ModelVersion 0.1Compiling data
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.
$9.8M per MWall-in datacenter build cost, Phoenix and Columbus, Turner & Townsend Data Centre Construction Cost Index 2025. Public headline as of March 13, 2026.
- $9.8M per MW
- Build cost, Phoenix and Columbus ($9.8 per W); Atlanta $9.9, Silicon Valley $13.3, Tokyo $15.2. Turner & Townsend DCCI 2025
- 54%
- Electrical including equipment as a share of an air-cooled US build; 48% liquid-cooled. Turner & Townsend DCCI 2025
- 22% to 33%
- Mechanical including equipment, air-cooled to liquid-cooled. At $9.8 per W that is $2.2M to $3.2M per MW
- 7 to 10%
- Cost premium for a liquid-cooled US build over air-cooled, Turner & Townsend DCCI 2025
What it covers
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.
- Cadence
- Quarterly, after the Lead-Time Monitor's quarter-end edition; baselines refreshed when Turner & Townsend and JLL publish
- Compiled from
- Turner & Townsend Data Centre Construction Cost Index 2025 (cost per W by market, US cost allocation by category); JLL Global Data Center Outlook 2026 and CBRE North America reports (as reported by the trade press where paywalled); vendor filings for equipment share; Open Factory Lead-Time Monitor; FRED GS10 for the carrying-cost rate
- Delivered as
- Excel workbook, Web dashboard
- Updates
- Quarterly updates, one year included
- Onboarding
- Onboarding call
- Support
- Ad hoc analyst calls
- Tier
- Pro; workbook Institutional
Who uses it and what it decides
- Datacenter developers and owner's repsA component-level budget per MW for a market, and which three lines drive the schedule.
- MEP engineers and EPCsWhether a design estimate sits inside the published range for its cooling type.
- Investors and lendersCapex per MW by cooling type and market for underwriting, with the source beside each line.
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, 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.
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 for $/W by market and the category allocation. JLL Global Data Center Outlook 2026 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 for thermal versus power mix, Morgan Stanley’s GB300 cooling BoM as reported by Tom’s Hardware, $49,860 per rack) and trade estimates marked as such (CDUs $500 to $800 per kW installed, Energy Solutions, verify).
- Lead times. Each line carries its class from the 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), large power transformers above 160 weeks (Wood Mackenzie 2026, as reported by pv magazine).
- Carrying cost. FRED 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.
- 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 and The $60 Million Deposit: How Equipment Slots Became Datacenter Currency. Forward assumptions on density, 800 VDC and cooling type sit on the Datacenter Electrical Roadmap and the 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 replace the derived splits line by line as cells fill, and contributed MEP quotes from the 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.
Articles built on this model
Dry Cooler or Cooling Tower: What the Water Bill Says in 15 Markets
A thousand gallons of water and sewer costs $24.80 in Douglas County, Georgia and $8.68 in Baton Rouge as of October 2026, and since a 50 MW open cooling tower needs about 300 million gallons a year, Open Factory's MEP Cost Table puts the gap at $3.6 million a year.
Modular Is Not Cheaper: A 50 MW Prefab Electrical Room, Line by Line
A prefabricated electrical room for a 50 MW datacenter is not cheaper: Open Factory's Datacenter MEP Cost Table lands the skid route at $3.51M per MW against $3.47M stick-built, 1% more, but 27 weeks faster at 95 weeks from power-block PO to energization against 122, as of August 2026.
800 VDC Will Strand Your White-Space Frame Agreement
NVIDIA set a ship date for 800 VDC on August 11, 2026, with the MGX power rack due in the second half of 2026. Open Factory finds a five-year 415 V UPS and AC busway frame agreement puts 40 to 60% of its dollars into superseded SKUs.
Liquidated Damages at 0.5% a Week: Why Caps Sit at the Vendor's Margin
Liquidated damages in public transformer, switchgear and genset contracts run about 0.5% of price a week, capped at 5%, so as of July 2026 a week of delay on a 50 MW datacenter hall costs about $2.7 million against $74,000 of LDs, per Open Factory's Large-Load Cost Table.
