Summary
- Data Centres becomes one of four SRV business areas from 1 October.
- The unit gains nationwide responsibility for customer development, project management, and delivery.
- Jarkko Salmenoja becomes SVP, Data Centres and joins the executive team.
Finnish construction company SRV has made data centres a standalone nationwide business area, separating the sector from its previous position inside the company’s Helsinki region commercial operation.
The change took effect on 1 October as SRV reorganised its activities into four business areas.
The new Data Centres division is responsible for customer development across Finland as well as the management and delivery of data centre projects nationally.
Jarkko Salmenoja has been appointed senior vice president, Data Centres and has joined the Corporate Executive Team. He joined SRV in August 2025 after senior roles at NCC, WSP Finland, and YIT.
The reorganisation gives data centres their own management structure rather than treating them as a subset of conventional commercial construction.
The projects rely on familiar construction disciplines, but a larger share of programme risk sits in mechanical systems, electrical infrastructure, controls, and commissioning than in a typical office or warehouse.
Energisation dates can determine when an entire facility becomes commercially usable. Cooling systems have to be commissioned against increasingly dense IT loads, while transformers, switchgear, generators, and other electrical equipment can carry long procurement lead times.
Commissioning also has to demonstrate redundant operating modes before customers accept capacity.
A dedicated business area allows engineering knowledge, supplier relationships, project controls, and commissioning experience to be reused between developments rather than recreated for each contract.
SRV is also moving its Building Services unit, which employs around 100 people, into central Internal Services so the expertise can support all four business areas.
Electrical distribution, cooling plant, controls, fire systems, and testing account for a large share of data centre cost and technical complexity. Central access to building services specialists can therefore affect programme performance directly.
Finland’s expanding project pipeline creates both opportunity and pressure for contractors.
Large developments are competing for electrical engineers, commissioning specialists, subcontractors, transformers, switchgear, and other long lead equipment. Several projects moving at once can place construction capacity under the same strain as grid capacity.
The government’s proposed electricity connection reform adds another dependency. Large data centres could face lower priority in congested areas unless they provide significant demand flexibility or locate where the network can accept their load.
Construction programmes can therefore remain exposed even after land and design work have progressed.
A project team may be ready to mobilise while the customer is still waiting for a binding connection agreement, substation delivery, or transmission reinforcement.
SRV’s nationwide structure also positions the contractor for projects outside Helsinki, where developers are increasingly evaluating sites on the basis of power availability, industrial land, and room for expansion.
The company has not attached a new revenue target or order forecast to the division.
Future contract awards will show how much of Finland’s development pipeline converts into secured work for SRV and whether the company can scale specialist delivery without becoming constrained by the same labour and equipment shortages affecting its customers.
