Data-Centre Power-Contract Diligence Director

The mandate

An infrastructure fund is considering a majority investment in two operating and three planned colocation facilities. Management presents secured megawatts and pass-through energy pricing, yet utility contracts distinguish reserved, connected and energised capacity; demand charges continue during customer ramp; and curtailment, fuel, renewable certificates and connection deposits follow different allocation rules. The underwriting case needs contract-level power economics rather than headline capacity.

The ten-week deliverable consists of a site-by-site power-rights register, cost-to-customer bridge and investment downside model. Milestone one confirms contract and site populations in week two; milestone two validates capacity and connection status in week four; milestone three reconstructs tariff and pass-through economics in week six; milestone four stresses outage and delay in week eight; milestone five provides committee conclusions and Day One priorities.

The client will provide utility and retail-supply agreements, connection studies, deposits, tariff notices, meter data, demand profiles, customer contracts, service credits, generator logs, fuel contracts, renewable instruments, expansion plans and engineering reports. Acceptance requires all material megawatts to map to legal and physical status, invoices to reconcile with the tariff bridge, and two facility scenarios to reproduce by client analysts.

This project excludes electrical engineering certification, grid-reliability assurance, environmental opinion, legal construction, energy procurement, customer negotiation, investment approval and construction management. Consultants may identify inconsistency among contracts, invoices and engineering evidence and quantify its cash effect. Utility, target and engineer statements remain their responsibility; no site will be represented as energised solely from a reservation payment.

Models will preserve site, voltage, capacity status, load curve, tariff component, pass-through rule, loss factor, curtailment, redundancy, backup fuel, service remedy and source date. Findings after a materially revised customer pipeline or utility offer are not automatically included. Remediation, contract negotiation and post-close operational control require a distinct mandate.

Why this is external work

Megawatt announcements compress several contractual and physical states into one number, while underwriting deadlines are short. Engineering advisers assess feasibility and lawyers interpret rights, but neither necessarily rebuilds the cash bridge to customer revenue. Independent power-contract diligence can connect capacity evidence, tariff mechanics and downside liquidity without certifying infrastructure or approving the investment.

What you will own

• Classify reserved, allocated, connected, tested, energised and redundant capacity by facility, utility point and contractual evidence.
• Reconcile demand, energy, capacity, wheeling, loss, tax, certificate and penalty charges from tariff through paid invoices.
• Map customer pass-through, cap, lag, minimum-use, ramp, service-credit and termination provisions against power-cost exposure.
• Quantify connection deposits, security, upgrade contributions, milestone refunds and cancellation consequences for planned sites.
• Stress grid curtailment, delayed energisation, customer under-ramp, tariff shock, generator use and fuel interruption separately.
• Compare renewable procurement and certificate claims to contract duration, matching rules, cost and customer commitments.
• Deliver the power register, cost bridge, source archive, risk scenarios, investment adjustments and Day One verification plan.

Candidate qualifications

• Led commercial diligence on power-intensive data centres, digital infrastructure or contracted industrial energy assets.
• Distinguished reserved, connected and usable capacity through utility, engineering, meter and customer evidence.
• Rebuilt tariffs and customer pass-through across demand charges, losses, wheeling, certificates, tax and escalation.
• Quantified connection-delay, curtailment, backup generation, customer ramp and fuel risks in investment cash flows.
• Worked with engineers and counsel without issuing technical, grid, environmental or legal assurances.
• Delivered source-linked site-level power economics that infrastructure investment teams and acquisition lenders independently reproduced under deadline.

Non-negotiables

• Can complete four utility, facility, customer or connection reviews within the ten-week timetable.
• Will disclose utility, target, customer, engineering, investor, lender, adviser and competing-bidder relationships.
• Brings data-centre power-contract underwriting; generic data-centre operating or energy-market experience is insufficient.
• Accepts no role in engineering certification, procurement, negotiation, construction management or investment approval.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a data-centre transaction where contracted megawatts overstated physically usable capacity.
2. 49 words maximum. Which tariff component most often escapes customer pass-through during delayed occupancy?
3. 49 words maximum. What evidence would prove a connection deposit is recoverable under downside delay?