Construction Intelligence Glossary
The vocabulary of construction-phase business development — the signals, filings, and milestones that move a project from announcement to groundbreaking.
AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction)
The local government body — usually a county or municipal building department — that reviews permit applications and issues approvals for construction. The AHJ is where building permits, site plans, and zoning approvals are filed and become public record.
Interconnection Queue
The public list, maintained by a regional transmission operator (ISO/RTO such as PJM, MISO, CAISO, ERCOT), of generators and large loads requesting permanent connection to the electrical grid. An interconnection request is filed 12–36 months before a facility needs power, making it one of the earliest reliable signals of a large project.
EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction)
A delivery model in which a single prime contractor handles engineering, procurement, and construction for a project. The EPC award — when the owner selects the prime — is the milestone at which subcontract opportunities for specialty trades become imminent, typically 2–6 weeks later.
Pre-Qualification (Pre-Qual)
The process by which a prime contractor or owner vets subcontractors before inviting them to bid. Getting pre-qualified before an RFP is issued is the highest-leverage point in the BD cycle for specialty contractors.
Energization
The point at which a facility is connected to and drawing power from the grid — effectively the operational start for a data center or industrial plant. Energization dates anchor the construction timeline backward to permitting and EPC milestones.
Capex (Capital Expenditure)
The dollars an owner commits to building or expanding a facility. Capex announcements in earnings calls and SEC filings are leading indicators of construction programs months before permits are filed.
Hyperscaler
A large cloud or platform operator (e.g. the major cloud providers) that builds data centers at massive scale. Hyperscaler campuses (100 MW+) are the largest single driver of the AI infrastructure buildout.
RTO / ISO
Regional Transmission Organization / Independent System Operator — the entities that operate the electrical grid across multi-state regions and publish interconnection queues. Examples: PJM, MISO, CAISO, ERCOT, NYISO, SPP.
FID (Final Investment Decision)
FID (final investment decision) is the formal, board-level commitment of capital that moves a project from development into execution. In LNG, petrochemical, and power projects, FID is the milestone at which EPC contracts are finalized and long-lead equipment orders are placed. For BD teams, a project that has reached FID is funded and real — the subcontracting clock starts running.
NTP (Notice to Proceed)
NTP (notice to proceed) is the owner's formal authorization for a contractor to begin work under an executed contract. It fixes the contractual start date from which schedule and milestone obligations are measured. NTP typically follows financial close and permit issuance, and signals that field mobilization is days to weeks away.
LNTP (Limited Notice to Proceed)
An LNTP (limited notice to proceed) is a partial authorization that lets a contractor start a defined scope — usually engineering, procurement of long-lead equipment, or early site work — before the full contract or financing closes. Owners use LNTPs to protect the schedule while final approvals are pending. An LNTP means the owner is spending real money, which makes it a stronger signal than a press announcement.
LOI (Letter of Intent)
An LOI (letter of intent) is a preliminary document stating one party's intent to contract with another, used to start work or hold capacity before a definitive agreement is signed. Owners issue LOIs to contractors, and contractors to key subs and suppliers, when schedule pressure outruns contract drafting. An LOI in circulation means selection has effectively been made, even though no award has been announced.
PPA (Power Purchase Agreement)
A PPA (power purchase agreement) is a long-term contract in which a buyer commits to purchase power from a specific generation project, usually for 10–25 years. A signed PPA with a creditworthy buyer is what makes a power project financeable — it typically precedes FID and construction start. PPA announcements name the buyer, the project, and the capacity, making them dense BD signals.
Groundbreaking
Groundbreaking is the start of physical construction on a site, often marked by a ceremonial event and always preceded by permits, financing, and contractor selection. As a BD signal, groundbreaking is late: the prime and major trades are already contracted by then. Its value is confirmation and forward planning — later phases, expansions, and follow-on campuses tend to go to the players already on site.
Commissioning
Commissioning is the systematic testing and verification that a facility's systems — power, cooling, controls, life safety — perform as designed before handover. In mission-critical construction it is a distinct discipline with dedicated commissioning agents and staged testing levels culminating in integrated systems tests. Commissioning marks the end of the construction cycle, and commissioning-phase staffing is itself a niche BD opportunity.
Substantial Completion
Substantial completion is the contractual milestone at which a project is usable for its intended purpose, even if punch-list work remains. It typically triggers release of retainage, transfer of insurance obligations, and the start of warranty periods. For BD purposes, a project reaching substantial completion means the contractor teams on it are about to need their next job — a good moment for outreach.
EPCM (Engineering, Procurement & Construction Management)
EPCM (engineering, procurement, and construction management) is a delivery model in which the owner hires a firm to engineer the project and manage construction, but holds the trade contracts directly. Unlike EPC, where subs contract with the prime, EPCM means specialty contractors contract with — and get paid by — the owner. Identifying whether a project is EPC or EPCM determines who you need a relationship with.
Design-Build
Design-build is a delivery model in which a single entity holds one contract for both design and construction, compressing the schedule by overlapping the two. It is the dominant model for speed-driven data center and industrial projects. Subcontract opportunities on design-build work open earlier than on design-bid-build, often before design is complete.
