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What a late data hall really costs a 100 MW build

Data center long lead equipment now sets the pace of every compressed build, and a late submittal or RFI can push electricians out of sequence for weeks. Leading contractors are linking procurement trackers, submittal logs and site chats into one live record of every commitment that moves energization.

Data centersSegeta Insights
Data centers
The number$$1M

a day for a late data hall on a 100 MW build

What is at stake

Each month of slippage on a 100 MW campus could put about $$30 million at risk before tenant credits.

Where days are lost
  1. Submittal approval to factory slot
  2. RFIs and design changes to field sequence
  3. Crew availability to installation sequence

The schedule of an AI data center is fixed at both ends by commitments the builder does not control. At the front, power and long lead equipment arrive on dates set by utilities and factories; at the back, the tenant's ready-for-service date is set by contract. Construction occupies the compressed interval between them, and the electrical and mechanical scope absorbs most of the pressure.

Within that interval, the critical path runs through documents as much as through materials. A shop drawing awaiting review, an unanswered RFI or an unconfirmed coordination study can cost a factory slot, and a lost slot can leave a crew of electricians without the equipment they were scheduled to install. In Uptime Institute's 2025 supply chain survey, 45 percent of North American operators reported that a data center project had been delayed in the previous 12 months.1 This article sets out where days are lost between procurement, design and the field, what each day costs and what construction leaders can do now.

Equipment lead times and labor scarcity now compress every build

JLL reports that the average lead time for data center equipment has reached 33 weeks, about 50 percent above pre-2020 levels, while a 50 MW facility is expected to be built in about 18 months.2 Wood Mackenzie puts switchgear lead times at close to one year and substation transformer lead times at more than 160 weeks in 2026, up from roughly 140 weeks in 2023.3 Demand keeps rising against that constraint: CBRE counted a record 7,481 MW under construction in primary North American markets in the first half of 2026, with 80.4 percent of it already committed to tenants.4 CBRE also reports that ready-for-service fit-out dates have stretched from weeks to several months, and that delays can exceed six months for air-cooled halls being converted to liquid cooling.4

The supply of skilled electrical labor is tightening at the same moment. Associated Builders and Contractors estimates that the construction industry must attract 349,000 net new workers in 2026, and it notes that about one-fifth of electricians are over 55.5 Its chief economist adds that demand for electricians capable of precision wiring has surged with data center construction, which leaves very little slack when equipment or design answers arrive late.5

Data center long lead equipment and late answers set the construction schedule

Owners and operators name equipment as the leading cause of delay, ahead of capital and power availability. Most of those delays begin in a document that one organization is waiting on from another, and three handoffs account for most of the lost days.

Manufacturing and equipment delays were the most cited driver of data center project delays in 2025.

Exhibit 1Equipment delays are the most cited driver of data center project delaysShare of operators citing each driver of project delays, 2025, percent
Manufacturing, equipment42
Availability of capital35
Physical infra changes34
Power availability25
Innovation, reinvestment23
Legislation, permitting20

Source: Uptime Institute, Data Center Spending and Supply Chain Survey 2025 (UII Field Report 189), December 2025

01Submittal approval to factory slot

Switchgear, generators, UPS modules, chillers and coolant distribution units move through procurement trackers, vendor portals and submittal logs, and each step sits with a different person. JLL reports that lead times are longest for transformers, generators and chillers, so a shop drawing that waits two weeks for an engineer's comment can cost a production slot that took a year to secure.2 The procurement tracker usually shows the purchase order as placed, which hides the risk until the vendor confirms a new ship date.

02RFIs and design changes to field sequence

Late changes to rack density, liquid cooling loops or power distribution generate RFIs that must close before crews can install. The Navigant Construction Forum's foundational study of 1,362 projects found about 800 RFIs per project at an average cost of $$1,080 each.6 FMI research for Autodesk attributed 48 percent of rework on US projects to poor project data and miscommunication, a foundational figure from 2018.7

03Crew availability to installation sequence

Electricians and pipefitters are scheduled weeks ahead against equipment dates that may already have moved. Among contractors that worked on data centers in the past year, 58 percent said the projects increased competition for skilled workers and 37 percent named worker or subcontractor availability as their biggest challenge.8 When a lineup arrives late, crews often move to out-of-sequence work, which raises the risk of rework later in commissioning.

A connected operating model treats each handoff as a priced obligation

Leading contractors and owners are beginning to manage the electrical and mechanical scope as a network of obligations, each with an owner, a deadline and a cost for every day it stays open. A live layer reads the systems already in use, including Primavera P6, the procurement tracker, the submittal log, the RFI register, email and site chat, and runs a four-step loop:

  1. Detect

    the risk where it first appears, such as a manufacturer's coordination question that remains unanswered in the submittal log.

  2. Explain

    which factory slot, data hall and tenant delivery date it affects, with the evidence traced to the vendor's correspondence.

  3. Recommend

    recovery options with owners and expected impact, such as an expedited engineering review or a resequenced electrical crew plan.

  4. Execute and track

    each agreed action to closure, measuring the days recovered against the tenant's ready-for-service date.

The same record can give the owner, the tenant and the engineer of record current status, and give suppliers one channel for shop drawings, test reports and ship dates. Artificial intelligence does the reading, linking and drafting across thousands of documents, while project executives and MEP leads remain accountable for every judgment and commercial decision.

