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Gridcensus

Chesapeake

Brownfield

Chesapeake, Chesapeake, Virginia · Virginia Electric & Power Co

Legacy capacity
761
MW

Chesapeake is a coal plant in Chesapeake, Chesapeake, Virginia, retired 2019-06-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 761 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 usecoal plant
Site typeretired_plant
Existing capacity761 MW
Retirement date2019-06-01
EIA plant ID#3803

Grid hookup & remediation

Nearest substation0.1 mi
Operator address2701 Vepco Street, Chesapeake, VA, 23323
Why this site is datacenter-attractive: a coal plant 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 — Chesapeake city

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)88,821
IT / tech employment659
Construction employment9,362
Land value$5,707/acre
Datacenter tax incentivesales_tax_exemption

Power economics & interconnection

Commercial power rate4.81¢/kWh
Industrial power rate4.19¢/kWh
Load growth (FERC-714)3.2%

Water & cooling

Water stressLow
Public water supply7.1 MGD
Industrial water use0.0 MGD
Cooling degree days1,300
Mean annual temp55°F

Hazard, flood & connectivity

FEMA risk index30.0 · Relatively Moderate
Fiber providers4 · 88% 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 Chesapeake — the environmental neighborhood, ranked by legacy grid capacity.

SiteFormer useLegacy MWDistanceCleanup status
Wheelabrator Portsmouthformer waste site602.6 mi—

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

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Nearby datacenter candidate sites

Scored candidate sites near Chesapeake, ranked by DC Readiness.

Candidate sites near Chesapeake
SiteTypeStateCountyVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
YADKINSubstation-AdjacentVAChesapeake city500 kV1,000 MW3.8 yrs69.9
FENTRESSSubstation-AdjacentVAChesapeake city500 kV1,000 MW3.8 yrs69.6
CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CENTERSubstation-AdjacentVAChesapeake city230 kV300 MW3.8 yrs69.5
SUFFOLKSubstation-AdjacentVASuffolk city500 kV1,000 MW3.8 yrs67.5
INDUSTRIAL PARKSubstation-AdjacentVANorfolk city230 kV300 MW3.8 yrs67.3
OZ NorfolkGreenfieldVANorfolk——3.1 yrs67.2
UNKNOWN115111Substation-AdjacentVAPortsmouth city230 kV300 MW3.8 yrs67.0
OZ NorfolkGreenfieldVANorfolk——3.1 yrs67.0

Nearby internet exchanges

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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 Chesapeake, Chesapeake, Chesapeake, Virginia 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.