Data Center Microgrids

Siemens Energy, Eaton Collaborating to Speed On-Site Power Options for Data Centers

June 4, 2025

Under the partnership aiming for modularity to circumnavigate long grid interconnection delays, Siemens Energy’s standard power configuration would generate 500 MW from its SGT-800 gas turbines. Eaton’s electrical equipment would balance and manage the power system with medium and low-voltage switchgear, UPS, busways, racks and containment systems.

Rod Walton, Microgrid Knowledge Managing Editor

Photo collage image courtesy Siemens Energy, Eaton and whiteMocca/Shutterstock.com

Two of the energy industry’s biggest players are joining their particular areas of expertise to build a fast-track approach to providing more easily scaled on-site power for future data centers.

German-based Siemens Energy and Irish-American power management technology firm Eaton are collaborating on new options for future data center projects. These offerings would include grid-independent energy supplies, such as gen-sets and on-site renewables, as well as standardized modular systems to help speed up data center construction.

Under the partnership aiming for modularity to circumnavigate long grid interconnection delays, Siemens Energy’s standard power configuration would generate 500 MW from its SGT-800 gas turbines. The data center package also could include battery storage systems and perhaps hydrogen fuel at some point.

“We offer hyperscalers, co-locators and investors a unique package, enabling them to reduce the time-to-market by up to two years in many places, which leads to significant revenue gains,” Andreas Pistauer, global head of sales for Siemens Energy’s gas services business, said in a statement. “Our power plant design is built with redundancy, eliminating the need for backup diesel generators, and reducing CO₂ emissions by about 50 percent.”

Eaton’s electrical equipment would balance and manage the power system with medium and low-voltage switchgear, UPS, busways, racks and containment systems. The company also could provide engineering and software services to protect chips at the data centers.

“Our approach of letting customers pick the right balance of energy sources is very flexible and construction to start-up time is swift with options to reduce emissions in both the short and long term,” Cyrille Brisson, global segment leader for data centers at Eaton, said in a statement. “Crucially, our approach offers data center owners and developers the opportunity to build capacity and bring it online fast in any location where they have land available that is close to gas, water and fiber.”

The data center industry is expanding at a rapid pace in both the U.S. and around the world, driven by the rise in artificial intelligence, hyperscale and cloud-based capacity projects. Earlier this year, research firm McKinsey forecast that data centers would require close to $6.7 trillion in global investment to meet the rising demand.

McKinsey’s forecast also anticipates that total AI and non-AI workload would increase from 82 GW to more than 200 GW globally by 2030.

Tech firms are investing big to capture future energy capacity to meet new construction needs. The anticipated future load growth is leading companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta to consider nuclear energy partnerships, both conventional existing plants and future small modular reactors, none of which have been built yet in the U.S.

Eaton has broadened its development of microgrids in the recent past, including a 2024 project completed in Puerto Rico. Siemens also has participated in microgrid development worldwide.

Both Eaton and Siemens Energy have been participants in the annual Microgrid Knowledge Conference. The next Microgrid Knowledge will be May 4-6, 2026, in Orlando.

About the Author

Rod Walton, Microgrid Knowledge Managing Editor | Managing Editor

For Microgrid Knowledge editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

I’ve spent the last 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. I was an energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World before moving to business-to-business media at PennWell Publishing, which later became Clarion Events, where I covered the electric power industry. I joined Endeavor Business Media in November 2021 to help launch EnergyTech, one of the company’s newest media brands. I joined Microgrid Knowledge in July 2023.

I earned my Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. My career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World, all in Oklahoma . I have been married to Laura for the past 33-plus years and we have four children and one adorable granddaughter. We want the energy transition to make their lives better in the future.

Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech are focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.