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Gridcensus

Milk River at 48.621, -109.969

Federal Excess

Hill County, Montana · WECC

DC Readiness
51.6
Fair / 100

At a glance

Milk River at 48.621, -109.969 is a federal excess datacenter candidate site in Hill County, Montana, scoring 51.6/100 DC Readiness — 23rd of 103 scored sites in the county. It sits in the WECC grid region and the HILL COUNTY ELECTRIC COOP, INC service territory, where interconnection has averaged 1.1 years from request to operation.

Power & interconnection

UtilityHILL COUNTY ELECTRIC COOP, INCnot availablefavorable to large load · state default

Speed to power

Interconnection outlookFavorable
≈ 1.1 yrs typical interconnection wait

Shorter queues and healthier completion here — a faster path to energization than the national norm.

ISO / RTO regionWECC
Queue depth170
Avg queue wait1.1 yrs
Recent queue wait1.1 yrs
Completion rate16%
Withdrawal rate84%

Connectivity

Fiber providers3
Fiber coverage36.6%

Site characteristics

Acreage320 ac
Buildable load (est.)~128–320 MWland-based
Former useReclamation and Irrigation

Risk & environment

Environmental constraintNone (0/100)
Water stress (WRI)Medium-High
Wetlands (NWI)—
Critical habitat—
Superfund nearby—
Hazard sub-score88/100

Location context

County hazard (FEMA NRI)Very Low (12)
DC tax incentiveYes (property_tax_abatement)
Commercial electricity8.14¢/kWh
Industrial electricity5.64¢/kWh
Cooling degree days400
Heating degree days7,600
Land price / acre$1,066

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

Incentive detail: New/expanding industry tax abatement available for DC construction.

Site location

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

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How does Milk River at 48.621, -109.969 compare with other sites in Hill County?

Milk River at 48.621, -109.969 ranks 23rd of 103 scored candidate sites in Hill County. Its 51.6/100 is roughly in line with the county average of 52.0. It is roughly in line with the Montana average of 54.3 and roughly in line with the national average of 53.2.

Against the Montana average, its strongest sub-score is natural hazard (88 vs 88) and its weakest is power availability (30 vs 37). Power and speed to power each carry 20% of the composite score, fiber 12%, water 7% and hazard 6%.

How close is Milk River at 48.621, -109.969 to power, fiber and other datacenters?

3 fiber providers report service at the location in FCC broadband data.

What are the flood, water and hazard risks at Milk River at 48.621, -109.969?

At the county level, FEMA's National Risk Index rates Hill County "Very Low".

Full DC Readiness breakdown

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

Power availability20%
30
Speed to power20%
63
Fiber connectivity12%
59
Energy cost10%
50
Water risk7%
56
Natural hazard6%
88
Buildability7%
50
Labor market4%
50
DC cluster4%
10
Land / acreage3%
69
Construction cost3%
50
Gas pipeline2%
10
Tax incentive1%
100
Climate / cooling1%
100

Nearby comparable sites

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

Sites near Milk River at 48.621, -109.969
SiteTypeVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
HAVRE / ASSINNIBOINESubstation-Adjacent230 kV300 MW1.1 yrs61.7
OZ HillGreenfield——1.1 yrs59.2
UNKNOWN208245Substation-Adjacent115 kV100 MW1.1 yrs57.4
UNKNOWN208249Substation-Adjacent115 kV100 MW1.1 yrs57.4
RUDYARDSubstation-Adjacent115 kV100 MW1.1 yrs57.2
SWITCHSubstation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW1.1 yrs55.4
UNKNOWN208204Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW1.1 yrs55.4
UNKNOWN208202Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW1.1 yrs55.4

Milk River at 48.621, -109.969: common questions

What is the DC Readiness score of Milk River at 48.621, -109.969?

Milk River at 48.621, -109.969 scores 51.6/100 on the GridCensus DC Readiness scale, rated fair. It ranks 23rd of 103 scored sites in Hill County. The Hill County average is 52.0 and the Montana average is 54.3.

Which electric utility serves Milk River at 48.621, -109.969?

HILL COUNTY ELECTRIC COOP, INC (not available) holds the retail service territory that contains the site.

What grid region is Milk River at 48.621, -109.969 in?

Milk River at 48.621, -109.969 is in the WECC region. Projects interconnecting there have averaged a 1.1-year wait from queue request to operation.

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, “Milk River at 48.621, -109.969, Hill County, MT”, https://gridcensus.com/datacenter-sites/montana/hill-county/milk-river-4ba8c8da (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.

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Every site and score for Milk River at 48.621, -109.969, Hill 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.