hifld-grid-proximity-screener
Given lat/lon sites, returns distance to nearest transmission line, substation, power plant, serving utility, ISO/RTO, and nearby generation. Ideal for data-center, renewable, BESS, and EV siting.
Instructions
Transmission Line & Substation Distance API by Coordinates. For each lat/lon site: distance to the nearest transmission line (kV, owner, overhead/underground), nearest substation, nearest power plant, the serving utility and its ISO/RTO, plus generation and battery-storage MW nearby. Includes sub-100 kV. Data-center, renewable, BESS and EV siting. Reads live from the official government source. Store page: https://apify.com/malonestar/hifld-grid-proximity-screener
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| assets | Yes | Sites to screen for grid access. Each entry is an object { "lat": number, "lon": number, "label": "optional name" }. Also accepts "lat,lon" strings or [lat, lon] arrays. One dataset row (one billed result) is produced per asset; a bad entry yields an ERROR row and the run continues. Example: [{"lat":39.017,"lon":-77.46,"label":"Ashburn VA data center site"},{"lat":33.4484,"lon":-112.074,"label":"Phoenix AZ site"}]. | |
| eiaApiKey | No | Optional. A free EIA API key (https://www.eia.gov/opendata/register.php) enables the state industrial and commercial electricity price columns. Everything else works without it — leave this empty and those two columns are simply null. One lookup per distinct state, not per site. | |
| maxResults | No | Maximum number of assets processed in one run (1-2000). One result row is emitted (and billed) per asset. Default 500. Applied by default if omitted: 500. | |
| radiusMiles | No | Radius around each asset to search for transmission lines, substations and power plants, in miles (1-50). Features beyond this distance are ignored. Default 5. Example: 10. Applied by default if omitted: 5. | |
| minVoltageKv | No | Optional. Only count/consider transmission lines at or above this many kV. Since v1.2 the underlying layer includes sub-100 kV sub-transmission (69/46/34.5 kV), so values below 100 are now meaningful — leave empty to include every line, or set 115/230 to screen for high-voltage access only. Lines with an unknown voltage are excluded when this is set. Does not filter substations or power plants. | |
| skipErrorRows | No | When true, assets that could not be screened are logged but not written to the dataset, so you are not billed for them. Default false, which keeps every asset accounted for as an ERROR row. Note that a run in which EVERY asset fails always fails outright and bills nothing, regardless of this setting. Applied by default if omitted: false. | |
| includePlanned | No | Advanced/opt-in. Also check a 'planned transmission line' scratch layer that carries NO owner/voltage/status metadata. It is NOT an authoritative planned-line dataset — the planned_line_nearby flag is a low-confidence 'a planned-line geometry exists nearby' hint only. Default false. Applied by default if omitted: false. | |
| includeUtility | No | Also resolve which retail electric utility serves each site, its ownership type, holding company, customer count and summer peak, plus the balancing authority and ISO/RTO (PJM, ERCOT, CAISO, MISO, SPP, ISO-NE, NYISO). Where service territories overlap, the largest utility by summer peak load is reported as primary. On by default — one extra lookup per site. Example: true. | |
| simulateOutage | No | Diagnostic seam for verifying the reliability behaviour on demand rather than waiting for a real outage. "none" (default) is a genuine no-op. "primary" forces the primary line layer to appear down; "drift" forces the live drift gate to measure a truncated layer (the run then fails and bills nothing); "gate" forces the drift probes to be unreachable; "both" combines primary and gate. Leave as none for normal use. Applied by default if omitted: "none". | |
| includePowerPlants | No | Also report the nearest power plant (name, distance, fuel, technology, capacity MW, EIA plant code) plus total generation, battery-storage, solar and wind MW within the radius. Sourced from EIA's monthly plant inventory. On by default — set to false to skip and speed up large batches. Example: true. | |
| includeSubstations | No | Also report the nearest electric substation (name, distance, max/min voltage, connected line count) plus substations within the radius. On by default — set to false to skip substation screening and speed up large batches. Example: true. | |
| allowTruncatedLineFallback | No | The transmission-line answer comes from a national layer of 94,619 lines. If that layer is unavailable, the only backup is a 2023 copy that contains NO line below 100 kV — 44.8% of the US grid, and the sub-transmission most mid-size solar, BESS and EV-charging projects actually interconnect to. At Storm Lake IA it reports the nearest line 2.545 mi away at 161 kV when the truth is 0.649 mi at 69 kV. By default (false) such a run FAILS and bills nothing. Set true to receive rows instead, in which every complete-universe field (nearest_line_distance_miles, lines_within_radius, max_voltage_within_radius_kv, ...) is null, grid_tier reads DEGRADED, and only the nearest_ge100kv_line_* columns are populated. Applied by default if omitted: false. |