Busway and Busbars | Legrand United Kingdom

The simple answer is no—busways are just as viable for retrofits as they are for new builds. However, the implementation considerations differ.  

For a new data center, you’re designing power infrastructure from scratch, so it’s easy to optimize for a busway system. For a legacy site, you have to assess the existing power infrastructure—especially switchgear capacity—to determine how busways can be integrated. But we’ve seen plenty of successful retrofit projects.

As for return on investment, one of the biggest advantages of busways is that you don’t have to install all the tap-offs on day one. You install the busway backbone and only purchase tap-offs when a client moves in. This means you’re not spending money on infrastructure that sits unused. In contrast, with a traditional PDU and whip setup, you often have to pre-install everything, which locks you into a specific power distribution model.

With this approach, return on investment is almost immediate. As soon as a client signs a lease and moves in, you deploy the necessary tap-offs, and the system starts generating revenue right away.