WARD SWITCH
Substation-AdjacentWard County, Texas · ERCOT
At a glance
WARD SWITCH is a substation-adjacent datacenter candidate site in Ward County, Texas, scoring 52.9/100 DC Readiness — 22nd of 32 scored sites in the county. Its nearest substation is WARD SWITCH (0 mi, 69 kV). It sits in the ERCOT grid region and the ONCOR ELECTRIC DELIVERY COMPANY LLC service territory, where interconnection has averaged 3.5 years from request to operation. GridCensus catalogs 50 MW of candidate capacity here.
Power & interconnection
Speed to power
Texas note: Since August 3, 2026, ERCOT has paused approvals to energize new datacenter and crypto-mining loads of 75 MW or more until a verification audit and a community impact review are complete; both reports are due to the Public Utility Commission of Texas by December 10, 2026. ERCOT speed-to-power scores here were set before the pause and do not reflect it. ERCOT board update.
Deep queue and long historical waits — plan for a multi-year interconnection timeline and engage the utility early.
Connectivity
Site characteristics
Risk & environment
Location context
Regulatory climate
No statewide moratorium, but since Aug 3, 2026 ERCOT has paused approvals to energize new datacenter and crypto loads ≥75 MW pending an audit due Dec 10, 2026. SB 6 adds large-load obligations above 75 MW.
SB 6: loads ≥75 MW accept ERCOT emergency curtailment + contribute to interconnection cost.
Incentive detail: Chapter 313/Chapter 403 property tax abatements; Texas Enterprise Fund; no state income tax.
Site location
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How does WARD SWITCH compare with other sites in Ward County?
WARD SWITCH ranks 22nd of 32 scored candidate sites in Ward County. Its 52.9/100 is roughly in line with the county average of 54.4. It is roughly in line with the Texas average of 56.4 and roughly in line with the national average of 53.2.
Against the Texas average, its strongest sub-score is speed to power (78 vs 72) and its weakest is fiber connectivity (44 vs 71). Power and speed to power each carry 20% of the composite score, fiber 12%, water 7% and hazard 6%.
How close is WARD SWITCH to power, fiber and other datacenters?
The nearest mapped substation, WARD SWITCH, is about 0 miles away and operates at 69 kV. The nearest located transmission bottleneck is PALOUS_WOLFCA1_1 (ERCOT), 22 miles away. 1 fiber providers report service at the location in FCC broadband data. The closest operating datacenter on record is IONIC Digital Cedarvale, 37 miles away.
What are the flood, water and hazard risks at WARD SWITCH?
At the county level, FEMA's National Risk Index rates Ward County "Very High".
Full DC Readiness breakdown
All 13 weighted sub-scores (0–100) behind the composite DC Readiness score.
Nearby comparable sites
Other scored datacenter candidate sites in Ward County, ranked by DC Readiness.
| Site | Type | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PERMIAN BASIN 345 | Substation-Adjacent | 345 kV | 600 MW | 3.5 yrs | 64.6 |
| EC Near Permian Basin | Greenfield | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 59.1 |
| EC Near Permian Basin | Greenfield | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 58.5 |
| UNKNOWN301432 | Substation-Adjacent | 345 kV | 600 MW | 3.5 yrs | 58.4 |
| EC Near Permian Basin | Greenfield | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 58.0 |
| EC Near Permian Basin | Greenfield | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 57.9 |
| EC Near Permian Basin | Greenfield | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 57.9 |
| EC Near Permian Basin | Greenfield | — | — | 3.5 yrs | 57.2 |
WARD SWITCH: common questions
What is the DC Readiness score of WARD SWITCH?
WARD SWITCH scores 52.9/100 on the GridCensus DC Readiness scale, rated fair. It ranks 22nd of 32 scored sites in Ward County. The Ward County average is 54.4 and the Texas average is 56.4.
What is the nearest substation to WARD SWITCH?
The nearest mapped substation is WARD SWITCH, about 0 miles away, at 69 kV. GridCensus catalogs 50 MW of candidate capacity for the site.
Which electric utility serves WARD SWITCH?
ONCOR ELECTRIC DELIVERY COMPANY LLC (investor owned) holds the retail service territory that contains the site.
What grid region is WARD SWITCH in?
WARD SWITCH is in the ERCOT region. Projects interconnecting there have averaged a 3.5-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, “WARD SWITCH, Ward County, TX”, https://gridcensus.com/datacenter-sites/texas/ward-county/ward-switch-4ba46502 (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 WARD SWITCH, Ward 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.