We know the current energy grid isn’t enough to handle today’s needs. Across industries, the demand for power is accelerating at rapid-fire speed. Over the next five years, electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI)-optimized data centers is projected to more than quadruple, according to the International Energy Agency. Fueled by AI use, the U.S. is on track to consume more electricity for processing data than for producing all energy-intensive goods combined, including cement, aluminum, steel, and chemicals, for the same time period.
COMMENTARY
To meet this surging demand, efforts to modernize energy generation and the industrial and building infrastructure that consumes it must accelerate, or we risk major disruption. Solution provider partners can play a bigger role at both ends of the spectrum by expanding beyond delivering products and technology to playing a key role in integration and innovation.
Delivering Integration
Many of the technologies and solutions needed to scale energy production and drive energy efficiencies for end-users already exist, from microgrids to IT/OT integration to battery energy storage. But as systems grow more complex and the regulatory landscape shifts, integration is becoming an increasingly urgent problem. The movement from isolated components toward integrated systems is the most significant shift in modern infrastructure design, requiring organizations to transform systems, processes, and mindsets. Solution provider partners can help cut through complexity by delivering unified strategies and turnkey installation and integration.
Utilities and power systems. Grid modernization solutions, including enhanced switchgear and transformer stations and smart grid infrastructure, offer unprecedented opportunities to drive energy and cost-efficiencies while building system resiliency. In addition to delivering advanced technologies and solutions, provider partners can remove complexity from grid upgrades through comprehensive modernization coordination, regulatory compliance management, and system integration to ensure continuous power delivery.
Project: When one of the nation’s largest energy-delivery companies needed to upgrade a critical facility, Turtle worked alongside Rockwell Automation to implement and integrate advanced control systems and cybersecurity-hardened networks throughout the site, transforming the outdated but essential plant into a responsive, intelligent energy asset. The modernized, integrated systems now provide operators with unprecedented visibility, allowing them to anticipate demand surges and respond seamlessly.
Data centers. Redundant power systems and resiliency planning can eliminate single points of failure while improving uptime, cooling efficiency, and operational scalability. Solutions providers can deliver integrated data center power solutions and support that balance density, reliability, and sustainability requirements from design through deployment to ensure timely installations, seamless integration, and reliable performance.
Project: A major financial institution faced increasing demand for processing power while working within the constraints of limited urban space and zero tolerance for interruptions. Our 38kV switchgear solutions and comprehensive power management systems streamlined the design-build process for mission-critical data centers. By overseeing integration, accelerating project timelines, and ensuring reliable power distribution, we helped transform digital vulnerability into unshakable reliability. The resulting infrastructure now supports the invisible but essential financial transactions that power the global economy, all while remaining adaptable to rapidly evolving technological demands.
Smarter buildings and factories. Advanced microgrid and automation technology, supply chain management optimization, and integrated digital services are driving powerful energy and cost efficiencies. Solutions providers can deliver end-to-end smart infrastructure solutions and equipment along with installation support and single-source accountability to ensure reliable project delivery and painless integration.
Project: In New York City, Turtle supported one of the largest private microgrid systems ever deployed in Manhattan, providing complex switchgear, full energy system design, and implementation to support residential, commercial, and transit operations within a 28-acre footprint. The result is a resilient energy model enabling intelligent energy management and seamless transitions between the national grid and local generation. This invisible infrastructure allows the neighborhood to respond instantly to power disruptions, price fluctuations, and demand changes.
Driving Innovation
From utilities to contractors to enterprises, solutions providers can also play a vital part in driving innovation by helping organizations map modernization journeys across their organization and up and down the value chain to meet the needs of an increasingly complex and interconnected world.
How to maximize your solutions provider partnerships. To make the most of your solutions provider relationships, look for partners that bring an integration mindset backed by deep industry expertise, and an end-to-end understanding of the entire energy ecosystem, from current conditions to emerging trends. Partners with the following qualities will help deliver critical advantage to your business:
- Technology agnosticism: Track record of evaluating and creating custom approaches when needed, recommending the optimal selection and combination of solutions to meet customer needs.
- Systems integration focus: Deep industry knowledge and insight up and down the value chain, including expertise in IT/OT convergence.
- Forward compatibility: Ability to design systems that can adapt to future technologies and requirements, as well as evolving regulatory targets.
- Resilience prioritization: Focus on ensuring critical functions remain operational under all circumstances.
- End-to-end service: Team of experts to support you from design to deployment through to day-to-day operations.
- Commitment to innovation: As we’ve seen across our 102+ years of experience and four generations of industry transformation, providers that deliver the most value are constantly exploring the next generation of solutions and are eager to co-create.
- Trust: Industry modernization and transformation look a lot different than when we started in 1923, but one element remains the same. The most important ingredient in a strong solutions provider partnership is trust. Having a partner that focuses on delivering both short-term and long-term value for you and makes it personal will show up for you when you need them.
The biggest energy transformation of our lifetime is here. Navigating it takes more than tools. It takes a solutions partner with the expertise to simplify complexity, the insight to accelerate innovation, and the discipline to deliver resilient outcomes at scale.
In a world defined by urgency and uncertainty, the right solutions provider isn’t optional. It’s essential.
—Teesee Murray is Group President at Turtle.
