ABB

Recent news

• Jun 1, 2026

  Powering Prosperity: How Santa Clara Turned Data Centers into Civic Infrastructure

  Santa Clara city leadership frames the city as deliberately reorganized to support dense data center growth and ties that growth directly to municipal services and infrastructure funding.

  • Main action: The City of Santa Clara (Mayor Lisa Gillmor and city officials) has restructured municipal policy and utility planning to prioritize and accommodate high‑demand data center facilities, offering municipal power via Silicon Valley Power, streamlined permitting, zoned industrial land, and explicit revenue-sharing mechanisms (e.g., utility transfer tax) to make the city hospitable to data center growth.
  • Background and specifics:Fiscal and infrastructure details include: the utility transfer tax for FY 2025-26 totals $37.3 million, of which data centers contributed $24.6 million (~60%), a 95% increase since FY 2017-18; data centers have contributed >$3.9 million to affordable housing since 2019 with $1.75 million additional pipeline commitments; Silicon Valley Power is investing approximately $425 million in grid infrastructure; the Climate Action Plan requires 100% carbon‑neutral energy for new data centers and recycled water is used at 31 existing data centers (6 more proposed).
• May 13, 2026

  AI Infrastructure’s Next Bottleneck May Be Public Acceptance

  Melissa Farney (Data Center Frontier) argues that AI data center expansion has become a first‑order political and permitting constraint, citing recent legislative and local actions including the “Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act” proposal and Maine’s LD 307 veto.

  • Main point: The article states that AI‑oriented data center growth is now a core political and permitting risk for operators, not just a siting or PR issue, citing industry forecasts such as JLL’s ~$710 billion North America capex projection to 2026 and project‑level impact estimates from Data Center Watch (approximately $18B blocked and $46B delayed, totalling $64B) and a New York Times compilation of $156B across 48 AI projects disrupted in 2025.
  • Key supporting facts & recent actions: Federal and state moves are already concrete: Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez unveiled the “Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act”; Maine’s LD 307 (would have paused data centers >20 MW through Nov 1, 2027) was vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills; local utilities like the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority (YCUA) imposed a 12‑month moratorium on new water/sewer hookups in April 2026. The article also highlights New Jersey bill S731/A796 (require 85% of requested service for 10 years for very large loads) as an example of state-level cost‑allocation tools.
• May 12, 2026

  ABB commits $200m to expand medium-voltage output in Europe

  ABB will invest approximately $200m over three years to expand medium-voltage manufacturing capacity in Europe and to acquire Italian transformer maker Specialtrasfo.

  • Main announcement: ABB will invest approximately $200m (SFr156.27m) over the next three years to expand its medium-voltage manufacturing in Europe, including a $100m new facility in Dalmine, Italy for air-insulated and SF₆-free switchgear and breakers, and $100m of capacity expansions across Rakovski (Bulgaria), Vaasa (Finland), Ratingen (Germany), Skien (Norway) and Przasnysz (Poland). The programme targets increased production capacity, next-generation power-distribution technologies, improved availability and shorter lead times for customers including utilities, industry and data centres.

  • Background & additional details: ABB also agreed to acquire Specialtrasfo (Italian specialised medium-voltage transformer maker); the acquisition is expected to close in Q3 2026 subject to regulatory approvals. Specialtrasfo reported ~€80m ($93.93m) revenue in 2025 and operates three manufacturing sites in northern Italy with about 130 employees. Recent related investments referenced include $15m in Kecskemét, Hungary (R&D and connector production) and $35m in Nottingham, UK (earthing and lightning protection), plus planned investments in India (~$75m in 2026 and >$35m scheduled for 2025).

• May 12, 2026

  ABB Backs European Grid Modernisation With $200 Million Investment

  ABB has announced a $200 million investment to expand medium-voltage manufacturing across Europe over the next three years.

  • Main action: ABB will deploy $200 million over the next three years to expand medium-voltage manufacturing and technology capabilities in Europe, including a $100 million new facility in Dalmine, Italy for air‑insulated and SF₆‑free switchgear, plus an additional $100 million for capacity expansions at factories in Bulgaria (Rakovski), Finland (Vaasa), Germany (Ratingen), Norway (Skien), and Poland (Przasnysz).
  • Background and other details: The programme builds on recent investments including ~$15 million in Kecskemét, Hungary for R&D and connector production and ~$35 million in Nottingham, UK to expand earthing and lightning protection manufacturing; projects target technologies such as GIS, vacuum interrupters, relays, and aim to shorten lead times and support utilities, industries and data centre customers.
• May 6, 2026

  A Roadmap for Breaking Through the Power Demand Bottleneck in Data Center Construction

  Wesco and ABB executives David Speidelsbach and Jorge Lis publish a commentary recommending a roadmap for reliable, scalable power delivery for hyperscale data centers.

  • Main action: The authors propose a forward-looking roadmap for data center power delivery that emphasizes behind-the-meter generation, modular and standardized designs (eHouses/PDCs), future-proofing infrastructure, and last-mile conversion, along with stronger planning and cross-stakeholder coordination to meet rapidly rising demand.
  • Background and details: The piece cites a U.S. Department of Energy projection that data center electricity use could rise from 1.9% (2018) to just under 7% by 2028, urges early engagement with partners/suppliers, and highlights technical approaches such as UPS + BESS integration and modular UPS architectures to enable flexible downstream distribution.
• May 5, 2026

  The POWER Interview: Electrification, Decarbonization, and Optimizing Infrastructure

  ABB (via Khalid Mandri) outlines electrification strategy and highlights U.S. production scaling and BABA certification.