The R-454B Summer: What the Refrigerant Switch Did to Chiller Prices
A 20 lb cylinder of R-454B cost $345 in 2021 and $700 to $2,000 in July and August 2025, the switch raised Carrier chiller list prices 10% in March 2024 and March 2025, and Open Factory finds the 563 lb charge in a 500-ton chiller is 1.2% of the machine.
OFCI vs Design-Build: How Hyperscalers Buy Chillers and Colo Developers Do Not
Owner-furnished, contractor-installed chillers and CDUs for a 20 MW liquid-cooled hall cost $27.9 million against $32.8 million through the mechanical subcontract, a saving of $4.9 million or 14.9%, because OFCI strips a 15% subcontractor markup and 10% GC fee, per Open Factory's Datacenter MEP Cost Table as of June 2026.
Reading a Switchgear Quote: The Eleven Line Items That Hide the Schedule
A medium-voltage switchgear quote has eleven line items and four of them move the delivery date more than the price. Riverside Public Utilities paid $2,561,551.88 for one 15 kV metal-clad lineup in June 2024 and it was still in the factory eighteen months later, per Open Factory's Bid-Tab Price Book.
The $60 Million Deposit: How Equipment Slots Became Datacenter Currency
One slot for a 384 MW GE Vernova 7HA.02 turbine takes a $60 million reservation payment, 20% of a $300 million machine. GE Vernova ended June 2026 with 116 GW under contract, 63 GW as slot reservations, and $25.8 billion paid in advance, which Open Factory's MEP Cost Table carries.
Behind the Meter, In Front of the Queue: 90 GW Announced, 2 GW Running
Datacenter developers have announced about 90 GW of behind-the-meter generation across 59 US projects and about 2 GW of it runs, or 2.2%, while EIA's July 2026 inventory lists 68.1 GW of planned gas nationwide. Open Factory's Lead-Time Monitor forecasts what energizes by the end of 2028.
Five Majors Bought Their Way Into Liquid Cooling. Here Is the Price List
Five majors paid $16.3 billion of disclosed prices for liquid cooling companies in seventeen months, with Ecolab buying CoolIT for $4.75 billion at 29 times EBITDA on March 20, 2026 and Eaton closing Boyd Thermal at $9.5 billion and 22.5 times, per Open Factory's deal table.
Recips vs Turbines vs Fuel Cells for a 100 MW Bridge
A 100 MW bridge plant over five years costs $96 per MWh on solid oxide fuel cells, $104 on gas reciprocating engines and $112 on aeroderivative gas turbines at 85% utilization and $3.78/MMBtu, with first power in 17, 27 and 30 months, per Open Factory's MEP Cost Table in 2026.
Chillers Are the 60-Week Problem
A water-cooled chiller over 1,000 tons quotes at 50 to 70 weeks in the United States as of May 22, 2026, an air-cooled machine over 500 tons at 40 to 60 weeks, and Census M3 puts HVAC unfilled orders at $18.6 billion in July 2026, per Open Factory's Lead-Time Monitor.
What 2,439 Public Change Orders Show About Electrical and Mechanical Contractors
Across 1,096 federal electrical and mechanical construction contracts awarded in fiscal years 2019 to 2024, with 2,439 priced change orders, the median contract closed 1.8% above its award price and the dollars closed 9.5% above it. Open Factory's Public Bid-Tab Price Book holds the full dataset.
1872, Foundational Industries and Hadrian: Three Blueprints for the Autonomous American Factory
Between July 2025 and August 2026, 1872, Foundational Industries and Hadrian raised $1.41 billion to build autonomous American factories: $15 million, $25 million and $1.37 billion respectively, with Hadrian's four plants totalling just under 3 million square feet. Open Factory's Lead-Time Monitor will track each one's delivered lead time.
Who Bought the EV Plants' Machines
Companies cancelled, closed or downsized 61 US clean-energy projects worth $34.8 billion in 2025, but most was never built, and the EV plant machines that did reach the secondary market sold at 3% to 37% of reference value in the court records Open Factory read.
When a Megapack Beats a Static UPS
A 24 MW, 48 MWh block of twelve Tesla Megapack 2 XL units costs about $14.4 million installed at January 2026 prices, $10.1 million after the 30% storage credit, against about $17.5 million for the N+1 static UPS in a 20 MW hall, per Open Factory's Datacenter MEP Cost Table.
