Data Center Feasibility Study Consultants

Project typesHyperscale · colocation · edge · enterprise

Binding constraintPower and interconnection timing

Revenue basisPer-kW contracts, not per-square-foot

Credit driverTenant covenant and lease term

Standard delivery10–15 business days

Fee basisFixed, never contingent

Power is the market, not the building

Data center demand is not scarce; deliverable power is. A site's viability turns on how much capacity the utility can actually energise, when, and under what conditions — substation capacity, transmission constraints, the interconnection queue position, and the utility's own load-growth commitments to other customers in the same territory.

A feasibility study that treats a letter of intent from a utility as settled capacity is not underwriting the project. We work the power question first: documented available capacity, queue position and study status, the timeline the utility itself is quoting, on-site generation or bridging arrangements, and the water or cooling constraints that ride alongside. Where the energisation date does not support the lease-up schedule, that is the finding, and everything downstream of it changes.

What the analysis has to establish

Deliverable capacity — MW available at the meter and the date, with the utility's own documentation behind it.
Demand — the tenant segment the facility actually serves, and the absorption observed in that segment in this market.
Competitive supply — announced and under-construction capacity in the same power market, not just the same county.
Revenue — contracted rate per kW, escalators, term, and the churn assumption behind renewals.
Tenant credit — who signs the lease, for how long, and what happens to coverage if the anchor leaves.
Coverage — projections through the build and ramp, stressed for delay in energisation and for a slower fill.

The lease-up assumption is where files fail

Colocation and multi-tenant projects are frequently underwritten on an absorption pace borrowed from the market's headline shortage. That shortage is real in some power markets and entirely absent in others, and it does not transfer across submarkets simply because both are described as data center corridors.

We test absorption against what has actually leased in the same power market at comparable configurations, against the pipeline that will deliver before the subject does, and against the tenant type the sponsor can realistically sign given the facility's density, redundancy tier and connectivity. Where the deal rests on a single anchor tenant, we analyse the covenant behind it and show coverage with and without that tenant, because a lender's exposure is defined by the downside case.

What we deliver

A complete independent study with the market and power analysis evidenced, the revenue and cost build shown, and a fully linked financial model with no hard-coded outputs, so the lender's underwriter can run their own sensitivities. Where the project is seeking SBA, USDA or conventional financing, the report is scoped to the reviewing program's requirements from the first day rather than retrofitted afterwards.

The fee is fixed, quoted before work begins, and never contingent on the finding.

Related reading

Frequently asked questions

What makes a data center feasibility study different?

The binding constraint is power, not demand. Most of the analytical work goes into deliverable capacity, interconnection timing and the absorption that timing permits — the real estate questions come second.

Will a lender accept a utility letter as proof of capacity?

It is evidence, not proof. Lenders look at queue position, study status and the utility's own quoted timeline, and the study should present all three rather than a single letter.

How do you handle a single-tenant hyperscale lease?

As a credit exposure. We analyse the tenant covenant, the term, the renewal and termination provisions, and show coverage both with the anchor and in a re-tenanting scenario.

Can you analyse edge and enterprise projects too?

Yes. Smaller edge and enterprise facilities have different demand drivers and a different tenant profile, and they are underwritten on connectivity and proximity as much as on scale.

Do you cover water and cooling constraints?

Where they bear on viability, yes — cooling method, water availability and any local permitting constraint on consumption are part of the technical analysis.

How long does it take?

Ten to fifteen business days from a complete data room is standard. Files waiting on utility documentation take longer, and that wait is usually the schedule driver rather than the analysis.

Talk to the analyst who would run your file

Fixed fee quoted in one business day · never contingent on the finding · 10–15 business day standard delivery

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