Dive Brief:
- Caddis Cloud Solutions and Mission Critical Group will partner to deliver integrated power systems for data centers across North America, the companies announced last month.
- Through the partnership, data center-focused advisory firm Caddis and power system manufacturer MCG will provide customized power solutions to address data centers’ complex power challenges while optimizing supply chain management and reducing waste, the companies said.
- Partnering with Caddis will help MCG expand its footprint in the data center sector, providing clients with integrated power solutions that optimize designs, shorten lead times, and improve energy efficiency in data center operations, MCG CEO Jeff Drees said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Caddis Cloud Solutions specializes in data center development, cloud capacity sourcing and end-user deployment. Its data center services include site and land brokerage, alternative energy planning and sourcing, design and engineering, and operational support for data center clients, according to its website.
Mission Critical Group operates several subsidiary companies, including Mission Critical Facilities International, Johnson Thermal Systems and Point Eight Power, it said in a Dec. 3 news release.
JTS and Point Eight Power design and build power system equipment and components, including generator controls and enclosures, switchgears and power control building packages, according to their websites. Mission Critical Facilities International designs, builds and deploys a range of solutions for the data center industry, including modular data centers and microgrids that run on solar power with fuel cell and battery backup systems.
Power availability, resiliency and efficiency are top concerns for data center operators and tenants amid constrained power supply, dwindling vacancies and rapidly rising reservation pricing in top-tier data center markets, CBRE said in June. The International Energy Agency estimates data centers will grow to nearly 260 TWh to represent about 6% of total U.S. electricity consumption by 2026, up from 4%, or 200 TWh, in 2022.
Against a backdrop of rising electricity demand, data center industry stakeholders are looking for ways to improve operational efficiency while remaining on track to meet their decarbonization goals, Deloitte said in November.
Two other recent announcements from Caddis Cloud Solutions track that trend. In August, the company announced that it is partnering with Ultrascale Digital Infrastructure to implement immersion cooling technology that Ultrascale claims can eliminate water use in data center cooling and reduce facilities’ energy consumption by as much as 70%.
In September, Caddis announced a strategic partnership with IP3, a nuclear power integrator, to “ensure [small modular nuclear reactors] and other nuclear solutions are ready to meet the needs of data center operators,” Data Center Dynamics reported at the time.
Other data center industry stakeholders are pursuing novel solutions to mitigate their facilities’ environmental impact.
In June, developer Compass Datacenters announced plans to build five large, low-impact data centers over the next several years on Sears’ former headquarters campus in suburban Chicago. The facilities will incorporate recovered materials from old Sears buildings, use lower-carbon concrete, feature Vertiv’s standardized water-free cooling systems and deploy backup power generators that run on hydrogenated vegetable oil, a Compass spokesperson told Facilities Dive at the time.
But energy system experts warn that, while carbon-free power resources like small modular reactors are still years away from commercial deployment, fossil gas-fired generators will be needed in the short term to ensure reliability during prolonged periods of low renewable energy availability. Eventually, those generators could serve as backup power for the public electric grid, Midcontinent System Operator President and COO Clair Moeller said last month.
