Reference
Site diligence checklist
What to confirm before a renewable site is treated as a compute campus. Written for power owners, operators, and capital sitting at the same table. Search, or jump a section. Pair with the glossary for definitions and the markets desk for region.
No matching checks.
Power and interconnect
Campus MW is not a site. Deliverable MW at a voltage, in a queue, under a tariff, is a site.
| Check | Why it matters | Typically held by |
|---|---|---|
| Deliverable MW vs nameplate | A 200 MW plant at a 25% capacity factor is not 200 MW of AI power. Interconnect, ampacity, and transformer MVA cap what can actually land at the bus. | Owner + utility / ISO studies |
| Queue position and study status | Position is an asset. Confirm it against the ISO or utility queue, including transfer rights and whether the request is generation, load, or both. | Owner; ISO / utility queue |
| Load interconnect vs generation interconnect | A generator interconnection does not automatically authorize a large new load. AI campuses often need a separate large-load path, restudy, or both. | Utility / ISO |
| Voltage class and substation ownership | 13.8 kV vs 69 / 115 / 230 / 345 kV changes upgrade cost, lead time, and who owns spare transformers. Customer-owned vs utility-owned substations allocate different risks. | Owner + utility |
| BTM, FTM, or hybrid | Behind-the-meter can improve delivered cost and control. Front-of-the-meter is usually what makes 24/7 training financeable when on-site generation dips. Hybrid is the structure most continuous AI load can underwrite. | Both sides + utility |
| Curtailment and congestion (basis) | Cheap busbar energy can still be expensive at the campus if the path is congested. Historical curtailment and LMP basis belong in the model, not in a footnote. | Owner; ISO market data |
| Tariff, demand charges, and rate design | Peak kW can dominate the bill even when energy is inexpensive. Training ramps without rate design are an opex problem, not a rounding error. | Utility; operator energy team |
Resource shape and firming
Hydro, wind, and solar are different products. The deal is matching shape to workload, then filling the residual.
| Check | Why it matters | Typically held by |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly and seasonal shape | 8760 training needs firmness. Inference and some mining can take a shaped or interruptible product if the contract says so. Solar-only BTM is long at noon and short in the evening. | Owner generation data |
| Capacity factor, not just MW | Underwriting is a GWh and shape problem as much as a MW problem. Nameplate without capacity factor is incomplete. | Owner |
| Storage, hydro flexibility, or other firming | Batteries, pondage, or a second resource can bridge ramps. Storage is usually a bridge to firm interconnect, not a substitute for it on training load. | Owner |
| Water for hydro (and for cooling) | Hydro dispatch is a water-rights and seasonal constraint. Liquid-cooled halls add a second water question. In drought basins either can stop a site. | Owner; water counsel |
Workload fit
Training, inference, and mining are different offtake products. Mixing them in one term sheet without saying so is how credit and SLA later break.
| Check | Why it matters | Typically held by |
|---|---|---|
| Intended workload | Training wants dense, continuous, low-latency clusters and firm power. Inference can be more geographic and sometimes more interruptible. Mining is a different credit, community, and SLA product — still a real offtake when named as such. | Operator |
| Design and max kW/rack | Density decides cooling, busway, fire, structure, and how much white space a MW block needs. Campus MW without kW/rack is incomplete. | Operator |
| Interruptibility and demand response | Some inference and mining can yield to the grid. Large training runs usually cannot unless the cluster is designed to checkpoint. The PPA and the hall SLA have to match that choice. | Operator + owner |
| CFE / renewable mandate | Hourly carbon-free matching, RECs, and net-zero paths are procurement constraints. They change which sites and which PPA shapes will clear. | Offtaker procurement |
Land, fiber, water, community
Power without a controlled parcel, diverse fiber, and a viable community process is not a campus.
| Check | Why it matters | Typically held by |
|---|---|---|
| Land control (option, lease, or title) | Diligence should run under an exclusive option or equivalent. A handshake on acreage is not control. | Owner / developer |
| Zoning and entitlement | Data-center or generation use has to be allowed, or the rezoning path has to be real. Industrial or generation zoning on brownfield is often why those sites clear faster. | Owner; land-use counsel |
| Rights-of-way to substation and fiber | Easements for feeders, water, and long-haul fiber belong with the land. A site without ROW is not yet a site. | Owner |
| Diverse fiber laterals | Training clusters need more than a single ISP drop. A power-ready site with one fiber path is a different product than a training campus. | Operator; carriers |
| Brownfield structure and floor loading | Liquid-cooled racks, CDUs, and busway are heavier than legacy IT. Slab capacity is a go / no-go on conversions. | Owner; structural engineer |
| Community and political path | AI campuses now draw the same attention as power plants. Water, tax, noise, and land-use opposition are schedule items, not surprises after the load letter. | Owner + operator |
Schedule and long-lead equipment
Missed CODs are how GPU idle cost and termination land. Align generation, interconnect, hall, and transformers — or the dates are not dates.
| Check | Why it matters | Typically held by |
|---|---|---|
| COD stack | Generation COD, interconnect energization, hall COD, and IT turn-up have to line up. One late date moves the others. | Both sides |
| Transformers and medium-voltage switchgear | Station transformers and MV gear are multi-year procurement. A signed offtake without a transformer strategy is not yet executable. Limited notice to proceed exists largely for this. | Owner / EPC |
| Cooling plant (CDUs, liquid loop) | High-density halls are a different EPC package than air-cooled colo. Spec at term sheet, not as a change order. | Operator + hall EPC |
| Phasing (pods / MW blocks) | Phased load letters and phased interconnect are how campuses grow without restudying the entire MW on day one. | Both sides + utility |
Commercial and counterparty
Lenders underwrite contracted cash flows and credit, not GPU residual value.
| Check | Why it matters | Typically held by |
|---|---|---|
| Offtake credit and product | The offtaker’s credit is what project finance buys. Take-or-pay, ramp-in, and curtailment exceptions are the middle of the paper. | Offtaker; owner counsel |
| Physical path vs VPPA | A virtual PPA can support CFE accounting. It does not energize the hall. Physical delivery still has to come from the utility or a BTM resource. | Offtaker energy team |
| NDA and KYB | Site files, queue positions, and offtake names leak value. Counterparty diligence (ownership, sanctions, financials) is standard before a CIM-level pack moves. It is process, not a slight. | Both sides |
| Who pays interconnect upgrades | Cost allocation between load, generator, and utility is often the largest dollar item after the hall. If it is not in the term sheet, it is not agreed. | Both sides; utility |