ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


Switchgear shortage – mind the power gap!


Switchgear is fast becoming one of the biggest hidden constraints in UK commercial construction and yet it barely features in the wider debate about AI, net zero or infrastructure growth.


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o says supplier Prism Power, who are seeing it daily - lead times once predictable now stretching into many months, plus manufacturers inundated with data centre orders so that commercial  use schemes, logistics hubs and healthcare  pushed down the queue.


With data centres absorbing enormous     demand has raced into a different gear entirely.


     and a standalone commercial building on the other, the decision is straightforward. Scale and certainty win.


 in a market where they are no longer the  quoting, with some manufacturers choosing  Validity periods are shrinking. Deposits are    commitments.”


One of the biggest problems is that too many programmes are still built on outdated assumptions. Switchgear is no longer a late-stage procurement item that can be slotted in once the design is largely  that requires early design freeze and early  it too late and commissioning windows collapse, temporary power arrangements    that creeps in when projects are under pressure. When timelines compress and


options narrow, teams start looking for what  correctly for the application. Substitutions      resilience out of it without consequence. There is also a broader market distortion taking place. When manufacturers prioritise only large repeat buyers - understandably drawn to the hyperscale data centre   premiums or decline to tender altogether.   electrical packages and higher contingency allowances built into pricing. That ultimately  occupiers.


 transitioning towards new generation,   direction, but product transitions require  some cases redesign.


 


16 MARCH 2026 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS


   structural pressure.”


 clients to start treating switchgear as a strategic procurement item. That means  design freeze, earlier engagement with manufacturers and realistic lead time assumptions built into programmes from day one. Two stage procurement and long lead item strategies are no longer optional.    and digital infrastructure, then domestic and  must be recognised as part of national infrastructure resilience.


   construction is now competing in that  programmes, procurement strategies  commercial projects will continue to operate in a poor second place.


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