Data Centers in the Phoenix Market

CBRE's last published per-market inventory figure put Phoenix at 602.8 MW at the end of 2024, fourth among the eight primary North American data center markets. That is a 2024 number and it is the most recent one CBRE has released per market, so treat it as a floor rather than a current total. One 2026 report indicates Chicago has since passed Phoenix into fourth place, which we have not been able to verify against CBRE directly, so we would not state a 2026 ranking as fact. On activity rather than inventory, CBRE recorded four Phoenix colocation projects absorbing 256 megawatts in the second half of 2025, with full-scale completions expected within twelve months across Mesa, Phoenix, Avondale, Goodyear and Glendale.

Because the utilities are rationing delivery. CBRE reports that APS and SRP power-delivery restrictions are limiting the availability of powered land sites in Phoenix, and that SRP was working through its first cluster study of 25 applicants with mixed initial results. The cost rules are front-loaded at both utilities as well. Under APS tariff Service Schedule 3 the applicant signs a line extension agreement and pays all project costs in advance, refundable advances earn no interest, and anything unrefunded after five years becomes a non-refundable contribution in aid of construction. SRP is not rate-regulated by the Corporation Commission and its contributions in aid of construction are generally non-refundable, with any extension over a thousand feet individually evaluated and agreed in writing. Neither utility publishes a committed timeline for commercial new service, and we will not invent one.

This page is written as capability, not as a portfolio, and we are not going to list projects we have not built. The owner's standing rule is also that customer names and site addresses stay off our public pages, on every sector. What we can describe precisely is the work itself: service entrance and medium-voltage distribution, UPS input and output switchboards with their maintenance bypass and interlocks, PDUs and static transfer switches, remote power panels and branch distribution, the standby generator plant with its paralleling and transfer scheme, concrete-encased duct bank, grounding, and the testing and documentation a commissioning agent will ask for. If you want to know whether we are the right fit for a specific package, send the one-line and the utility correspondence and we will tell you which parts we should be bidding and which parts belong to someone else.

It depends on which side of a property line the site sits, because Arizona has no statewide building or electrical code. Cities and counties adopt and amend independently under A.R.S. Title 9 and A.R.S. 11-861, which is why two projects a mile apart can be designed to different code cycles. Phoenix has enforced the 2023 NEC since 1 August 2025 under Ordinance G-7397. Buckeye moved to the 2023 NEC on 1 January 2025 but kept the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code. Avondale followed on 1 January 2026, Mesa on 8 January 2026, Glendale on 9 January 2026, and Goodyear on 23 June 2026. Unincorporated Maricopa County is still on the 2017 NEC and its energy code is voluntary rather than mandatory. For any jurisdiction we have not verified from a primary source, El Mirage included, we call that city's building department before design rather than guess, because publishing a wrong code edition is the error an electrician catches fastest.

It depends entirely on which utility serves the site, and the thresholds are different. APS follows the Arizona Corporation Commission's Article 26 tracks, with the Level 2 fast track for facilities below 2 megawatts and the Level 3 study track at 2 megawatts and above, where the system impact study typically covers load flow, short circuit, circuit protection and coordination, and impact on system operation. SRP is not bound by those rules at all. It classifies distributed energy resources into four classes, with Class III running from 1 megawatt to under 3 megawatts and Class IV at 3 megawatts and above, and it applies all screens plus a detailed review at 1 megawatt and up that may include feasibility, system impact and facility studies. SRP states it does not currently require technical studies or system modeling below 1 megawatt. Classification is the sum of every generator connected at the site, so a bank of standby sets is added together. APS also requires ten business days of notice before commissioning tests or before a generating facility begins interconnected operation.

Six things, and the first two matter more than the rest. One, the serving utility confirmed at the address and any capacity correspondence you already have, because that decides the standards manual, the submittal path and the cost rules. Two, the one-line with the redundancy topology stated, and whether the kilowatts per cabinet figure is an average or a peak. Three, the gear specification, including whether the owner has a named manufacturer, since utility review of the meter enclosure sits in front of the manufacturing release and a topology change after that point restarts a queue nobody controls. Four, the commissioning specification, because integrated systems testing is labor we price rather than absorb. Five, the site civil, for duct bank routing and the transformer pad location. Six, the jurisdiction. Without the utility answer, any number is a guess dressed up as an estimate, and we would rather say so than send one.