While many of Wartsila’s recent announcements have been centered on supplying reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE) to power smaller scale data center developments, the firm’s President of Energy Storage Tamara de Gruyter says the firm is seeking to leverage its energy storage systems and management platform to hybridize storage with its gas offerings.

Gruyter says the firm is fielding “growing interest” from data center companies looking to battery storage to support their installments and that the firm is focusing on leveraging its automated rapid energy management platform GEMS to push these firms toward integrating both technologies into their projects. Gruyter says this tech has historically been utilized on microgrids and other islanded systems, she says the lessons “translate directly to the needs of modern data center infrastructure.”

“Engines and batteries complement each other well with battery storage absorbing short-term fluctuations, smoothing rapid demand changes, and maintaining power quality when electrical loads shift quickly as engines provide steady power for long periods,” Gruyter said.

Gruyter says using Wartsila’s GEMS platform, the two technologies can be unified and optimized as a single system useful in managing the “different kinds of stress” AI infrastructure places on power systems “positioning Wartsila well” to offer combined RICE and storage controls.

Rather than developing hybrid projects in house, though, Gruyter says the firm is mostly working as a technology and system provider in partnership with third party developers, utilities and asset owners as they develop their own projects utilizing systems delivered by Wartsila. At the end of last year, Peregrine began construction on one such 250 MW storage project in Texas called Mallard Storage, and Gruyter says other Wartsila partners utilizing the technology include EDF, Zenobe, Origin and Flow Power.

Threatening Wartsila’s position, specifically regarding wider adoption of storage technology, are the US’s FEOC/PFE rules that both limit and constrain supply options. Gruyter says these rules go beyond influencing Wartsila’s position, “shaping the entire storage industry” as a whole. While Gruyter stops short of criticizing the ongoing rollout of the policy and clarification of definitions and rulemaking by the US Treasury department, she noted “uncertain policy signals slow investment decisions and thus progress” and that the US needs “planning and permitting processes that reflect the urgency” of the market.

However, Gruyter also said she accepted that “some degree of uncertainty is expected in a sector that is scaling as rapidly as energy storage with markets and technologies evolving at the same time.” In the meantime, she says Wartsila’s focus is on staying ahead of emerging requirements and ensuring compliance with its sourcing and manufacturing strategies.

At the same time, the firm is pursuing a number of deals outside the US, including in the UK, Australia and other European markets, that are less impacted by some of the same domestic headwinds but are still seeing similar demand for grid flexibility as data center demand strengthens. Gruyter points toward Australia specifically as an area where the firm is “working on several landmark projects.”

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers.

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