Generac's new line of generators targets growing data center demand
April 8 (Reuters) - Power equipment maker Generac Holdings (GNRC.N), opens new tab said on Tuesday that it was launching new generators with its biggest capacity offering till date in North America, designed for data centers as the company sees rising demand from the segment.
The expected build-out of the centers has raised concerns around how well an aging U.S. electrical grid can hold up to that demand, with electricity consumption likely to hit record highs.
Additionally, older generators that run on fossil fuels are being retired and new generation and power lines are often stuck in large queues to be connected to the gird, which tightens the supply-demand balance.
Generac's new generators for the North American market, which range from 2.25 megawatts (MW) to 3.25 MW, are a step up from its current maximum capacity of 2 MW, said Ricardo Navarro, senior vice president and general manager of the company's global telecom and data center infrastructure section.
The company, which currently serves smaller data center demand, has already received commitments for the new generators for this year and the next, Navarro said in an interview with Reuters.
In Generac's fourth quarter earnings for 2024, the company reported a better-than-expected profit due to higher power outages and severe weather impacts from hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Big storms typically create a burst of new business for the Waukesha, Wisconsin-based company, whose generators are designed to be permanently fixed and switched on automatically whenever there's a power outage.
Due to the overall high demand for backup power options, most companies are constrained in that they are not able to supply as much as is needed and as quickly, Navarro highlighted.
"With more than half of our factories being in the U.S., we have shorter lead times," he said, adding that the company's flexible supply chain would be able to navigate through the challenges the new tariffs pose.
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