Commercial electrical demand is being pulled by a different mix of projects than a simple square-foot allowance can explain. Data centers are the clearest example. They put electrical capacity, redundancy, long feeder runs, switchgear, backup power interfaces, cooling support, and utility coordination at the center of the budget conversation. Even when a contractor is not bidding a full data center, that market changes expectations around gear availability, service planning, and how early electrical capacity has to be discussed.
EV charging is the second pressure point. A tenant that adds fleet charging, customer charging, or service-vehicle charging can turn an ordinary parking or warehouse conversation into a service-capacity question. In early estimating, that means the budget needs to separate branch wiring from capacity-driven items such as panels, feeders, transformer exposure, and utility-side timing.
The third pressure is the service-capacity environment. Commercial projects still have to live inside available service, utility process, equipment lead times, and site constraints. A building with modest square footage can carry a heavy electrical profile if the tenant's equipment or charging plan is power-dense. For estimating, that changes how early allowances should be discussed. A clean shell allowance may be reasonable for ordinary lighting and receptacles, but it can be misleading when the tenant narrative includes charging, dense IT rooms, refrigeration, process equipment, or backup-power coordination.
MeTiger's view is that commercial electrical cost conversations should start with two questions before anyone trusts a $/sqft range: what is the building area, and what is the electrical intensity? Data centers, charging, refrigeration, kitchens, process equipment, and dense tenant technology can break the relationship between area and cost. The practical move is to flag capacity-sensitive assumptions separately from normal branch-work assumptions.
This is commentary for budgeting and scope discussion only. It does not provide design direction, load calculations, or code decisions. For a first-pass budget screen, use the commercial electrical cost calculator and then compare the result against the budgetary $/sqft range note.