Your suppliers have never
had it this good.
That’s your money.
Sellers’ markets reward buyers who negotiate like operators. We have negotiated €200M+ of direct equipment spend, delivering 15% average savings. And we work on a share of what we save you.
128 weeks
Current average lead time for power transformers.
44 weeks
Current average lead time for MV switchgear.
2x
Equipment lead times have roughly doubled since 2021.
15%
Average savings UZO delivers on direct equipment spend.
Sources: Wood Mackenzie quarterly supply chain tracking, IEA. Updated quarterly.
The market
Capital isn’t the constraint.
Equipment is.
€584B
of EU grid investment needed this decade (€1.2 trillion by 2040).
+60%
EU electricity demand by 2030. 40% of distribution grids are over 40 years old, and cross border capacity is due to double.
Source: European Commission.
$650B+ committed in 2026
Hyperscalers are committing more than $650 billion in 2026, yet only about one third of planned data center capacity is actually under construction. The bottleneck is transformers, switchgear, and batteries, not chips.
Source: Bloomberg, Sightline Climate, 2026.
Lead times
The lead time explosion.
Pre pandemic
7 to 14 months
Now, Europe
beyond 24 months
Specialized units
36 to 48 months
The IEA reports lead times have roughly doubled since 2021. Global benchmark: power transformers average 128 weeks, generator step up units 144 weeks.
Source: IEA, Building the Future Transmission Grid, 2025; PTR; Wood Mackenzie.
Global equipment prices
What a transformer costs now, versus 2019.
Global equipment prices, increase since 2019. Source: Wood Mackenzie.
The squeeze
Demand surged.
Supply didn’t.
+60%
EU electricity demand by 2030.
40%
of EU distribution grids are over 40 years old.
2x
Cross border capacity must double by 2030.
~30% supply shortfall
Global demand has climbed against a roughly 30% structural supply shortfall for power transformers.
Source: European Commission; Wood Mackenzie.
We find the way.
Who we are
Direct materials.
Nothing else.
UZO Advisory is a specialist procurement and energy advisory firm for critical infrastructure and engineering industries. We negotiate the engineered equipment your project is built from, the gear that arrives on a truck and bolts into your plant, and we advise on the energy systems that set your operating cost for the next twenty years. From our base in the Netherlands, we serve clients across Europe, North America, and Africa.
We don’t do indirect. No marketing spend, no facilities contracts, no temp labour. If it doesn’t get installed and run, it’s not our business. That boundary is the whole point: it’s why we know what a chiller should cost, what a switchgear lead time can really be compressed to, and which supplier will still answer your calls in year three.
And we don’t stop at one category. Our category managers each live in their own domain, so we cover the full equipment scope of a project, not a single line item.
What we cover
Power & distribution
transformers, switchgear, breakers, protection
Thermal & cooling
chillers, dry coolers and adiabatic, CRAC, CRAH and AHUs, CDUs, cooling towers, heat exchangers
Rotating & mechanical
motors, compressors, pumps, valves
Controls, electronics & security
sensors, controllers, gauges, BMS and BAS hardware, access control
Backup power & storage
generators, UPS, batteries, energy storage
IT hardware
servers, storage, networking, racks
These are representative, not exhaustive. If it’s engineered capital equipment for a critical facility, we can negotiate it.
And we put our fee where our work is: a modest engagement fee, then a share of the savings we deliver. If we don’t perform, we don’t earn.
Services
Our process
1
Review.
One category, 30 minutes, free. We tell you what we see, including if we see nothing.
2
Diagnostic.
Three weeks inside your spend. You get a priced opportunity map and our honest recommendation. A fixed-scope diagnostic, priced to the size of the spend under review.
3
Delivery.
We execute: RFQs, negotiations, contracts, onboarding. We earn a share of the savings we put on your table.
Africa
Open the African market.
Across the continent, operators and distributors actively want European quality. What’s missing is a partner on the ground. We take European and North American OEMs into Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, from vetted distributor shortlist to signed distribution agreement, with our in country partners handling execution after signature.
Track record
Built by an operator,
not a slide deck.
€200M+
of direct equipment spend negotiated.
15%
average savings delivered.
Engagement fee + share of savings
A modest engagement fee, then a share of the savings we deliver. We only earn if you save.
“No savings, no success fee. We can offer this because it has never happened.”
Latest from UZO: The Equipment Lead Time Briefing (quarterly) · Waste Heat Is the New Compliance (EED explainer)