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Gridcensus

Kern County, California · CAISO

DC Readiness
48.0
Fair / 100

At a glance

UNIVERSITY is a substation-adjacent datacenter candidate site in Kern County, California, scoring 48.0/100 DC Readiness — 54th of 284 scored sites in the county. Its nearest substation is UNIVERSITY (0 mi, 115 kV). It sits in the CAISO grid region and the PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO. service territory, where interconnection has averaged 7.6 years from request to operation. GridCensus catalogs 100 MW of candidate capacity here.

Power & interconnection

Nearest substationUNIVERSITY
Substation distance0.0 mi
Substation voltage115 kV
Available capacity100 MW
UtilityPACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO.investor ownedrestrictive to large load · terms ≥ 50 MW

Speed to power

Interconnection outlookConstrained
≈ 8.3 yrs typical interconnection wait

Deep queue and long historical waits — plan for a multi-year interconnection timeline and engage the utility early.

ISO / RTO regionCAISO
Queue depth227
Avg queue wait7.6 yrs
Recent queue wait8.3 yrs
Completion rate11%
Withdrawal rate89%

Connectivity

Nearest IXPSD / Comsat Santa Paula Ground Station
IXP distance56.0 mi
Fiber providers12
Fiber coverage38.7%

Site characteristics

Risk & environment

Environmental constraintNone (0/100)
Water stress (WRI)High
Wetlands (NWI)—
Critical habitat—
Superfund nearby—
Hazard sub-score52/100

Location context

Nearest datacenterSD / Comsat Santa Paula Ground Station
DC distance56.0 mi
County hazard (FEMA NRI)Relatively High (48)
DC tax incentiveNo
Commercial electricity23.14¢/kWh
Industrial electricity18.13¢/kWh
Cooling degree days1,000
Heating degree days2,500
Land price / acre$10,539

Regulatory climate

Moderatestate posture · as of 2026-08

No notable statewide DC restriction on record; confirm local zoning and utility tariffs.

DC tax incentiveNo / suspended

Site location

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≥ 7560–7540–60≤ 40
This site + 8 nearby

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How does UNIVERSITY compare with other sites in Kern County?

UNIVERSITY ranks 54th of 284 scored candidate sites in Kern County. Its 48.0/100 is roughly in line with the county average of 45.7. It is roughly in line with the California average of 45.4 and roughly in line with the national average of 53.2.

Against the California average, its strongest sub-score is power availability (56 vs 36) and its weakest is fiber connectivity (60 vs 66). Power and speed to power each carry 20% of the composite score, fiber 12%, water 7% and hazard 6%.

How close is UNIVERSITY to power, fiber and other datacenters?

The nearest mapped substation, UNIVERSITY, is about 0 miles away and operates at 115 kV. The nearest located transmission bottleneck is 34860_TAFT _70.0_34943_Q356TAP _70.0_BR_1 _1 (CAISO), 1 miles away. For connectivity, the nearest internet exchange facility is SD / Comsat Santa Paula Ground Station at 56 miles. 12 fiber providers report service at the location in FCC broadband data. The closest operating datacenter on record is SD / Comsat Santa Paula Ground Station, 56 miles away.

What are the flood, water and hazard risks at UNIVERSITY?

At the county level, FEMA's National Risk Index rates Kern County "Relatively High".

Full DC Readiness breakdown

All 13 weighted sub-scores (0–100) behind the composite DC Readiness score.

Power availability20%
56
Speed to power20%
43
Fiber connectivity12%
60
Energy cost10%
50
Water risk7%
24
Natural hazard6%
52
Buildability7%
60
Labor market4%
50
DC cluster4%
40
Land / acreage3%
34
Construction cost3%
50
Gas pipeline2%
10
Tax incentive1%
0
Climate / cooling1%
75

Nearby comparable sites

Other scored datacenter candidate sites in Kern County, ranked by DC Readiness.

Sites near UNIVERSITY
SiteTypeVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
WINDHUBSubstation-Adjacent500 kV1,000 MW7.6 yrs56.9
WHIRLWINDSubstation-Adjacent500 kV1,000 MW7.6 yrs56.7
MIDWAYSubstation-Adjacent500 kV1,000 MW7.6 yrs56.1
UNKNOWN306810Substation-Adjacent345 kV600 MW7.6 yrs55.1
UNKNOWN300111Substation-Adjacent345 kV600 MW7.6 yrs54.4
UNKNOWN308953Substation-Adjacent345 kV600 MW7.6 yrs54.4
WESTWINDSubstation-Adjacent230 kV300 MW7.6 yrs53.2
ARBWINDSubstation-Adjacent230 kV300 MW7.6 yrs52.5

UNIVERSITY: common questions

What is the DC Readiness score of UNIVERSITY?

UNIVERSITY scores 48.0/100 on the GridCensus DC Readiness scale, rated fair. It ranks 54th of 284 scored sites in Kern County. The Kern County average is 45.7 and the California average is 45.4.

What is the nearest substation to UNIVERSITY?

The nearest mapped substation is UNIVERSITY, about 0 miles away, at 115 kV. GridCensus catalogs 100 MW of candidate capacity for the site.

Which electric utility serves UNIVERSITY?

PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO. (investor owned) holds the retail service territory that contains the site; its holding company is PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CORPORATION.

What grid region is UNIVERSITY in?

UNIVERSITY is in the CAISO region. Projects interconnecting there have averaged a 7.6-year wait from queue request to operation.

How far is UNIVERSITY from an internet exchange?

The nearest internet exchange facility is SD / Comsat Santa Paula Ground Station, about 56 miles away; 12 fiber providers report service at the location.

Related pages

About this data

Source: GridCensus composite of HIFLD transmission and substation data, EIA, FEMA National Risk Index, FCC broadband data, PeeringDB and ISO interconnection queues, as published October 10, 2026 — GridCensus refreshes it monthly. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.

Cite as: GridCensus, “UNIVERSITY, Kern County, CA”, https://gridcensus.com/datacenter-sites/california/kern-county/university-be7091a2 (data as of October 10, 2026).

Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.

Figures are screening estimates derived from public infrastructure data. Catalogued capacity reflects theoretical candidate capacity, not deliverable or committed interconnection. Confirm all values with the utility, ISO, and on-the-ground due diligence.

Go deeper than the public screen

Every site and score for UNIVERSITY, Kern County 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.