From geography to a building
What to compare before you request proposals
1. Electricity price, power commitment and rent are different numbers
The state table gives an electricity screening benchmark in cents per kWh. Colocation quotes may instead charge for committed IT kW, a cabinet circuit, metered consumption or a combination. Keep those units separate. A lower electricity average does not establish a lower cabinet price, and it does not tell you when a utility can connect a new campus.
A utility-backed delivery date is also different from a developer's target opening date. Ask what work remains, who controls it and which milestone creates the contractual obligation to deliver. For an operating facility, ask how much of the energized capacity is already sold and whether your expansion block is reserved.
What one cent per kWh changesFor an illustrative constant 1 MW IT load, a PUE of 1.30 and a 30-day month, facility energy is 1,000 kW × 1.30 × 720 hours = 936,000 kWh. A 1¢/kWh difference changes that energy cost by $9,360 per month. This is an energy sensitivity example, not a colocation quote; utilization, actual PUE, tariff and the operator's billing method determine the result.
2. Normalize the whole quote
| Cost or obligation | Compare on the same basis |
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| Space and committed power | Usable IT kW, cabinet or suite footprint, redundancy, minimum commitment, ramp schedule and the date billing begins. |
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| Electricity recovery | Meter location, consumption rate, PUE multiplier if used, demand charges, fuel adjustments and the treatment of unused commitment. |
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| Connectivity | Cross-connect installation and recurring charges, carrier ports, cloud connection fees, diverse transport and any off-site exchange access. |
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| Operations | Included remote hands, hourly minimums, after-hours work, receiving, storage, escort fees and support response commitments. |
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| Entry and exit | Deposits, installation, migration, removal, overlap between sites, notice periods and any early termination charges. |
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| Growth and renewal | Reserved versus best-effort expansion, annual escalators, renewal terms, transfer rights and the price of the next capacity block. |
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| Tax treatment and incentives | Which costs appear on the tenant's invoice, who qualifies for any claimed benefit, what approval is required and what happens if a condition is missed. |
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Use the power billing guide to compare metered and committed models, the pricing benchmarks for sourced price context, and the RFP spreadsheet for a consistent operator response.
3. Test the network at the building
A directory listing shows a registered presence, not a promise that your preferred service is provisioned. Ask which carriers have lit equipment inside the building, whether the cloud connection is local or transported elsewhere, and where the primary and backup fiber paths run. Two providers using the same duct or meet-me room may share a failure point.
Measure latency to application endpoints, users and counterparties. Straight-line distance is a screening tool; the network route is what the application uses. Include the cost and latency of reaching an exchange in another metro when comparing a less connected campus with a carrier building.
4. Make cooling and density part of acceptance
Average campus density is not the allowable density of your rack row. Specify maximum sustained rack kW, the number of adjacent racks, the cooling interface and the temperature envelope. For liquid cooling, define who supplies and maintains the cooling distribution unit, coolant, connections, leak detection and heat rejection.
Ask which capacity has passed commissioning for that configuration and which still needs a retrofit. Put the ramp, acceptance test and responsibility for any enabling work into the proposal. See GPU and high-density colocation for the deployment checklist.
5. Evaluate a recovery site by independence
A second state does not automatically create an independent recovery site. Map the utilities, substations, long-haul fiber corridors, flood exposure and operating teams shared by the two facilities. Then test whether the resulting distance still meets replication, recovery-point and recovery-time requirements.
For coastal, seismic, wildfire, extreme-heat or severe-winter exposure, request the candidate facility's engineering basis and operating procedures. State labels are too broad to establish risk at a particular parcel. Support staffing, spare parts and access after an event belong in the same evaluation as the building.
6. Treat approvals as site-specific milestones
For a new facility or expansion, identify the jurisdiction and the work needed: land-use approval, building permits, utility service, environmental permits and commissioning. A state incentive announcement does not complete local approvals. A building permit does not complete a utility connection.
Ask the operator to state the remaining dependencies and provide a dated delivery commitment. For current space, request confirmation for the exact building, power block, density and term. Our quarterly permit reports show documented activity within their stated coverage; they are evidence of filings and government actions, not a statewide inventory or a lease offer.
How many data centers does each state have?
There is no comparable 50-state count in our collections. A building inventory, a registered network facility, a campus and a permit filing are different units. One campus may contain several buildings; one building may have many related permits; one operator may register more than one facility record. Counting them together creates a number without a consistent meaning.
This page therefore publishes selected metro snapshots with their boundaries and dates. A statewide count would require a separate, reconciled building census using the same inclusion rules in every state. States without a detailed guide are marked as a coverage gap, never as zero supply.
Is a hyperscale campus a colocation option?
Only if an operator actually sells the product you need there. A campus built for a cloud company or another single owner is not automatically tenant-facing inventory. Ask for the contracting operator, minimum commitment and available product before including it in a cabinet, cage or suite shortlist.
What is the best state for a data center?
For a colocation buyer, it is the state containing a building that meets the application's requirements at an acceptable total cost and date. For a new campus developer, the questions expand to land, entitlements, utility service and construction. An electricity ranking answers only one of those questions. Use the table to screen candidates, then compare two or three actual proposals.