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Gridcensus

EC Near Highland

Greenfield

Madison County, Illinois · MISO

DC Readiness
57.0
Good / 100

At a glance

EC Near Highland is a greenfield datacenter candidate site in Madison County, Illinois, scoring 57.0/100 DC Readiness — 41st of 112 scored sites in the county. It sits in the MISO grid region and the SOUTHWESTERN ELECTRIC COOP INC - (IL) service territory, where interconnection has averaged 4.8 years from request to operation.

Power & interconnection

LMP zonePJM_COMED
Wholesale LMP$33.95/MWh
Utility commercial rate0.09¢/kWh
UtilitySOUTHWESTERN ELECTRIC COOP INC - (IL)cooperativemoderate to large load · state default

Speed to power

Interconnection outlookConstrained
≈ 6.1 yrs typical interconnection wait

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

ISO / RTO regionMISO
Queue depth277
Avg queue wait4.8 yrs
Recent queue wait6.1 yrs
Completion rate21%
Withdrawal rate79%

Connectivity

Nearest IXPH5 Data Centers St. Louis (MO01)
IXP distance30.8 mi
Fiber providers13
Fiber coverage47.0%
Nearest cloud providerAzure
Nearest cloud regionnorthcentralus
Cloud region distance236.7 mi

Site characteristics

Site typeGreenfield
Land contactMadison County Assessor
Land owner typeprivate
Buildability65.0/100
Land cover (NLCD)Cultivated Crops
Former usenear retired oil plant (10km)

Risk & environment

Environmental constraintNone (0/100)
Flood zoneZone X
Water stress (WRI)0.60
Wetlands (NWI)Clear
Critical habitatClear
Superfund nearbyClear
Hazard sub-score65/100
Construction cost index112.1 (avg 100)

Location context

Nearest datacenterDatacenter 01133944585
DC distance14.3 mi
Nearest rail5.8 mi
Nearest gas pipeline9.7 mi
Nearest fiber route208.4 mi
County hazard (FEMA NRI)Relatively High (35)
DC tax incentiveYes (sales_tax_exemption)
Commercial electricity9.46¢/kWh
Industrial electricity4.60¢/kWh
Cooling degree days1,100
Heating degree days5,600
Land price / acre$6,940

Regulatory climate

Restrictivestate posture · as of 2026-08

New-DC state tax exemptions suspended for 2 years (from Jul 2026).

DC tax incentiveNo / suspended

Incentive detail: Enterprise Zone sales tax exemption; High Impact Business designation for $12M+ DC investments.

Site location

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

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How does EC Near Highland compare with other sites in Madison County?

EC Near Highland ranks 41st of 112 scored candidate sites in Madison County. Its 57.0/100 is roughly in line with the county average of 55.9. It is roughly in line with the Illinois average of 54.3 and roughly in line with the national average of 53.2.

Against the Illinois average, its strongest sub-score is natural hazard (65 vs 63) and its weakest is fiber connectivity (60 vs 71). Power and speed to power each carry 20% of the composite score, fiber 12%, water 7% and hazard 6%.

How close is EC Near Highland to power, fiber and other datacenters?

For connectivity, the nearest internet exchange facility is H5 Data Centers St. Louis (MO01) at 30.8 miles. 13 fiber providers report service at the location in FCC broadband data. The closest operating datacenter on record is Datacenter 01133944585, 14.3 miles away.

What are the flood, water and hazard risks at EC Near Highland?

The site is in FEMA flood zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area (minimal or moderate flood risk). WRI rates baseline water stress at 0.60 on a 0–5 scale. No mapped wetlands are recorded on the parcel. At the county level, FEMA's National Risk Index rates Madison County "Relatively High".

Full DC Readiness breakdown

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

Power availability20%
30
Speed to power20%
47
Fiber connectivity12%
60
Energy cost10%
87
Water risk7%
88
Natural hazard6%
65
Buildability7%
65
Labor market4%
50
DC cluster4%
80
Land / acreage3%
40
Construction cost3%
57
Gas pipeline2%
69
Tax incentive1%
100
Climate / cooling1%
70

Nearby comparable sites

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

Sites near EC Near Highland
SiteTypeVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
STALLINGSSubstation-Adjacent345 kV600 MW4.8 yrs66.5
ROXFORDSubstation-Adjacent345 kV600 MW4.8 yrs65.1
UNKNOWN122139Substation-Adjacent138 kV100 MW4.8 yrs63.3
EC Near VeniceGreenfield——4.8 yrs62.9
EC Near VeniceGreenfield——4.8 yrs62.7
EC Near VeniceGreenfield——4.8 yrs62.6
EC Near StallingsGreenfield——4.8 yrs62.6
EC Near Wood RiverGreenfield——4.8 yrs62.2

EC Near Highland: common questions

What is the DC Readiness score of EC Near Highland?

EC Near Highland scores 57.0/100 on the GridCensus DC Readiness scale, rated good. It ranks 41st of 112 scored sites in Madison County. The Madison County average is 55.9 and the Illinois average is 54.3.

Which electric utility serves EC Near Highland?

SOUTHWESTERN ELECTRIC COOP INC - (IL) (cooperative) holds the retail service territory that contains the site.

What grid region is EC Near Highland in?

EC Near Highland is in the MISO region. Projects interconnecting there have averaged a 4.8-year wait from queue request to operation.

Is EC Near Highland in a flood zone?

The site is in FEMA flood zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area (minimal or moderate flood risk).

Who owns EC Near Highland?

Parcel records list the owner as AMEREN ILLINOIS COMPANY (private land).

How far is EC Near Highland from an internet exchange?

The nearest internet exchange facility is H5 Data Centers St. Louis (MO01), about 30.8 miles away; 13 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, “EC Near Highland, Madison County, IL”, https://gridcensus.com/datacenter-sites/illinois/madison-county/ec-near-highland-a9ef5a49 (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 EC Near Highland, Madison 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.