Construction & Contractors

Temporary power on a construction site is not temporary in the way people assume. From the day the first trailer rolls in to the day utility service is energized, the job runs on generated power. That might be 6 months on a commercial build. It might be 18 months on a hospital or school project. During that entire window, the generator is the power grid for the site, running tower cranes, concrete pumps, temporary lighting, welding equipment, HVAC for occupied sections, and the trailers where the superintendents live. A generator that goes down on a large construction site does not just inconvenience the crew. It stops production.

We finance jobsite generators for general contractors, electrical subcontractors, civil contractors, commercial developers, and specialty trades operating in markets where temporary power demand is high. The most common configurations are towable diesel generators in the 50kW to 500kW range, which follow the job from site to site, and stationary prime-power sets installed for projects where utility service is months away from the scheduled energization date.

Contractors who maintain a fleet of towable generators for their own jobs or for rental to other subcontractors are one of our most consistent buyer segments. A fleet of four or five towable sets, kept busy across a construction company's active job portfolio, generates reliable utilization that supports the equipment financing comfortably. We fund those fleet additions on the same timeline as a single-unit purchase.

New Iron Versus Low-Hour Used Sets

The construction generator market has a healthy supply of low-hour used units, particularly in the 100kW to 500kW diesel range, because generators that came off rental fleets or large projects often have very modest hours relative to their potential service life. A diesel generator rated for 20,000 hours of service that has run 2,000 hours on a three-year-old rental fleet unit has a lot of productive life ahead of it, and its purchase price is a fraction of new iron of the same capacity.

We finance used and refurbished generators for construction applications on the same terms as new equipment. The key underwriting question is condition, not age alone. A well-maintained, documented set with a clean load-bank test result is financeable at the same terms as comparable new inventory. We do not penalize buyers for making a smart purchasing decision in a market where used iron is often the best value.

Tier 4 Final emissions compliance is a consideration for contractors working in non-attainment air quality zones, particularly California, the Northeast, and urban cores in other states where air districts enforce construction equipment emissions rules. New Tier 4 sets carry a price premium, but some projects require them. We finance Tier 4 compliant sets with or without that compliance premium factored into the deal structure.

For contractors who need to move quickly on a unit that came up at the right price, application-only financing up to roughly $400k means the underwriting does not slow down the acquisition. Three months of bank statements and a quote, and we can be funding inside two weeks while a bank is still asking for the last three years of tax returns.

Where the Demand Is Running Hot

Construction activity in data center corridors, semiconductor fabrication zones, and EV battery plant buildouts has driven elevated temporary power demand. Many of these projects are in areas where utility service upgrade timelines cannot keep pace with construction schedules, meaning large prime-power generator installations are running for extended periods on projects that would previously have been on utility power within a few months of breaking ground. We finance prime-power sets specifically for these extended-duration temporary power applications, where the generator is not a standby set but the primary power source for the duration of the project.

The Gulf Coast construction market, particularly around Houston and the petrochemical refinery corridor, runs consistently high generator utilization because industrial plant shutdowns and turnarounds require temporary power plants that come up fast and run reliably for the duration of the outage window. Contractors operating in this market often keep multiple generator sets in inventory specifically for turnaround work, and they finance those sets on project timelines rather than calendar years.

Storm-driven construction demand in Florida, the Southeast coast, and the Gulf states creates periodic spikes in both temporary power demand and in the need to quickly acquire additional generating capacity. Contractors who serve disaster recovery and storm reconstruction work need financing that moves on the same timeline as their workload, not on a bank's 60-day approval process.

Deal Structure for Contractors

Most construction generator deals fall in the $50k to $500k range per unit, with multi-unit fleet purchases occasionally reaching higher. Single-unit purchases under $400k run on application-only terms with a one to two week close. Fleet purchases above that threshold move to a financial review, but the timeline stays short.

Seasonal deferred payment structures make sense for contractors in markets with predictable slow seasons. A contractor in the Upper Midwest or Mountain West who carries generator sets through the winter months can structure payments to defer or reduce during the slowest billing months and weight toward spring through fall when utilization is high. We build those seasonal structures into the deal rather than forcing a contractor into a flat monthly payment that does not match their cash flow.

For contractors who already own sets outright, a sale-leaseback releases the equity in that iron for working capital, fleet expansion, or bid bonds on new contracts, while the sets stay on the job. Some contractors use this tool at the start of a busy season when they need capital for materials but do not want to draw on their revolving line of credit.