Large Load Power Diligence
Know where to investigate before you commit land, engineering and utility-study money.
Give Tafel a load requirement and geography. Tafel Find identifies grid-centred locations worth investigating.
Give Tafel a location. Tafel Diligence establishes what is already settled, what remains unresolved, and exactly what needs to go to the utility.
When the utility answers, each answer is tracked independently so confirmed facts never get mixed with unanswered questions.
We do not estimate available megawatts. That number has to be established for the specific project.
Tafel Find: where to look
Start with:
- Load size
- Geography
- Target energization date
- Phasing
Candidates come back in three groups.
Investigate now. The serving structure and commercial pathway are sufficiently established that the remaining questions belong with the utility or other counterparty.
Resolve first. The location may be worth investigating, but something has to be settled first, often who has the right to serve it or how a greenfield load will be treated commercially.
Out of scope. Current coverage does not support the decision.
A location is never promoted simply because it looks electrically attractive.
Nearby transmission, high voltage and system investment are reasons to investigate. They are not proof that incremental megawatts are available.
In a recent search across two markets, 823 grid locations at 230 kV and above were screened. None reached Investigate now.
That does not mean none are worth pursuing. It means the next unresolved step is known for each of them.
For 100 locations, the serving utility is resolved and the applicable retail framework has been examined, and it still does not settle how a new load of this size with no operating history will be treated. That question belongs with the utility.
For 720 locations, the first task is more basic: establish which utility actually has the right to serve the location.
Three fell outside the current screen.
The result is not a score. It is a map of what has to be resolved next.
Tafel Diligence: what is settled here
For a chosen location, Tafel establishes four things.
Serving structure
- Serving utility
- Transmission owner where relevant
- Market
- Regulator
- Whether the serving assignment is resolved or still needs confirmation
Commercial pathway
- Applicable tariff or negotiated pathway
- Eligibility
- Contract term
- Minimum billing
- Security
- Curtailment
- Cost responsibility
- Notice requirements
Power economics
Where components are established, Tafel identifies:
- Energy
- Transmission
- Capacity
- Network charges
- Delivery charges
- Other applicable components
Only comparable components are compared.
An incomplete dollar-per-megawatt-hour stack is not ranked against a dollar-per-kilowatt-month demand charge or against a negotiated price that has not been established.
Grid context
Tafel also shows the infrastructure and development activity around the location, including:
- High-voltage infrastructure
- Transmission activity
- Customer-driven transmission work
- Major system additions or retirements
- Other factors relevant to the next development decision
None of this is converted into an assumed available-megawatt figure.
What still has to be confirmed
These questions remain visible rather than being folded into a score. They become the request pack for the appropriate counterparty, which may be the serving utility, the transmission owner or the market operator depending on the question.
- How many incremental megawatts can be served?
- When can initial load energize?
- When can full load energize?
- What delivery voltage is required?
- What point of interconnection will be used?
- Which upgrades are required?
- What does the customer have to fund?
- What study cost or deposit applies?
- How is a greenfield load with no operating history treated commercially?
- What curtailment or operating restrictions attach?
Tafel also separates the questions that are already settled so the first utility conversation can focus on what actually remains unresolved.
Do not misinterpret
Some facts look like answers and are not.
A 345 kV substation nearby does not establish available capacity.
A marketed 600 MW substation does not establish that 600 MW is available to a new customer.
Transmission investment near a site may already be committed to serving another load.
Tafel keeps those distinctions visible rather than converting them into a score.
Confirmed power
Once the utility or counterparty responds, each answer is tracked independently.
A project never receives one blanket confirmed label.
| Question | Status |
|---|---|
| Incremental MW | Confirmed |
| Initial energization | Confirmed |
| Full-load energization | Asked, no answer yet |
| Required upgrades | Confirmed |
| Customer contribution | Counterparty declined to state |
| Delivery voltage | Confirmed |
| Study fee | Not yet asked |
| Curtailment requirements | Not yet asked |
An unanswered question stays visible.
A refusal stays a refusal.
An unasked question cannot silently become an assumption.
That matters because a utility may confirm one part of the project and remain silent on another.
A 500 MW example
A developer needs 500 MW with phased energization beginning in 2029. Tafel identifies a candidate grid location and works it through to a defined next step.
What Tafel establishes. The serving utility and market. The applicable commercial pathway. The known commercial obligations, including term, minimum billing, security and cost responsibility. The relevant grid context around the location.
What remains. Incremental megawatts. Initial and full load dates. Required upgrades. Customer contribution. Study cost. And how a greenfield load with no operating history is treated commercially, which in several markets the governing tariff does not say.
Next gate. Take the defined 500 MW request to the serving utility.
Each answer that comes back is tracked on its own as confirmed, asked, declined or not yet asked.
If you already have sites
Bring the candidate locations.
Tafel Diligence establishes:
- Who serves each location
- Which pathway applies
- What is already settled
- What the known commercial obligations are
- What system context matters
- What remains unresolved
- What must be confirmed before more capital is committed
The result is a site-by-site development record and request pack.
If you need locations
Give us:
- Load requirement
- Geography
- Target date
- Phasing
Tafel Find starts from the power system and identifies locations worth further investigation.
Land sourcing follows the power shortlist rather than determining it.
The sequence is:
Load requirement, grid-centred candidates, serving structure, commercial pathway, land search, utility diligence, confirmed MW, date and cost
Power comes first because land is easier to change than the serving utility or transmission system.
Coverage
Tafel has commercial market coverage across eleven markets and serving-authority routing across twenty-six states. The full search, combining grid screening with commercial pathway, runs in two markets today.
Grid screening alone reaches further than that, which is how a screen can cover more ground than a complete answer does.
Where a location falls outside the footprint, Tafel says so rather than filling the gap with a thin answer.
Built for large-load development decisions
Tafel Power is built for developers, investors and infrastructure teams evaluating power-intensive projects.
It is designed to answer two questions:
Where should we investigate?
and then:
What must be proven before we commit more money to this location?
The point is not to replace the utility study.
The point is to eliminate weak locations earlier, enter utility diligence with the right questions, and know exactly what has and has not been confirmed before committing more capital.