Site selectors do not expect certainty. They expect bounded uncertainty. The city that advances past first-cut screening and the city that doesn't usually differ on one point: whether the unknowns are quantified and time-stamped or left floating as assurances.
Alexandra Segers of Tochi Advisors put it plainly in Area Development (Q2 2026): not "we believe power can be made available" but "here is the existing substation capacity, here is the utility's written confirmation of timeline, and here is the path to transmission-level delivery for Phase 2." Both answers contain uncertainty. The second one documents its boundaries, which is why it survives screening.
A bounded answer states five things: capacity (how much), condition (under what circumstances), date (by when), responsible party (who confirms it), and validity period (how long the answer holds). Strip any element and the answer collapses back to an assurance.
Apply this before anything leaves your office. One-line test: does this answer state what, under what conditions, by when, confirmed by whom, and for how long?
The five-element checklist
- Capacity: The specific quantity — MW, GPD, acreage, annual completions, whatever the dimension measures
- Condition: What triggers an upgrade, study, cost, or limitation — the "if/then" attached to the number
- Date: Timeline for delivery, construction, energization, or program launch — a schedule, not "soon"
- Responsible party: The person or entity with authority to sign, fund, build, or approve — by name and title
- Validity period: When the answer expires or must be re-verified — capacity can be claimed by another load, data has a vintage, letters lapse
Self-audit question: What has to be true for your answer to remain true? If you can't list those conditions, the answer is unbounded.
Why now: 76% of site selectors in the 2026 Guild/DCI Pulse Check identified utility/infrastructure capacity as the top factor impacting location decisions. AI pre-screening tools are eliminating undocumented sites before an RFI is ever drafted.