It's all about demand: Distributech 2025

Distributech 2025 was a powerful reminder of the changes sweeping the utility and energy industry.

“Every time a data center comes online, the question is: how are we going to get them power?” This is how a visitor from the onsite power industry put it bluntly at Distributech 2025. And this person was on point: Exponential load growth and data centers expansions have the infrastructure struggling to keep pace. And with AI accelerating and data centers multiplying, we do need to find an answer to this question, quickly.

That tension between surging demand and an aging grid that wasn’t designed to handle it set the tone for much of the week of this year’s Distributech in Dallas.

Across the show floor, thousands of professionals were grappling with the same underlying issue: how to keep power reliable across a grid that’s becoming more complex and distributed - without blowing budgets or exhausting operations teams. 

To solve this equation, at our booth, the same concerns kept surfacing - cost, reliability, maintenance, and space - whether we spoke with people working in utilities, data centers, or other critical infrastructure. But what all the talks basically circled around was the same idea: practicality. 

Size, density and the battery bottleneck

Battery technology came up frequently, not just in terms of performance, but of practicality. Alexis Dennis, VP of Energy Storage Solutions at Concentric, summed it up: “The problem to solve is size, footprint and end-of-life solutions.”

In her view, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) is the best chemistry on the table - but sourcing is a problem. Most of it is produced in China, and with tariffs and trade restrictions tightening, the U.S. needs alternatives. "Whoever can solve this challenge the quickest will win,” she said.

Smaller footprints and higher energy density are space and cost problems in disguise. And they’re becoming more acute as operators try to fit more capacity into limited physical footprint, especially at edge or backup sites.

At the SENS booth, conversations were grounded in these real-world concerns. The visitors who stopped by were trying to figure out how to make their next project less painful, or how to make an existing setup more reliable without a complete overhaul.

"This year, the conversations struck a balance between future-forward concepts and addressing the immediate challenges holding projects back. Teams highlighted the need for power systems that are simpler to deploy, easier to maintain, and built to last, while also exploring innovative solutions to shape the grid of tomorrow."

- Mark Magoon, DC Power Systems Director

Whether the topic was backup power, battery monitoring, or genset reliability, the patterns were consistent:

• Uptime matters more than features. Downtime is a financial and operational risk no one wants to take.
• Maintenance needs to scale with fewer people. Many teams today manage more assets with less labor than they used to.
• Installation should be fast and repeatable. Custom builds and field wiring errors slow everything down.
• Footprint is a real cost factor. Especially in data centers, equipment that takes up half the space gets twice the attention.

Pre-assembled power

This is where systems like PowerCab®2 resonated. Instead of piecing together chargers, batteries, distribution panels, and controls, PowerCab2 is delivered as a single, factory-assembled unit. That alone caught the attention of several engineers who had just spent weeks wrestling with compatibility issues in the field.

In addition to lead-acid, the system also supports alternatives like sodium and nickel-zinc batteries - which sparked interest among attendees thinking beyond traditional chemistries. The ability to reduce maintenance, extend lifespan, and free up space made this feel less like a power cabinet and more like a piece of infrastructure you don’t have to think about.

Rethinking genset starting reliability

For other attendees, the question was simpler: how do we make sure the generator starts?

The SuperTorque® 8Z system, designed around maintenance-free nickel-zinc batteries, struck a chord with operators who’ve had backup power systems fail due to dead starting batteries - especially in environments where frequent testing isn’t always realistic. With automated cranking tests and a 10+ year battery life, it replaces the usual cycle of replace-and-hope with something more predictable.

Monitoring and smarter charging

Battery monitoring came up often, especially from operators managing multiple locations. Tools like the SC4 monitoring system helped move the conversation from reactive to proactive - shifting from “check every site every month” to “only go when the data says something’s wrong.”

Similarly, the EnerGenius switchmode chargers stood out for their durability in harsh conditions and ability to extend battery life through smarter charge management - details that matter when you’re trying to extend maintenance cycles without compromising reliability.

We returned from Dallas with the sense that the power industry is ready for practical solutions to meet the rising demand for data center power - solutions that trade complexity and fragmentation for reliability and simplicity. That’s exactly what we are about.