The OEM Disclosure Scorecard: Who Tells Buyers Anything
Open Factory's OEM Disclosure Scorecard version 0.1 finds that the eighteen largest electrical, power and cooling OEMs publish only 12 of 90 cells a buyer needs, with 16 Partials and 62 Noes: GE Vernova alone scores 2 of 5, ten score 1 and seven score 0, as of September 2026.
What Hyperscaler Nuclear PPAs Tell a Factory Negotiating a 15-Year Contract
Microsoft pays about $112 per MWh for 835 MW from the Crane nuclear restart on a 20-year contract, a 70 to 90% premium to wholesale, so Open Factory's Large-Load Cost Table treats that as the reference price for a 15-year factory power contract as of December 2025.
Why Your Switchgear Costs 50% More Than in 2021
The BLS producer price index for switchgear stood at 394.8 in July 2026, 78% above January 2021, and medium-voltage switchgear is up 50% since 2021 per Wood Mackenzie. Open Factory's decomposition finds inputs explain 36 of the 78 points and margin the other 43.
The 30% Fuel-Cell ITC Is the Last Federal Subsidy for On-Site Power
Since July 4, 2025, the 30% federal investment credit survives only for fuel cells among gas-fired on-site power, with wind and solar needing construction by July 4, 2026 and gas CHP getting nothing, and Open Factory's math turns a 2.5-year payback at $210/MWh in California into 1.7 years.
Vertiv Stopped Reporting Its Backlog. Here Is Our Estimate
Open Factory estimates Vertiv's unpublished order backlog at $16 to $20 billion at June 30, 2026, central case about $17.4 billion, up from the last reported $15.0 billion at December 31, 2025, with current deferred revenue doubling from $1.81 billion to $3.63 billion in six months.
One Steel Mill Gates Every US Transformer
Every pound of domestic grain-oriented electrical steel in a US transformer core is melted at Cleveland-Cliffs Butler Works, a plant with a 920 mm maximum coil width, and the transformer PPI is up 91% since December 2019 at 381.8 in July 2026, per Open Factory's Lead-Time Monitor.
Tariff Bill of Materials: What Sections 232 and 301 Add to a UPS, a Lineup, a Genset and a Megapack
A 1 MW UPS assembled in the United States carries about 17 points of duty and the same UPS imported from China carries 55, under the tariff stack in force on October 10, 2025. The 50% copper tariff is 3.8 of those 17 points, per Open Factory's Tariff Exposure Calculator.
Introducing the Public Bid-Tab Price Book
Open Factory's Public Bid-Tab Price Book launches as version 0.1 with 2,712 public award lines and 51 price bands, and across 297 lines dated January 2024 to August 2026 the median three-phase pad-mount price runs from $153 per kVA at 75 to 167 kVA to $30 at 1,500 to 2,500.
Cummins and Caterpillar Are Sold Out Through 2028
Cummins is taking generator orders well into 2028 and Caterpillar closed June 2026 with $72.1 billion of firm backlog, and Open Factory's Lead-Time Monitor shows published lead times of 50 to 66 weeks for a 1,500 to 2,000 kW diesel genset and 90 to 110 weeks above 3,500 kW.
The 171-Day Capex Lead Time: ISM's Most Ignored Table
The average US manufacturing buyer commits to capital equipment 171 days ahead of need in the August 2026 ISM report, with 27% committing more than a year out, against 147 days in December 2019. Open Factory's Lead-Time Monitor rebuilds the series back to 2007.
Book-to-Bill League Table, Q2 2026: Every Electrical OEM
Powell Industries posted a book-to-bill of 3.0 in the quarter to June 30 2026, booking $934 million of switchgear orders against $312 million shipped, and all eight electrical OEMs that print a ratio sit above 1.0, down to Eaton at 1.2, in Open Factory's Book-to-Bill League Table.
Introducing the Open Factory Lead-Time Monitor
Schneider Electric quotes low-voltage switchgear at 50 weeks from release to manufacturing in its September 2026 Lead Times Guide, and Open Factory's Lead-Time Monitor, launched as version 0.1, puts all eleven equipment classes in one table, of which only four have an OEM-published lead time.