A late data hall costs a 100 MW build about $$1 million a day

Data center cost of delay is the daily financial exposure created when critical IT capacity reaches ready-for-service late, including deferred lease revenue, construction financing carry and the cost of crews waiting on equipment or answers.

Each month of slippage on a 100 MW campus could put about $$30 million at risk before tenant credits.

Exhibit 2. Estimated daily cost of delay for a composite 100 MW data center campus

ComponentBasisEstimate per day
Lease revenue deferred100,000 kW of IT capacity at CBRE's 2026 benchmark of $$215 per kW per month for 250 to 500 kW requirements 9About $$707,000
Construction financing carryCapital cost of about $$1.5 billion at $$15 million per MW, the midpoint of CBRE's range for high-density builds 9; assumes 60 percent drawn at a 7 percent all-in rateAbout $$173,000
Electrical crews on standbyAssumes 250 electricians on 10-hour shifts at the BLS median wage of $$30.38 per hour 10, with a 1.6 multiplier for benefits and overheadAbout $$122,000
Total before tenant credits and delay damagesSum of the three componentsAbout $$1.0 million

Source: Segeta estimate based on CBRE and US Bureau of Labor Statistics data; assumptions are illustrative.

On these assumptions, a 30-day slip puts about $$30 million at risk and a 60-day slip about $$60 million, before credits owed to the tenant. Several factors may reduce the exposure, because phased handover delays only part of the capacity, crews can often be redeployed to other halls and large leases may price below the benchmark used here. Delay damages recovered from a vendor or contractor are usually capped and rarely cover a slip caused by a late design answer.

What data center construction leaders can do now

  1. 01Map the obligations that carry a daily cost

    Start with the thirty to fifty submittals, RFIs and deliveries that would move a ready-for-service date, and name an owner on each side of every handoff.

  2. 02Price each long-lead package before it slips

    Attach a daily cost of delay to switchgear, generators, UPS, chillers and coolant distribution units, so a vendor slip is discussed in dollars on the day it is reported.

  3. 03Set response clocks on critical submittals

    Give shop drawings tied to a factory slot a shorter review window, and escalate automatically when the engineer of record has not responded.

  4. 04Plan crews against confirmed ship dates

    Build the electrical look-ahead from vendor confirmations and test reports, so labor moves before an out-of-sequence start creates rework.

  5. 05Measure the time from signal to action

    Report monthly how many days pass between the first evidence of a risk and the assignment of a recovery action.

Contractors cannot shorten transformer queues or train electricians quickly on their own, yet they can control how fast a warning in a submittal log becomes a decision. Teams that manage every long-lead package and every open answer as a live, priced commitment are likely to protect ready-for-service dates and earn the next phase of the campus.

Questions leaders ask

What is long lead equipment in data center construction?

Long lead equipment is the electrical and mechanical plant that must be ordered months or years before installation, including transformers, switchgear, generators, UPS systems, chillers and coolant distribution units. JLL reports an average equipment lead time of 33 weeks, so procurement and submittal approvals now sit on the critical path of most data center construction schedules.

How long are lead times for data center switchgear and transformers?

Wood Mackenzie puts switchgear lead times at close to one year in 2026, which remains elevated against historical norms. Substation transformers take longer, at more than 160 weeks in 2026 compared with roughly 140 weeks in 2023, so many owners now place orders before design is complete and reserve factory slots years ahead.

How long does it take to build a data center?

JLL estimates that a 50 MW data center takes about 18 months to build once power and equipment are secured. The wait for a grid connection averages about four years, so the construction phase is compressed between late equipment deliveries and a fixed tenant ready-for-service date, which leaves little room for late RFIs or crew gaps.

What does a data center construction delay cost per day?

On illustrative assumptions, a 100 MW campus could lose about $$1 million a day, combining deferred lease revenue at CBRE's benchmark of $$215 per kW per month, construction financing carry and electrical crews on standby. A 30-day slip would put about $$30 million at risk before tenant credits and delay damages.

Notes and sources
  1. Douglas Donnellan, "Supply chains show signs of stability, but delays persist," Uptime Institute Intelligence (UII Field Report 189), December 2025, intelligence.uptimeinstitute.com.
  2. Amy Wolff Sorter, "The JLL data center outlook: growth, growth and more growth," Connect CRE, January 2026, connectcre.com.
  3. Shane Snider, "AI data center boom rewires US power supply chain," Data Center Knowledge, May 2026, datacenterknowledge.com.
  4. CBRE Research, "North America Data Center Trends H1 2026," CBRE, August 2026, cbre.com.
  5. Associated Builders and Contractors, "Construction industry must attract 349,000 workers in 2026," EC&M, January 2026, ecmweb.com.
  6. Bruce Suprenant, "Request for Information (RFI) and rework," American Society of Concrete Contractors, August 2020, summarizing Navigant Construction Forum, "Impact and control of RFIs on construction projects," 2016, ascconline.org.
  7. Autodesk and FMI, "Construction disconnected: The high cost of poor data and miscommunication," Autodesk, March 2018, autodesk.com.
  8. Associated General Contractors of America and NCCER, "2026 Workforce Survey," AGC, September 2026, agc.org.pdf).
  9. CBRE Research, "U.S. Real Estate Market Outlook 2026 Midyear Review: Data centers," CBRE, 2026, cbre.com.
  10. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Electricians," Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2026, bls.gov.