GC (General Contractor)
A GC (general contractor) is the contractor holding the prime construction contract with the owner, responsible for delivering the building and managing subcontractors. On data center work, a small set of national GCs win most hyperscale programs, and their bid boards are the gate to the project. Knowing which GC won a campus — and getting prequalified with them — is the core BD motion for specialty trades.
GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) Contract
A GMP (guaranteed maximum price) contract caps the owner's total cost: the contractor is reimbursed for actual costs plus a fee, up to the guaranteed ceiling. GMPs are common on fast-moving projects where design is not finished at contract signing. Once a GMP is executed, subcontract buyout follows quickly — the contractor must lock in trade pricing to protect the cap.
RFQ vs RFP
An RFQ (request for qualifications) asks contractors to demonstrate they are capable of the work — safety record, bonding, comparable projects — while an RFP (request for proposal) asks shortlisted firms for a priced proposal. The RFQ stage is where new entrants win or lose: firms that miss the RFQ never see the RFP. BD teams should treat an RFQ as the last reliable public entry point into a pursuit.
Bid Board
A bid board is a general contractor's internal list of upcoming trade packages and the subcontractors invited to bid each one. Getting onto a GC's bid board — through prequalification and relationship coverage — is the practical objective of construction BD. Projects are frequently bought out from the bid board without a public RFP ever being issued.
Teaming Agreement
A teaming agreement is a pre-bid contract in which two or more firms agree to pursue a project together, defining scope splits and exclusivity before an award. Common on large EPC pursuits and design-build competitions, teaming locks in partners while the opportunity is still forming. If a pursuit is being teamed, the partnering decisions — the real BD contest — are happening now, not at RFP.
OFCI (Owner-Furnished, Contractor-Installed)
OFCI (owner-furnished, contractor-installed) designates equipment the owner buys directly — typically long-lead gear like generators, switchgear, and chillers — that the contractor then installs. Hyperscalers use OFCI to hedge supply-chain risk by bulk-ordering equipment years ahead of specific sites. OFCI shifts scope and margin between owner and contractor, so knowing what is OFCI on a program tells a sub what is actually biddable.
Self-Perform
Self-perform means a general contractor executes a trade scope with its own crews instead of subcontracting it. GCs self-perform selectively — often concrete, steel, or excavation — to control schedule and capture margin. For subs, knowing which scopes a GC self-performs tells you which packages will actually reach the bid board.
Takeoff
A takeoff is the quantity survey an estimator performs from drawings — counting fixtures, measuring cable and pipe runs, and computing material volumes — to price a scope of work. Takeoffs are the labor-intensive core of bidding, and takeoff turnaround capacity limits how many pursuits a contractor can chase. Early access to drawings, via design-assist roles or relationships, makes takeoffs — and therefore bids — better.
Long-Lead Equipment
Long-lead equipment is major plant equipment whose manufacturing lead time — often one to several years — puts it on the critical path of a construction schedule. Examples include large power transformers, switchgear, turbines, generators, and chillers. Because owners must order long-lead items far ahead of groundbreaking, purchase orders for this equipment are early, high-confidence evidence that a project will be built.
MEP (Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing)
MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) refers to the building-systems trades — HVAC and cooling, power distribution, and piping — and the contractors that install them. MEP scope dominates data center construction cost, far exceeding the structural shell. MEP subs are engaged early on mission-critical work, sometimes in design-assist roles before permits are filed.
Division 26
Division 26 is the electrical section of the CSI MasterFormat specification system that organizes construction scopes of work. On data centers, Division 26 — switchgear, distribution, generators, UPS — is routinely the largest single trade package. “Division 26 contractor” is shorthand for an electrical sub, and electrical is the most capacity-constrained trade in the AI buildout.
Substation
A substation is the electrical facility that steps grid transmission voltage down to a level a campus can use, built from transformers, switchgear, and protection equipment. Every large data center or industrial plant requires a new or expanded substation, typically built by the utility or under an EPC contract well before energization. Substation construction starting on a site is one of the most visible physical confirmations that a project is proceeding.
Switchyard
A switchyard is the high-voltage switching facility that connects a generating plant or large load directly to the transmission network. It differs from a substation in that its primary job is routing and protecting transmission-level power rather than stepping voltage down for distribution. Switchyard scope — structures, bus work, breakers, relaying — is a distinct bid package on power generation and large interconnection projects.
Interconnection Agreement
An interconnection agreement is the executed contract between a project and its transmission provider that defines the physical connection, the network upgrades required, and who pays for them. Signing it is the exit from the study process and the point at which grid-related construction can be scheduled. An executed interconnection agreement converts a speculative queue entry into a committed project.
LGIA (Large Generator Interconnection Agreement)
An LGIA (large generator interconnection agreement) is the standardized, FERC-jurisdictional interconnection agreement for generators above 20 MW. LGIAs are public documents filed in FERC dockets, and they enumerate the substation, transmission, and network-upgrade construction the project requires. A filed LGIA is a construction bill of materials hiding in a regulatory record.
