Timing the Utility Decision
How early is early enough to lock in energy infrastructure before design inertia takes over?
Our CEO Mason Miller shares his thoughts.
Ever sat in a campus master-planning meeting and felt the energy conversation wander in only after the buildings were already poured into CAD?
That delay may seem harmless. But once the site plan moves beyond schematic design, the clock starts ticking. Waiting to define an energy strategy quietly erodes three critical forms of value:
Optionality
Pipe routes and plant footprints begin competing for space already spoken for. Wait too long, and you are routing conduits through hallways never meant to hold them.
Capital Efficiency
Late-stage redesigns cost more and often force decisions based on lead times rather than long-term load profiles. The result is suboptimal sizing and phasing.
Strategic Leverage
Financing structures, carbon targets, and governance models often get locked before the utility P&L even enters the picture. By the time procurement starts, your options are already constrained.
This is not just a theory. A 2021 ASHRAE study on Austrian university campuses found significant reductions in total energy use and lifecycle cost when district energy decisions were made during concept design (Fulterer et al., 2021). A 2019 systematic review found that late design changes can cause cost overruns of 5 to 40 percent of total project value (Aslam et al., 2019).
So, when is early enough to define your district energy backbone?
Is it when you draft the first site-serving easement?
When you hire the architect?
When you brief the finance committee on capex?
We believe the decision belongs even earlier, at the vision stage.
Infrastructure is no longer an add-on. It is the structural logic that enables every other system to move.
But bringing that decision forward introduces real complexity:
▪️ How do you size a plant for loads that don’t exist yet?
▪️ Who owns a 50-year asset when the real estate JV unwinds in 20?
▪️ How do you secure financing when policies and mandates keep shifting?
These questions do not get easier with time. They get more challenging and ignoring them early only postpones the pain.
If you are planning a campus expansion, a life sciences hub, or a mixed-use district, look closely at your project’s critical path. When does “energy” appear in the conversation? If it is after schematic design or after GMP, you may already be building in tomorrow’s constraints.
Would love to hear your experience!
What triggers your utility decision gate?
If you could rewind, how much earlier would you decide?
