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What data center developers need to know about site viability, utility coordination, and community approval — before a single shovel hits the dirt.
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Three developers are making decisions this week that will define the next decade of their business. One is committing to a site without a clear answer on water. Another just discovered the interconnection queue runs three years deep — and requires a $20M financial guarantee just to enter it. A third has checked every engineering box. The project is stalled anyway.
None of these are hypothetical. They are the patterns playing out across the most active data center market in the country — and the reason this paper exists.
A developer is committing to a site without a clear answer on water.
Another just discovered the interconnection queue runs three years deep — and requires a $20M financial guarantee just to enter it.
A third checked every engineering box. The project is stalled anyway.
The four variables that determine whether a site is actually viable — power, water, community, and government affairs — are not real estate problems.
Everything you need to evaluate before the LOI is signed — from grid interconnection math to the community narrative that wins entitlement.
Any load request of 75 MW+ triggers a formal LLIS/Batch Study study through ERCOT — with a $50K-per-megawatt financial security requirement held in escrow.
Municipal supply limits, groundwater restrictions, direct liquid cooling, and the reclaimed-water approach that turns a liability into an asset.
Opposition is getting more sophisticated. Noise, water, and economic trade-offs — addressed before entitlement begins.
A developer can clear every technical requirement and still be stopped by a single official who wasn't in the conversation early enough.
The paper walks through all three stages and includes the companion LLIS/Batch Study Process Flowchart.
The developers who move fastest are the ones who answered these questions before they were financially committed to a site.
Have you had a face-to-face meeting with the relevant transmission provider confirming they have generation capacity on your timeline?
Do you know whether your project triggers the LLIS/Batch Study process, and have you modeled the $50,000-per-megawatt financial security exposure?
What is the complete water picture — municipal supply capacity, groundwater restrictions, reclaimed water infrastructure — before the LOI is signed?
What cooling technology does the project specify, and what does that mean for water consumption and hardware requirements?
Has a sound analysis been completed relative to surrounding land uses, with mitigation incorporated into the site plan from the start?
Who are the local and state political stakeholders, and has an early informal conversation happened before the formal process begins?
Does the project team include professionals with political and governmental experience — not just engineering credentials?
Has the developer identified how the tax-base impact can be structured as a community benefit, before opposition forms around a different story?
The whitepaper answers each one — with the process, math, and field experience to back it up.
Get the paper →Get the full field guide delivered to your inbox — with the companion LLIS/Batch Study Process Flowchart. We are ready to engage wherever you are in the development process.
Thanks — your download is ready.
Download the Whitepaper →WGI respects your privacy. Your information will not be sold or shared.