Queue Position
Queue position is a project's place in an ISO/RTO interconnection queue, which determines study order and cost allocation for network upgrades. Position matters because most queued projects never get built — later positions face higher upgrade costs and longer timelines. BD teams reading a queue should weight projects with early positions, completed studies, and posted deposits over raw entries.
Behind-the-Meter (BTM)
Behind-the-meter (BTM) describes generation or storage connected on the customer's side of the utility meter, serving the facility directly rather than the grid. Data centers increasingly pair with BTM gas turbines or fuel cells to bypass multi-year interconnection waits. BTM projects can move from announcement to construction faster than grid-served ones because they skip the ISO queue — which compresses the BD window.
Front-of-the-Meter (FTM)
Front-of-the-meter (FTM) describes generation or storage connected to the utility grid, on the utility's side of the customer meter, selling power through the wholesale market or a PPA. FTM projects must pass through the ISO/RTO interconnection queue, making their development timelines longer but more publicly traceable. Most utility-scale solar, wind, and storage serving the AI buildout is FTM.
FERC Docket
A FERC docket is the public case file for a matter before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — interconnection agreements, LNG terminal authorizations, transmission rates, and pipeline certificates. Every filing, protest, and order in a docket is public and searchable. For projects in FERC's jurisdiction, the docket is the authoritative record of whether a project is advancing, delayed, or dead.
Colocation vs Hyperscale
Colocation (colo) is data center capacity built to lease to multiple tenants, while hyperscale is capacity built by or dedicated to a single large cloud or AI operator. The distinction drives construction cadence: colo providers build in leasable phases, while hyperscalers build entire campuses against internal demand. Hyperscale programs award larger packages to fewer contractors; colo work is more fragmented but more frequent.
Megawatt IT Load
Megawatt IT load is the power available to the computing equipment itself, excluding cooling and electrical losses — the standard unit for sizing data centers. A “100 MW campus” figure may refer to IT load or total utility load, which differ by the facility's PUE. Because construction scope scales almost linearly with IT megawatts, load figures are the fastest way to rank project opportunities by size.
PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness)
PUE (power usage effectiveness) is the ratio of a data center's total power draw to the power delivered to IT equipment; a PUE of 1.2 means 20% overhead for cooling and electrical losses. It is the industry's core efficiency metric and shapes the mechanical design choices — liquid cooling, economization — that determine trade scope. PUE targets in an RFP tell mechanical contractors what cooling architecture the project will buy.
Shell Building (Powered Shell)
A shell building is a structure built without the tenant's interior fit-out — for data centers, a “powered shell” includes the building and utility power but not the electrical and mechanical plant. Developers build shells speculatively to shorten delivery for future tenants. A shell lease or sale is followed by a fit-out construction cycle, meaning one site can generate two distinct waves of trade packages.
Greenfield vs Brownfield
A greenfield project is built on undeveloped land, while a brownfield project reuses or expands a previously developed — sometimes contaminated — site. Greenfields carry longer entitlement and utility timelines; brownfields trade permitting speed for demolition, remediation, and retrofit scope. The distinction tells BD teams which trades are in play and how fast the project can realistically move.
Air Permit (PSD / Title V)
An air permit is the Clean Air Act authorization a facility needs before constructing or operating significant emission sources such as generators, turbines, or process equipment. Major sources require PSD (Prevention of Significant Deterioration) construction permits and Title V operating permits, both public records with comment periods. Data centers with large generator fleets often trigger air permitting — the application discloses generator counts and site plans months before groundbreaking.
NEPA Review
NEPA review is the federal environmental analysis required when a project involves a federal action — funding, federal land, or a federal permit such as certain FERC or Army Corps approvals. Outcomes range from a categorical exclusion to a full environmental impact statement that can take years. NEPA documents are public and rich in project detail, and completion of review is a de-risking milestone worth tracking.
CUP / SUP (Conditional / Special Use Permit)
A CUP or SUP (conditional or special use permit) is a discretionary zoning approval that allows a specific use — such as a data center or power plant — on a parcel where it is not permitted by right. These applications are heard publicly by planning commissions, generating agendas, staff reports, and site plans. A CUP filing is often the first document that ties a developer to a specific parcel.
Rezoning
Rezoning is the formal change of a parcel's zoning classification to allow a new use, approved by a local legislative body after public hearings. Data center and industrial developers frequently rezone agricultural or residential land, and the applications become public record months or years before construction. Rezoning cases are early, location-precise signals — though not every rezoned parcel gets built.
Site Plan Approval
Site plan approval is the local review that confirms a development's detailed layout — buildings, grading, utilities, access — complies with zoning and engineering standards. It sits between entitlement and building permits, and its drawings reveal square footage, substation locations, and phasing. A site plan submission means the owner has paid for serious engineering, moving the project from speculative to probable.
Water / Wastewater Permit
A water or wastewater permit authorizes a facility to draw water and discharge treated effluent, issued by state environmental agencies or regional water authorities. Water-cooled data centers and industrial plants can require millions of gallons per day, making water agreements a gating item alongside power. Service agreements and discharge permit applications confirm project scale and are frequently negotiated in public municipal meetings.