E-Houses and MCC Buildings, Delivered in One Piece
One Building, One Delivery
State Service Company builds e-houses and MCC buildings at a 70-acre waterfront yard in Ingleside, Texas. Switchgear, motor control centers and automation equipment are installed, wired and factory acceptance tested in the yard, then the completed building ships to site in one piece by barge rather than in sections.
Single-Piece Delivery
Barge load-out means the building never has to be split.
Factory Tested
Full FAT on the integrated system before shipment.
Integrated Scope
Built alongside the racks and modules it serves.
Why Splitting a Building Costs You Twice
Most large electrical buildings arrive at a project in pieces. Road transport sets the ceiling: a building wider or taller than a permitted load has to be split, and every split becomes field work. Cable gets pulled, tested, then pulled back out so the sections can travel. On site, the sections are rejoined, the cable is re-pulled, everything is re-terminated and the whole system is retested.
State Service loads out across 2,000 linear feet of bulkhead directly onto a barge, so the building does not have to be split to travel.
We have also done the reverse, as a rescue. A recent electrical building reached us as six separate sections. It had been built in northern Louisiana with all equipment installed and cabling pulled and tested, then stripped back apart so the sections could be barged out. State Service reassembled the six sections into one building, re-pulled and re-terminated the cabling, retested the complete system, and it now ships to site as a single unit.
For the same client's first two facilities, those buildings went straight to site in sections and were assembled there, which adds people and time to a live project location.
What We Build
E-houses and power distribution centers
Prefabricated buildings housing low and medium voltage switchgear, protective relaying and the auxiliary equipment that supports them. Also known as PDCs.
MCC buildings
Motor control center buildings, built and wired around the MCC lineup, with terminations and control wiring complete before shipment.
Switchgear buildings and modular substations
Buildings built around a switchgear lineup, including modular substation packages where the electrical scope travels as a finished assembly.
Control rooms and analyzer buildings
Occupied and equipment spaces built to the same standard, with HVAC, lighting and life-safety scope integrated rather than added on site.
What Ships With the Building
The point of a modular electrical building is that the electrical scope arrives proven. Everything below is complete before the building leaves Ingleside.
- Switchgear and MCC set, anchored and terminated
- Cable tray, conduit, wiring and terminations
- HVAC sized for the connected heat load
- Lighting, receptacles and interior finishes
- Fire detection and suppression
- Grounding and lightning protection
- Structural base designed for lift, transport and set
- Factory acceptance testing of the integrated system
HVAC on these buildings is not incidental. One recent building carries more than 20 air conditioning units, sized for the heat the equipment throws off. Running all of them at once would hold the interior near 40 degrees.
Built Into a Larger Module Scope
Electrical buildings rarely travel alone. State Service fabricates pipe rack modules, process modules and utility modules in the same yard, to the same schedule, for the same project. When the e-house, the racks it feeds and the process modules it controls all come from one yard, the interfaces are resolved in fabrication rather than discovered in the field.
That is the difference between an enclosure supplier and a fabricator. The building is engineered as part of the facility, not as a box delivered to it.
Shipping Specifications
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Steel bulkhead | 2,000 linear feet, load-bearing |
| Barge envelope | 125 ft x 400 ft x 22 ft |
| Minimum access water depth | 16 ft |
| Route to Gulf of Mexico | 12 miles, no vertical restrictions |
| Oversize units | Units exceeding Intracoastal limits transit offshore |
| Traceability | 100% material traceability, heat number tracked |
| Covered fabrication area | 25,000 sq ft |
| Total facility | 70 acres |
Frequently Asked Questions
How large an e-house can State Service ship in one piece?
Size is governed by the barge envelope rather than by road permits, because buildings load out across the bulkhead directly onto the water. The barge envelope is 125 ft by 400 ft by 22 ft. Buildings too large for the Intracoastal Waterway transit offshore in open water instead.
Can State Service consolidate an electrical building that was built in sections?
Yes. State Service has taken a six-section electrical building, reassembled it into a single unit, re-pulled and re-terminated the cabling and retested the complete system so it could ship to site in one piece.
Is the building tested before it ships?
Yes. Factory acceptance testing of the integrated system is completed in the yard. The building arrives powered up and proven rather than assembled and tested for the first time on site.
What is the difference between an e-house, a PDC and an MCC building?
The terms overlap. E-house and power distribution center are used interchangeably for a prefabricated building housing switchgear and auxiliary electrical equipment. MCC building usually describes one built specifically around a motor control center lineup.
Does State Service supply the electrical equipment?
State Service builds, integrates and tests the building. Equipment can be owner-furnished or procured as part of an EPC scope, depending on how the project is contracted.
Let's build your next project together.