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Genset TCO
Ten-year cost of a standby or prime generator set: diesel vs gas vs dual fuel, fuel, maintenance, permitting, Tier 4 aftertreatment, run hours.
Method
TCO = capital + ten years of fuel and maintenance, undiscounted. Capital defaults are the midpoints of the Power Generation Enterprises 2026 pricing guide for a new 1,000 kW Tier 4 Final diesel ($580 to $720/kW base, $130 to $185/kW aftertreatment), as compiled for Gensets sold out to 2028. The diesel price is the EIA weekly US retail price via FRED. Fuel use at load, natural gas price, maintenance rates, permitting cost and gas-genset capital are not published in our sources, so the tool asks for them and shows the total as partial until they are entered. Unticking Tier 4 prices a Tier 2 emergency engine, which federal rule limits to 100 hours a year (50 non-emergency). The tool flags run hours beyond that.
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Default assumptions come from the Public Bid-Tab Price Book. Pro subscribers can save inputs. Institutional seats get the underlying series.
Articles that use this calculator
The Recommended Spares List Is Where the Margin Hides
On public awards Open Factory can read, the spares line is 0.8% of a transformer award, 2% of a genset and 20% of a breaker buy, and the City of Ocala paid $40,197.50 per ABB R-Mag breaker in November 2023 and $44,499.75 in November 2025 with no second quote.
What 50 MW Costs in 15 US Markets
A 50 MW connection requested in Northern Virginia in 2026 energizes in 2033 after $75 million of collateral and a 14 year contract, while the same 50 MW in Houston posts no rule-mandated security and can be live in 2028, per Open Factory's Large-Load Cost Table as of August 2026.
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.
How to Write an RFQ for Capital Equipment in 2026
An equipment RFQ in 2026 has to settle escalators, LDs, milestones and tariff refunds: the City of Ocala agreed $8,070,340 for two 105 MVA autotransformers in August 2023 and approved $9,170,340 for the same units on April 28, 2026, a $1.1 million PPI escalator, per Open Factory's Bid-Tab Price Book.
The 2% Funnel: 474 GW Requested, 9 GW Approved, 5.8 GW Energized in ERCOT
Texas had about 474 GW of large-load interconnection requests as of August 2026, and ERCOT's March 26, 2026 status table shows 9.0 GW approved to energize and 5.8 GW energized, so about 2% has permission to draw power, as tracked in Open Factory's Large-Load Cost Table.
A Factory Owner's Guide to the PJM Capacity Charge
PJM's RTO capacity clearing price rose from $28.92 to $329.17 per MW-day in two auctions, so a 5 MW plant in Met-Ed territory pays about $568,000 for capacity in the delivery year starting June 1, 2026 against about $50,000 in 2024, per Open Factory's PJM Capacity Charge Estimator.
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.
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.
The 2 MW Plant Service Upgrade Nobody Budgets Right
A 400-person plant adding 2 MW of service pays $400k to $1.2M for the items the switchgear quote omits, and with the utility-owned pad-mount at 52 to 104 weeks the crane lands in week 74. Open Factory's Large-Load Cost Table shows the sequencing that pulls energization forward by 20 weeks.
The Used and Refurbished Market Nobody Indexes
Fifteen vendors bid $41,200 to $101,253 on one 2,500 kVA pad-mount transformer for Fayetteville's public utility in September 2025, a 2.5x spread at 10 to 35 week lead times, and a dealer shipping from stock lists it at $104,000, 1.77x the median bid, per Open Factory's Bid-Tab Price Book.
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.
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.
Quote Check: What Your Switchgear Quote Should Have Said
Open Factory's Quote Check tool places a switchgear quote against public awards: Riverside Public Utilities paid $2,254,387.50 for a 15 kV metal-clad lineup in May 2025, 52% above the $1,481,321 median of 12 public awards dated December 2016 to May 2025 in the Public Bid-Tab Price Book.
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 Large-Load Cost Table: 15 Markets Side by Side
Open Factory's Large-Load Cost Table, version 0.1, compares a 50 MW connection across 15 US utilities on eight tariff cells each: 53 of the 120 cells come from primary documents, 20 from trade press, 2 from arithmetic, and 45 are not published anywhere, as of August 2026.
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.
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.