TCO Analysis of a Traditional Data Center vs. a Scalable, Containerized Data Center

Overview

The comparison rests on two equivalent facilities: a traditional stick-built power and cooling plant and one made of prefabricated, standardized facility modules. Waterfall charts attribute the savings to four causes: avoided over-build, modular scaling, higher-efficiency equipment and lower maintenance. The comparison is meaningful because both facilities are built to carry the same load, so the difference comes only from the build approach. The paper dates from 2023.

Prefabricated/modular power and cooling gives about 27.2% capex saving and about 31.6% opex saving, roughly 30% TCO overall. The example capex is about $53.2M traditional against about $38.7M modular. Most of the opex saving comes from modularity, meaning scaling with load. The capex gap in the example is about $14.5M (53.2 minus 38.7), consistent with the roughly 27% capex saving.

The paper stresses that the ability to add capacity later removes the incentive to over-provision on day one. If capacity can be added later, there is no reason to buy equipment up front for a peak load that may not arrive, and the over-build appears as its own savings item in the waterfall. The limit is that the percentages belong to one example facility; they suit a sanity check on your own project rather than a fixed multiplier.

Key points

1. Prefabricated/modular facility power and cooling: about 27.2% capex and about 31.6% opex saving, about 30% TCO overall.
2. Example capex: about $53.2M traditional versus about $38.7M modular.
3. Modularity (scaling with load) drives most of the opex saving.
4. Savings are attributed to avoided over-build, modular scaling, efficient equipment and lower maintenance.
5. The paper dates from 2023; related standards are ISO/IEC 22237 and EN 50600-1.

Using it in design

• Offer 'traditional' versus 'prefabricated modular' build strategy as a design option.
• In TCO comparisons tie module-by-module deployment to the load ramp.
• Use the roughly 27%/32% capex/opex deltas only as sanity-check benchmarks, not as fixed multipliers.

Who should read it

Investors and design teams choosing between traditional and modular build.

Related standards

• ISO/IEC 22237
• EN 50600-1

Publication details

Authors

Wendy Torell

Publisher

Schneider Electric

Year

2023

Document number

WP 164

Document language

English

Source type

Manufacturer

Access

Free to read

Licence

Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document

Citation