Skip to content
Gridcensus

Datacenter Sites in Pennington County, South Dakota

Pennington County has 58 scored datacenter candidate sites averaging 59.7/100 DC Readiness, with a catalogued aggregate of 2,700 MW. FEMA rates local natural-hazard risk as "Relatively Low". The county has a datacenter tax incentive on record.

At a glance

Pennington County, South Dakota has 58 scored datacenter candidate sites averaging 59.7/100 DC Readiness, roughly in line with the South Dakota average of 54.7. It ranks 3rd of 52 South Dakota counties by number of sites and 1st by average score. The top-scoring site is EC Coal Pennington County · e9465e3d at 66.9/100.

58
Candidate sites
59.7/100
Avg DC Readiness
2,700 MW
Catalogued capacity
theoretical aggregate
Relatively Low
Hazard rating
◆ Loading map…
≥ 7560–7540–60≤ 40
Top 25 in Pennington County

Site-selection context for Pennington County

Yesno_income_tax
Datacenter tax incentive
13.55¢/kWh
Commercial electricity
13.16¢/kWh
Industrial electricity
7
Fiber providers
Low-Medium
Water stress
$1,513
Land price / acre
700
Cooling degree days
7,300
Heating degree days
45°F
Mean annual temp

Incentive detail: No state corporate income tax; no personal income tax; no personal property tax.

How does Pennington County compare with other counties in South Dakota?

By number of scored sites, Pennington County ranks 3rd of the 52 South Dakota counties with a county page, holding 5.0% of the state's 1,151 sites. Its average DC Readiness of 59.7/100 ranks 1st in the state and is about 13% above the national average of 53.0. Nationally it has the 642nd-largest site inventory of 2,964 counties with five or more sites. 0 sites score 70 or higher and 46 score 55 or higher.

What types of datacenter sites are in Pennington County?

Substation-Adjacent sites are the most common (25, 43% of the county's inventory), followed by greenfield (19) and former mine (10). Site type reflects how the parcel was identified — next to a substation, on a former mine or brownfield, on industrial or federal excess land — and is scored on the same 14 factors either way.

What are power cost, hazard, water and fiber conditions in Pennington County?

Industrial electricity averages 13.16¢/kWh and commercial 13.55¢/kWh. FEMA's National Risk Index rates the county "Relatively Low" (22). WRI water stress is low-medium. 7 fiber providers report service in the county. The climate runs 700 cooling degree days a year with a mean temperature of 45°F. Land is valued around $1,513 an acre.

By site type

Top datacenter sites in Pennington County

Top datacenter sites in Pennington County
SiteTypeVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
EC Coal Pennington CountyGreenfield——4.3 yrs66.9
SOUTH RAPID CITYSubstation-Adjacent230 kV300 MW4.3 yrs66.8
RAPID CITY DC TIESubstation-Adjacent230 kV300 MW4.3 yrs65.9
LANGESubstation-Adjacent230 kV300 MW4.3 yrs65.8
EC Near Ben FrenchGreenfield——4.3 yrs65.7
EC Near Ben FrenchGreenfield——4.3 yrs65.2
EC Coal Pennington CountyGreenfield——4.3 yrs64.6
EC Coal Pennington CountyGreenfield——4.3 yrs64.4
EC Near Ben FrenchGreenfield——4.3 yrs64.4
EC Near Ben FrenchGreenfield——4.3 yrs64.3
EC Near Ben FrenchGreenfield——4.3 yrs63.9
NEW UNDERWOODSubstation-Adjacent230 kV300 MW4.3 yrs63.5
EC Coal Pennington CountyGreenfield——4.3 yrs63.3
EC Coal Pennington CountyGreenfield——4.3 yrs63.2
EC Coal Pennington CountyGreenfield——4.3 yrs63.0
EC Coal Pennington CountyGreenfield——4.3 yrs61.8
UNKNOWN131179Substation-Adjacent115 kV100 MW4.3 yrs61.6
EC Near Ben FrenchGreenfield——4.3 yrs61.5
EC Near Ben FrenchGreenfield——4.3 yrs61.3
EC Near Ben FrenchGreenfield——4.3 yrs61.3
UNKNOWN131182Substation-Adjacent115 kV100 MW4.3 yrs61.1
EC Near Ben FrenchGreenfield——4.3 yrs61.1
UNKNOWN131183Substation-Adjacent115 kV100 MW4.3 yrs61.0
TAP144189Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW4.3 yrs60.6
UNKNOWN131169Substation-Adjacent69 kV50 MW4.3 yrs60.6

Every scored site in Pennington County

All 58 sites, best first.

Pennington County datacenter FAQ

How many datacenter sites are in Pennington County?

58 scored datacenter candidate sites, averaging 59.7/100 DC Readiness. That is the 3rd-most of 52 South Dakota counties with five or more sites.

What is the highest-scoring datacenter site in Pennington County?

EC Coal Pennington County · e9465e3d scores 66.9/100 DC Readiness, the highest of the 58 scored sites in Pennington County (a greenfield site).

Does Pennington County offer datacenter tax incentives?

No state corporate income tax; no personal income tax; no personal property tax.

What is the natural-hazard risk in Pennington County?

FEMA's National Risk Index rates Pennington County as "Relatively Low" (score 22).

What are industrial electricity rates in Pennington County?

Average industrial electricity is 13.16¢/kWh and commercial is 13.55¢/kWh in Pennington County.

More in South Dakota

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 November 12, 2026 — GridCensus refreshes it monthly. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.

Cite as: GridCensus, “Datacenter candidate sites in Pennington County, South Dakota”, https://gridcensus.com/datacenter-sites/south-dakota/pennington-county (data as of November 12, 2026).

Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.

Go deeper than the public screen

Every site and score for Pennington County, South Dakota 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.

See plansTalk to us