Caterpillar, Vertiv to Develop Energy Optimization Solutions for AI Data Centers

Vertiv and Caterpillar signed a strategic collaboration to provide advanced energy-optimization solutions for data centers. Per the agreement, Vertiv will integrate its power distribution and cooling technologies with Caterpillar’s and Solar Turbines’ power generation and combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) products. The combination will deliver pre-designed architectures to simplify deployment, accelerate time-to-power, and optimize performance for data center operations.

Specifically, Caterpillar and Solar Turbines will supply natural gas-fired turbines and reciprocating engines to generate reliable, scalable electric power and thermal energy for CCHP applications. Vertiv will provide power and cooling solutions packaged as modular, pre-designed blocks to shorten design cycles and standardize deployment. These energy-optimization solutions offer multiple benefits, such as:

• Quicker Time-to-Power: Using pre-designed, modular reference architectures significantly speeds up deployment time.
• Lower Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE): Minimized PUE improves energy efficiency and lowers carbon footprint due to end-to-end system optimization, including power, cooling, distribution, and dynamic load management.
• Global Lifecycle Support: The architecture is backed by the global service and support networks of Vertiv, Caterpillar, and Solar Turbines.

“This collaboration with Caterpillar and Solar Turbines is a cornerstone of our Bring Your Own Power & Cooling strategy and aligns with our grid-to-chip framework by offering resilient, on-site power generation solutions,” said Gio Albertazzi, CEO of Vertiv. “This is optimal for customers looking to reduce or eliminate grid dependence. By combining our complementary technologies, portfolios, and expertise, we are enabling coordinated integration. Our pre-engineered, interoperability-tested building blocks let customers execute design, build, and deploy concurrently with predictable system performance.”

The partnership addresses the rapidly increasing demand for onsite energy solutions that deliver stable power and cooling and, together, the companies can offer a fully integrated design with validated interfaces and performance. This all-inclusive solution allows customers to accelerate design, installation, and deployment. The memorandum of understanding also represents a step toward refining the data center ecosystem, helping users overcome energy constraints to deploy optimized facilities.

“As AI-driven workloads continue to accelerate, the demand for robust and scalable power infrastructure and cooling is becoming increasingly critical,” said Jason Kaiser, Group President of Caterpillar Power & Energy. “Our collaboration with Vertiv will enable us to deliver integrated, on-site energy solutions that lower PUE and meet customers’ evolving needs.”

Hydrogen Fuel Cells

In January 2024, Caterpillar successfully collaborated with Microsoft and Ballard Power Systems to demonstrate the feasibility of deploying large-format hydrogen fuel cells to supply sustainable backup power for data centers. The technology demonstration provided insight on the capabilities of fuel cell systems to power multi-MW data centers, guaranteeing power supply to meet 99.99% uptime requirements.

It was conducted in a challenging environment and validated the hydrogen fuel cell power system’s performance at a height of 6,086 ft. above sea level in below-freezing conditions. The demonstration simulated a 48-hour backup power event at a Microsoft data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in which a hydrogen fuel cell was integrated into the data center electrical plant to support critical load.

Caterpillar provided a microgrid controller to operate two power grid stabilization 1260 battery energy storage systems and the 1.5 MW hydrogen fuel cell. Caterpillar led the project through providing the overall system integration, power electronics, and microgrid controls that form the primary structure of the hydrogen power solution.