July 24, 2025 – Even though our world cannot exist without them, I confess to feeling a little sorry for data centre operators after reading Eaton’s white paper “2025 Data Centre Progress Report”.
Authored by Rich Karpinski, principal analyst and channel lead for the 451 Research service of S&P Global Market Intelligence, the white paper lists numerous concerns that these enablers of the “Intelligence Age” face daily.
The Eaton white paper is based on a commissioned web survey conducted in March and April 2024. Respondents from a dozen or so countries were qualified based on knowledge of their organization’s adoption of digital transformation strategies. The sample size for the commercial data centre owners and operators in this study was 345.
The progress report includes data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and its 451 Research service, as well as Eaton’s Brightlayer Report 2024, “The evolution of digital transformation: adoption, execution and expansion in the wake of AI”, with data collection and analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence 451 Research.
In short, you could say that Karpinski’s analysis presents a pretty fair representation of what’s going on with data centres, and the challenges faced by their operators.
DC operators are asked to deploy new computing infrastructure in spaces ranging from the largest facilities to small “edge” locations. Whatever the site, they have to optimize that space while simultaneously addressing significant energy, power, and cooling requirements. Oh, and operators have to do all this against the backdrop of chasing ever-loftier sustainability goals, which often include the incorporation of renewable energy sources.
(I won’t even get into cybersecurity.)
In the white paper, Karpinski explores five trends that will transform data centres. For our purposes, we will focus on the areas where engineers and contractors can use their electrical intelligence to come to a DC operator’s rescue.
Capacity, power, and sustainability
“The need to serve compute-heavy AI workloads has become job one for both commercial and enterprise data centres,” Karpinski writes, noting that AI workloads—particularly generative AI, or GenAI—present extremely high computational and storage requirements.
How high? According to the paper, the coming wave of accelerated computing is forecast to increase annual electricity demand from data centres to more than 280 TWh in 2024 in the U.S. alone! By 2028, this is expected to nearly double to 530 TWh.
Within the data centre itself, rack densities above 10 kW are prevalent and will continue to rise, with the largest proportion of respondents (35%) employing rack densities of 21-50 kW. The proportion of respondents with rack densities of more than 100 kW is projected to increase from 9% currently to 15% in five years.
Although data centres are among the world’s largest energy consumers, Karpinski notes this sector also has some of the most aggressive sustainability goals, with large DC operators like Google and Microsoft promising 100% use of renewable energy within the decade.
But then there’s that growing AI demand, which is not helping matters at all, as it creates additional power demands for operators. While compute capacity is driving decision-making in the moment, “medium- and long-term sustainability goals, such as reducing carbon footprint, increasing the use of renewables, and managing climate change risk, are a priority today and will likely remain so across the coming decades”.
And it’s no easy task striking a balance between the capacity needs of today against long-term sustainability. According to Karpinski, it’s a tough challenge for even advanced DC operators.
“For instance, Google reported a 13% rise in carbon emissions in 2023, primarily attributed to increased data centre energy consumption, despite significant investments in clean energy,” he notes.
To address sustainability challenges, DCs are focusing on renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, as well as improved energy storage to help mitigate renewables’ intermittency.
Meanwhile, operators are also relying on transmission and distribution upgrades to the grid. For example, major US investor-owned utilities have announced plans to spend nearly $400 billion on upgrades over the next five years to address data centre capacity demand and improve overall grid resiliency and efficiency.
DC power and energy priorities
Respondents noted the following as their energy/power-focused operational priorities:
41% – Increase the use of renewable energy sources
37% – Improve energy storage capabilities
30% – Lower overall energy/power costs
28% – Achieve power usage effectiveness (PUE) targets
28% – Turn energy/power management storage from cost to revenue centre
22% – Operate an overall carbon-neutral facility
22% – Leverage energy credits/carbon offsets
17% – Sell power back to the grid
16% – Deploy microgrids
At the heart of these priorities are electrical engineers and contractors, who can play a vital role in designing and implementing the power infrastructure that helps DC operators meet their capacity and sustainability goals.
The data centre sector is expanding rapidly, and the need for skilled electrical professionals right alongside it. Those who can navigate power distribution challenges, integrate cutting-edge energy storage solutions, and implement sustainable practices will be invaluable partners.
From backup power systems to energy efficiency solutions and microgrid deployment, electrical expertise is critical. As operators move toward renewables, battery storage, and more intelligent power management, those with experience in these areas will find themselves in high demand.
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