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Gridcensus

Milk River

Federal Excess

Phillips County, Montana · WECC

DC Readiness
52.8
Fair / 100

Milk River is a federal excess datacenter candidate site in Phillips County, Montana, interconnecting through WECC. It screens at 52.8/100 DC Readiness and a 1.1 yrs average interconnection-queue wait.

Power & interconnection

UtilityNORTHWESTERN ENERGY LLC - (MT)investor ownedfavorable to large load · terms ≥ 50 MW

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 providers4
Fiber coverage78.8%
Max download18 Mbps

Site characteristics

Acreage49 ac
Buildable load (est.)~20–49 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 electricity8.35¢/kWh
Industrial electricity7.87¢/kWh
Cooling degree days400
Heating degree days7,600
Land price / acre$1,124

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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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%
73
Energy cost10%
50
Water risk7%
56
Natural hazard6%
88
Buildability7%
50
Labor market4%
50
DC cluster4%
10
Land / acreage3%
54
Construction cost3%
50
Gas pipeline2%
10
Tax incentive1%
100
Climate / cooling1%
100

Nearby comparable sites

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

Sites near Milk River
SiteTypeVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
MALTASubstation-Adjacent230 kV300 MW1.1 yrs63.3
UNKNOWN208273Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW1.1 yrs56.9
UNKNOWN208268Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW1.1 yrs56.9
TAP208266Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW1.1 yrs56.9
UNKNOWN208264Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW1.1 yrs56.9
UNKNOWN208272Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW1.1 yrs56.7
UNKNOWN208270Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW1.1 yrs56.6
Milk RiverFederal Excess——1.1 yrs53.4

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, Phillips 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.