# Datacenter MEP Cost Table Capex per MW by component on the Turner & Townsend and JLL baselines, air-cooled and liquid-cooled, with each line's lead time from the Lead-Time Monitor and the carrying cost of delay. URL: https://open-factory.com/models/mep-cost-table/ Status: Compiling data. Version 0.1. Cadence: Quarterly, after the Lead-Time Monitor's quarter-end edition; baselines refreshed when Turner & Townsend and JLL publish Headline: $9.8M per MW all-in datacenter build cost, Phoenix and Columbus, Turner & Townsend Data Centre Construction Cost Index 2025 Public reading: Datacenter MEP Cost Table headline $9.8M per MW as of 2026-03-13. All-in build cost, Phoenix and Columbus. Source: Turner & Townsend, Data Centre Construction Cost Index 2025, cost per watt by market; compiled 13 March 2026 for Chillers Are the 60-Week Problem. Component lines are Pro. Coverage: Capex per MW from utility fence to rack, by component: MV service and substation, transformers, MV and LV switchgear, UPS or BESS, gensets, busway and PDUs, chillers, CDUs, piping and controls. Air-cooled and liquid-cooled baselines on the Turner & Townsend cost allocation and the JLL and CBRE $/W by market, each line carrying its published lead time from the Lead-Time Monitor and a carrying-cost-of-delay figure at the 10-year Treasury rate. Tier: Pro; workbook Institutional ## Readings - Build cost, Phoenix and Columbus ($9.8 per W); Atlanta $9.9, Silicon Valley $13.3, Tokyo $15.2. Turner & Townsend DCCI 2025: $9.8M per MW - Electrical including equipment as a share of an air-cooled US build; 48% liquid-cooled. Turner & Townsend DCCI 2025: 54% - Mechanical including equipment, air-cooled to liquid-cooled. At $9.8 per W that is $2.2M to $3.2M per MW: 22% to 33% - Cost premium for a liquid-cooled US build over air-cooled, Turner & Townsend DCCI 2025: 7 to 10% ## Methodology ## What the headline is **$9.8 million per MW** is the all-in construction cost for a datacenter in Phoenix or Columbus in Turner & Townsend's [Data Centre Construction Cost Index 2025](https://reports.turnerandtownsend.com/data-centre-construction-cost-index-2025/data-centre-cost-trends), printed there as $9.8 per watt. The same index puts Atlanta at $9.9, Silicon Valley at $13.3 and Tokyo at $15.2, and allocates a US air-cooled build 54% to electrical including equipment, 22% to mechanical including equipment, 14% to core, shell and architectural and 10% to GC fees. A liquid-cooled build shifts to 48% electrical and 33% mechanical at a 7 to 10% premium. The allocation rows are in [06-mep-cost-shares.csv](https://open-factory.com/articles/chiller-60-week-problem/). The headline is the Turner & Townsend figure for the lowest-cost US Tier 1 market and moves when the index is republished. ## What it is compiled from Version 0.1 is published baselines and arithmetic. No contributed quotes. - **Baselines.** [Turner & Townsend DCCI 2025](https://reports.turnerandtownsend.com/data-centre-construction-cost-index-2025/data-centre-cost-trends) for $/W by market and the category allocation. [JLL Global Data Center Outlook 2026](https://www.jll.com/content/dam/jllcom/en/global/documents/reports/research-reports/26-research-global-data-center-outlook-new.pdf) and CBRE North America reports for market context, cited "as reported by" the outlet where the report is paywalled. - **Component split.** The electrical and mechanical shares are broken into lines using vendor disclosures where they exist (Vertiv's [2025 annual report](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001674101/000119312526174909/d27762dars.pdf) for thermal versus power mix, [Morgan Stanley's GB300 cooling BoM as reported by Tom's Hardware](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cooling-system-single-nvidia-blackwell-154500100.html), $49,860 per rack) and trade estimates marked as such (CDUs $500 to $800 per kW installed, [Energy Solutions](https://energy-solutions.co/articles/sub/data-center-cooling-liquid-immersion-vs-air), verify). - **Lead times.** Each line carries its class from the [Lead-Time Monitor](https://open-factory.com/models/lead-time-monitor/): LV switchgear 50 weeks (Schneider, September 2026), water-cooled chillers over 1,000 tons 50 to 70 weeks and CDUs 30 to 50 weeks ([Origin Partners, May 2026](https://originpartners.io/blog/equipment-lead-times-tracker-q2-2026)), large power transformers above 160 weeks (Wood Mackenzie 2026, as reported by [pv magazine](https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/05/11/u-s-transformer-market-faces-severe-supply-constraints-as-lead-times-extend-to-four-years/)). - **Carrying cost.** [FRED GS10](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GS10), 4.80% on 8 September 2026. Every line prints its source and whether it is a published figure, a derived split or a trade estimate. ## What is free and what is paid - **Free:** the headline, this page, and the cost-share chart in [Chillers Are the 60-Week Problem](https://open-factory.com/articles/chiller-60-week-problem/). - **Pro:** the component table per MW for air-cooled and liquid-cooled builds, by market, with lead times and carrying cost. - **Institutional:** the workbook with the split arithmetic exposed, the dashboard, quarterly updates for a year, an onboarding call and ad hoc calls. ## Articles built on it [Chillers Are the 60-Week Problem](https://open-factory.com/articles/chiller-60-week-problem/) and [The $60 Million Deposit: How Equipment Slots Became Datacenter Currency](https://open-factory.com/articles/slot-economy/). Forward assumptions on density, 800 VDC and cooling type sit on the [Datacenter Electrical Roadmap](https://open-factory.com/roadmaps/datacenter-electrical-2026-2032/) and the [Cooling Roadmap](https://open-factory.com/roadmaps/cooling-roadmap/). ## Version history - **0.1 (March 2026).** Turner & Townsend 2025 index, JLL 2026 outlook, Lead-Time Monitor September 2026 edition for lead times. ## What version 1 adds Bid-tab awards for chillers, gensets and switchgear from the [Public Bid-Tab Price Book](https://open-factory.com/models/bid-tab-price-book/) replace the derived splits line by line as cells fill, and contributed MEP quotes from the [Equipment Price Benchmark](https://open-factory.com/models/equipment-price-benchmark/) enter under the cell-size rules. Each replaced line will say which version replaced it. ## Known gaps The component split below the electrical and mechanical totals is derived, not published, and is marked derived. CDU and chiller unit prices are trade estimates until awards accumulate. Turner & Townsend's index is annual; between editions the table ages and says so. ## Questions ### Is this a cost estimate for my site? No. It is a table of published baselines with the arithmetic shown. A site estimate against your design is an advisory engagement. ### Why Turner & Townsend and not an OEM price list? No OEM publishes a $/MW price for switchgear, UPS or chillers at datacenter scale. The consultancies publish the only dated, market-level baselines. Transaction prices arrive through the Public Bid-Tab Price Book as awards accumulate. ### What is the carrying cost of delay? The interest on capex already spent while the longest-lead item is outstanding, at the 10-year Treasury rate on the date of the edition (4.80% on September 8 2026), per MW per month.