Ben French
BrownfieldRapid City, Pennington, South Dakota · Black Hills Power, Inc.
Ben French is a coal plant in Rapid City, Pennington, South Dakota, retired 2014-03-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 25 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
Grid hookup & remediation
Nearby datacenter candidate sites
Scored candidate sites near Ben French, ranked by DC Readiness.
| Site | Type | State | County | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LANGE | Substation-Adjacent | SD | Pennington County | 230 kV | 300 MW | 1.0 yrs | 75.8 |
| RAPID CITY DC TIE | Substation-Adjacent | SD | Pennington County | 230 kV | 300 MW | 1.0 yrs | 71.9 |
| SOUTH RAPID CITY | Substation-Adjacent | SD | Pennington County | 230 kV | 300 MW | 1.0 yrs | 70.8 |
| UNKNOWN131182 | Substation-Adjacent | SD | Pennington County | 115 kV | 100 MW | 1.0 yrs | 70.4 |
| NEW UNDERWOOD | Substation-Adjacent | SD | Pennington County | 230 kV | 300 MW | 1.0 yrs | 69.9 |
| Greenfield (UNKNOWN202528 - SOUTH RAPID CI) | Greenfield | SD | Custer County | 230 kV | 300 MW | 1.0 yrs | 69.5 |
| UNKNOWN131179 | Substation-Adjacent | SD | Pennington County | 115 kV | 100 MW | 1.0 yrs | 69.5 |
| EC Near Ben French | Greenfield | SD | Pennington | — | — | 1.0 yrs | 68.2 |
Nearby internet exchanges
- Golden West Rapid City Skyline FacilityRapid City, SD · 2 networks
See all datacenter sites in South Dakota →
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 Ben French, Rapid City, Pennington, South Dakota. Pro and Enterprise plans unlock the full 164,098-site catalog, raw sub-scores, parcel ownership, interconnection-queue detail, saved searches, and programmatic API access.