A gas turbine maker and a grid equipment supplier now want to sell power to large users as one package. On 16 October in Zürich, Hitachi Energy and Ansaldo Energia signed a memorandum of understanding to develop and market integrated power solutions, with data centers named as one of the target markets. The MoU is not binding: it describes what the two companies intend to do, not a project or an order.
Who Brings What
Ansaldo Energia, based in Genoa and controlled by CDP Equity of Italy's Cassa Depositi e Prestiti group, contributes its gas turbines and generators; the company says its equipment runs in about 1,000 power plants in 100 countries. Hitachi Energy adds what sits between the generator terminals and the load: high-voltage equipment, transformers, automation, power electronics and grid integration. The stated aim is an offer that runs from generation through transmission to the point of consumption, for 50 Hz and 60 Hz markets, the United States included.
Hitachi Energy also plans to combine the offer with its HMAX Data Center product for the autonomous, integrated operation of a site, under what the group calls One Hitachi.
- Customers named in the release: energy hubs, data centers and other large electricity consumers.
- No turbine models, ratings, projects, prices or delivery dates were published, as CompressorTech² points out.
- The release expects world electricity demand to nearly double by 2050 and singles out the United States, where AI and data center growth needs large blocks of power quickly.
Why a Turbine Maker Wants the Switchgear Too
Hitachi Energy's chief executive Andreas Schierenbeck said demand is growing faster than at any time in decades while the infrastructure falls behind, and that the partnership should help customers bring capacity online sooner. Ansaldo's chief executive Fabrizio Fabbri spoke of closer cooperation along the energy value chain.
Behind both statements sits a complaint developers have been making for two years. The turbine is rarely the only long-lead item. Transformers and high-voltage gear have queues of their own, and a site that has its machines but not its substation still produces nothing.
Prime Plant on Site, Standby Still Needed
For anyone specifying backup power, a turbine plant at the fence changes the electrical picture without removing the standby question. If the campus runs on its own gas-fired plant, the standby generators may end up backing up that plant rather than the utility, and the owner has to decide which failures they cover: a turbine trip, an interruption of the gas supply, a fault in the new substation. Each answer leads to a different transfer scheme and a different test regime.
Gas sites also tend to end up with two fuels on the same land, pipeline gas for the prime plant and stored diesel or HVO for the standby units. That means two permits to manage and two fuel plans, including fuel quality for a tank that may sit untouched for months. Better settled while the single-line diagram is still a sketch.
Sources: Hitachi Energy / Ansaldo Energia (PR Newswire), CompressorTech², Il Sole 24 Ore