2017 Commissioning Giants

Building commissioning providers—at all levels—reported making more money in the past fiscal year than in the previous year. Here’s a look at the top 25 firms.

By Amara Rozgus, Consulting-Specifying Engineer October 12, 2017

The 2017 Commissioning (Cx) Giants reports the top 25 firms based on the percentage of commissioning work completed in the past fiscal year, as a portion of their total MEP design revenue. Firms are ranked based on mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP), and fire protection commission revenue. Several firms with high MEP design revenue reported only a small percentage of this revenue—such as 5% or 10%—as commissioning revenue. Because their total MEP design revenue is so large, that moved them high up in the ranking.

In 2017, commissioning brought in $418.7 million in revenue for all 100 MEP Giants firms. The top 25 firms, shown in Table 1, made $331.9 million in revenue. This is an increase over the 2016 Cx Giants firms, which made $301.8 million for the top 25 firms.

Among the 2017 Cx Giants, the firms in the top three spots didn’t change from last year. After that, the list jumps around a bit, with seven firms appearing on the top 25 who did not appear on the 2016 list. Primary Integration Solutions Inc. (No. 4) reported data in 2017, but was not on the MEP Giants or Cx Giants list in 2016, and knocked several perennial contenders lower down the list. This firm reported the largest amount (95%) of its revenue from commissioning, a higher percentage than any other firm.

Other firms, like NV5 Global Inc. (No. 7), made an appearance for the first time on the Cx Giants list; NV5 spent much of 2016 acquiring several smaller firms, pushing them higher in the rankings because these acquisitions had strong commissioning revenue.

Integral Group Inc. (No. 19) also is new to the list this year, moving a couple of contenders out of the running.

Several firms increased their commissioning revenue in the past fiscal year and moved up in the rankings. They are (in order): Interface Engineering (No. 9), Glumac (No. 22), TLC Engineering for Architecture Inc. (No. 23), and CannonDesign (No. 24).

This data reflects commissioning at all levels: commissioning of new or existing buildings, recommissioning, and retro-commissioning.