Two Tenants, One Structure: Rethinking Switchboard Metering for Mixed-Use and Warehouse Projects

Floor space is revenue. In mixed-use residential and warehouse developments, every square foot given to the electrical room is a square foot that can’t be leased, rented, or built out. That pressure is showing up in the drawings we see every week: electrical rooms keep getting smaller, and the equipment inside them is expected to do more with less.

For anyone specifying or building these projects, that creates a familiar tension. Utility metering requirements don’t shrink just because the room does.

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The conventional approach costs you space

When a building has multiple commercial tenants, each one typically needs its own metered service with a dedicated main disconnect. The standard way switchboard manufacturers handle this is straightforward but space-hungry: one dedicated switchboard structure per tenant.

Two tenants, two structures. Three tenants, three structures. Each one adds width to the lineup, adds to the room footprint, and adds cost. In a build where the electrical room has already been squeezed to hand more space back to the tenants, that per-tenant structure count works directly against the design intent.

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A more efficient layout

There’s a better way to lay it out. ASD can design a single switchboard structure that meters up to two 800A tenants, with the disconnect included for each, insidethat one structure.

Instead of two separate structures side by side, you get one. The metering and the disconnects each tenant needs are still there, still code-compliant, still individually served. They’re simply consolidated into a footprint that fits the room you actually have to work with.

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Why it matters

The payoff shows up in three places that developers and contractors care about most:

Space. Consolidating two tenants into one structure directly reduces the switchboard footprint. That’s floor area returned to the leasable side of the building, or breathing room in an electrical space that was never generous to begin with.

Cost. Fewer structures means less material, a smaller lineup, and a more efficient install. The savings compound when the same layout logic is applied across multiple electrical rooms in a larger development.

Simplicity in tight rooms. As electrical rooms continue to shrink, a design that fits two metered services where two structures used to go gives the electrical contractor and the design team more room to route, terminate, and maintain the gear over its life.

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Where this fits

This approach is a strong fit for mixed-use residential buildings with ground-floor commercial tenants, and for warehouse and distribution properties where multiple occupants share a single service entrance. Anywhere the tenant count is driving up the structure count, consolidated metering is worth putting on the table early, ideally at the design phase, when the layout still has room to flex.

Every project has its own load profile, utility requirements, and local code considerations, so the right configuration depends on the specifics. But the principle holds: you don’t always need a separate structure for every metered tenant.

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Let’s look at your layout

If you’re working through the electrical design on a mixed-use or warehouse project and the structure count is eating into your floor plan, we’re happy to review the metering layout with you. As a UL-listed, American-made manufacturer, ASD builds custom power distribution equipment engineered around the space and schedule you’re actually working with.

Request a quote or reach out to talk through your project.

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