hazard, flood & connectivity

FEMA risk index12.0 · Very Low
Fiber providers9 · 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.

Get alerts

Track Rainbow (MT)

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 Rainbow (MT), ranked by DC Readiness.

Candidate sites near Rainbow (MT)
SiteTypeStateCountyVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
GREAT FALLS (RAINBOW)Substation-AdjacentMTCascade County230 kV300 MW3.3 yrs62.5
UNKNOWN206326Substation-AdjacentMTCascade County230 kV300 MW3.3 yrs62.4
GREAT FALLS (RAINBOW)Substation-AdjacentMTCascade County230 kV300 MW3.3 yrs62.2
UNKNOWN206325Substation-AdjacentMTCascade County230 kV300 MW3.3 yrs62.1
DUTTON PUMPSubstation-AdjacentMTCascade County230 kV300 MW3.3 yrs61.5
TAP206227Substation-AdjacentMTCascade County138 kV100 MW3.3 yrs58.4
UNKNOWN206569Substation-AdjacentMTCascade County115 kV100 MW3.3 yrs58.2
UNKNOWN204148Substation-AdjacentMTCascade County115 kV100 MW3.3 yrs58.1

See all datacenter sites in Montana →

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

Every site and score for Rainbow (MT), Great Falls, Cascade, Montana is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.