 Welcome to JSA TV and JSA Podcast, the newsroom for telecom and data center professionals. I'm Keeley Dorian, Media Relations Manager here at JSA and joining me today is Ben Crawford from Coler. Ben, welcome to JSA TV. Hi, Keeley. Thank you very much for having me. We're so happy to chat with you today. We're here to talk about data center power. It's specifically a very hot topic in the industry right now with distributed energy resources or DER. But before we get into that, can you just give us a real quick background about you and what you do for Coler? Sure. My background is engineering, and I was in several roles with Coler and doing engineering work, but I'm currently focused on business development, which is focused on emerging technologies within our business that complements our existing portfolio of products. Very good. Well, let's get right into it now and start with some of the basics on distributed energy resources or DERs, or for people who don't know at the simplest level for a beginner, how would you describe it? Yeah. So I think of distributed energy resources as small modular energy generation and storage technologies. So you might think of these as batteries or solar plants, wind farms, perhaps, and even backup generators. So when you look at all those options, there's a couple of different types, and you can think of them as dispatchable or non-dispatchable. So you think you can't really control when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. So those are kind of your non-dispatchable loads, but those others that are dispatchable are those that you can choose to turn on and off as you would like. So diesel generators are, in fact, a dispatchable load as well as battery storage. Fuel cells can also be as well. And of course, we should mention that Coler, for those who don't know, is a very excellent provider of backup generators for data centers. So something you know very well and do very well. For sure. So for you personally, you've got a background in engineering and from that perspective, what are some of the essential issues around the ERs that people are really talking about right now? Yeah, well, resiliency is top of mind, especially storms, natural disasters, that can occur and the grid can shut down. So facilities, data centers that have critical applications, they're extremely focused on making sure that they have a reliable connection to electricity. So when you think about distributed energy resources, what comes top of mind is really having various different pieces of distributed energy resources. So I mentioned those different types all together into one regional location, which is also known as like a microgrid if you wanna call it that. So essentially that microgrid and these assets can function connected to the grid, but in the event that there's an outage, they can disconnect and then you can operate a facility as if you didn't have a connection to the grid in the first place and maintain all of those same performances that you'd expect if you were connected to the grid. So that's kind of what the big talk is right now. When it comes to data centers though, I think really a key focus when it comes to distributed energy resources is really understanding what could this look like for my facility and really understanding what my load profile looks like and getting high quality data to understand where my energy demands and is there a possibility to optimize with distributed energy resources? Absolutely, just knowing those specifics of your facility is so important and let's talk just a little bit more since you brought it up about data centers in cloud in particular. What are some maybe specific use cases if you can think of any for data centers right now? Yeah, so I think for data centers in particular, reliability has always existed and that's going to continue to exist for their operations, but now there's big talk about decarbonization of their facility. So microgrids can be that avenue to do so, not only looking at what those emissions look like from grid connected power, but if we have these assets on site like a backup diesel generator, is there a way to decarbonize? And Kolar has our own solutions that we'll probably talk about in a bit, but there's been some use cases in the industry where data centers have implemented distributed energy resources such as battery systems. I think Google is testing that in Europe, for example, as well as some renewable natural gas type turbine systems that have been implemented by Microsoft, I believe in Texas. So there are some use cases where data centers are typically looking at exploring these, but in probably a smaller scale than some other industries that are adopting distributed energy resources. And I think a lot of that comes down to that balance between dispatchable and non-dispatchable assets and understanding how that fits together with a very consistent load profile. Data centers don't see a lot of modulation in their load profile. So it's really understanding what kind of distributed energy resources are best used and then how can those optimize our energy requirements for our facility. Absolutely, and Kolar with the backup generator, you've been one of the original players in the DER game. Of course, so how do you see yourself continuing in this trend and expanding in it? Yeah, absolutely. So I touched on decarbonization and it's been a focus of our operation plan for our products is how do we better optimize our products themselves to then have our customers be optimized in their operations. So it's really advancing our engine technology, advancing our efficiency within the system. And then we've adopted some technologies to allow for the use of hydro-treated vegetable oil. So like altogether, this comes down to helping our customers be more sustainable in their operations, but still remain that same level of on-demand resiliency that you'd expect out of a backup generator. And I think when we think of generators in the distributed energy space, they typically have just been assets that sit idle for a lot of time, they exercise monthly and then they start up in the event that an issue can occur. But really it's about transitioning that from being an insurance policy to being more actively used. So that's where you start having a conversation around tier four generators. So they can run more often maybe on like a demand program, demand response program or shaving peaks on your load profile. And those can be used because of the after-treatment system. And Kohler has one of the simplest after-treatment systems for our tier four generators in those applications. And then taking it a step further, we've acquired a company called Halo Technologies. And what that really does for us is bring in a controls aspect. So when we think about distributed energy resources and this microgrid concept, this system is able to apply controls at each asset. So typically and historically we've heard of centralized controllers controlling all these assets, but Kohler's system is able to control each asset and they're able to bid against each other, effectively removing that single point of failure that a centralized controller could provide adding to that sense of resiliency for that total system. And what's nice about that is I talked about understanding data and where that comes from and having high quality understanding of it. Oftentimes when microgrid developers are modeling these systems for a data center customer, if you will, there's a difference between what actually happens in the field and what was modeled a few years prior and understanding what that looks like in Kohler's system. And then this controls with Halo Technologies, they're able to use the same algorithms that's in those controls for the modeling of that. So what you see in the model is what you're gonna get at the end. I think that's a huge point when it comes to payback of these systems for a data center customer. Absolutely. And you're hitting on just some very important things that are top of mind for any data center operator right now with resiliency and sustainability. Those are just two things that are extremely important right now. Yes. Yeah, this has been so insightful. Before we let you go, is there anything else that you think is really important for somebody just getting into this and learning about the ERs to know and understand? Yeah, I think, you know, I mentioned this many times, I think it's really understanding what are your goals as a customer and finding that right partner to meet those goals. And I think throughout the portfolio of businesses within Kohler Energy, we have a place to play in that conversation and we're happy to help with any data center needs in this space. Excellent. Well, Ben, it was great talking with you and before we let you go again, where can viewers and listeners go for more information if they're interested in learning more? Yeah, thank you, Keeley. Viewers can go to kohlerpower.com. You can check out all the great products and services we have to offer. Thanks. Thanks again, Ben, so much. And thank you to all of our viewers for joining us here on JSA TV. And as always, happy networking.