  • Main announcement/action: ABB states it is the first NEMA member to achieve Build America, Buy America (BABA) certification for high- and medium-voltage distribution equipment and is scaling U.S.-based production (including an Albuquerque, New Mexico facility) to supply grid-hardening technologies and mitigate supply-chain risks; Mandri frames electrification as the cornerstone of decarbonization and cites the IEA estimate of 80 million kilometers of grid work by 2040.
  • Background and details: Mandri outlines a modernization-first approach emphasizing technologies such as digital substations, battery energy storage systems (BESS), microgrids, grid-forming technologies, digital twins, high-efficiency drives, and undergrounding to extend infrastructure life and integrate renewables; event mention — Experience POWER: Sept. 28-30, Washington, D.C.; agenda includes industry sessions on electrification and power infrastructure (registration link provided in article).
• May 1, 2026

  Fewer People, Older Assets, Higher Stakes: How the Power Sector Is Rethinking Preventive Maintenance

  POWER magazine reports industry experts at CERAWeek (S&P Global) outlined how power operators are rethinking preventive maintenance amid workforce decline, aging assets, and rapidly scaling AI data-center loads.

  • Main announcement/action:Industry experts at CERAWeek described concrete shifts toward standardization, AI-enabled advisory workflows (open-loop to closed-loop), and architecture separation to modernize preventive maintenance; key specifics include a need for ~20 new natural gas plants per year through 2030, ~40% of plant operators retiring by the end of the decade, and utility moves to pre-qualify contractors to reduce complexity.
  • Background and implementation details: Experts highlighted implementation timelines and metrics: nuclear corrective-action AI now handles intake/classification across the U.S. and Canadian fleets (each reactor generates 5,000–7,000 equipment issue tickets/year); outage planning involves ~15,000 discrete activities; ABB presented a six-level autonomy framework and estimated full autonomy ≥5 years away; Schneider Electric cited a case where its AI reduced process trips by 25% for a major national oil company.
• Apr 24, 2026

  Data Center World 2026: Innovation Spotlight

  Data Center Frontier reported on innovations showcased at Data Center World 2026, highlighting product launches and partnerships from XL Batteries, STL, Belden + OptiCool, and ABB.

  • Main announcement/action: XL Batteries introduced non-toxic, non-flammable organic flow batteries for long-duration energy storage (6 hours to more than 250 hours, 20+ year lifetime) as a data-center-focused solution; STL launched the Neuralis connectivity platform (pre-terminated, ultra-high-density fiber with ~7,000 strands and designs to support transitions from 400G to 800G+); Belden and OptiCool announced integrated rack-level systems with OptiCool RDHx supporting up to 120 kW per rack (with 60 kW demonstrated) and modular swap capability in ~5 minutes; ABB promoted HyperGuard, a medium-voltage static UPS configurable in 25 MW blocks and expandable to 50 MW via parallelization, citing a 400 MW Applied Digital facility as a deployment example.
  • Context and additional details: The coverage is a show-floor summary (not a single coordinated announcement) emphasizing practical execution, offsite pre-termination to reduce labor and deployment time, non-flammability and supply-chain advantages for organic flow batteries, modular cooling to serve the AI “middle market” (10–60 kW scalable racks), and a grid-to-chip approach (800VDC pathways, solid-state breakers) aimed at reducing stranded capex and enabling last-mile flexibility.
• Apr 14, 2026

  TIA Moves Beyond Telecom With New AI Data Center Standards

  TIA announced three coordinated actions on March 24 to align data center infrastructure standards with AI-era requirements.

  • Main announcement: TIA will publish an ANSI/TIA-942 addendum focused on high-density and liquid-cooled environments (publication targeted for mid-2027), continue expansion of its global 942 certification program, and develop DCE 9000, a quality management system standard for the data center physical infrastructure supply chain (first draft targeted for later in 2026), with participation from major hyperscalers and OT vendors.
  • Background and details: TIA’s existing 942 certification program has issued more than 1,000 certifications across over 800 data centers in 60+ countries; DCE 9000 is being developed with ~40–45 organizations including Google, AWS, Oracle, Rolls-Royce, ABB, Eaton, Schneider Electric, Caterpillar, and Cummins, and is intended to set process-oriented quality requirements (not technical specs) for suppliers.
• Apr 6, 2026

  AI is a Positive Catalyst for Grid Growth

  Melissa Farney argues that AI-driven data center growth is exposing pre-existing electric infrastructure weaknesses.

  • Main point: AI-driven data center expansion is often portrayed as a disruptive threat to grid stability and ratepayer affordability, but Farney contends it primarily highlights systemic weaknesses resulting from more than a decade of underinvestment in transmission, substations, and interconnection capacity.
  • Author background & context: This is an opinion/analysis piece by Melissa Farney (Editor at Large, Data Center Frontier; Marketing Director, TECfusions) who has 20 years of industry experience and will contribute monthly articles to DCF. No new project announcements, funding amounts, or timelines are provided in the article.
• Mar 19, 2026

  Project Stalled: Grid Bottlenecks Threaten the Fifth Industrial Revolution

  Data Center Frontier (Melissa Reali) warns that the primary constraint for contemporary AI data center deployment is deliverable power and multi‑year interconnection bottlenecks.

  • Main finding:multi‑year interconnection queues, transformer lead times (80–120+ weeks), and permitting/transmission delays are stalling AI campus deployments; concrete examples include PJM wait times beyond eight years, ERCOT large‑load queue ~226 GW (≈77% tied to large data centers), and NYISO 48 large‑load requests totaling ~12 GW. The article cites a $14.2M USD reported cost for a one‑month delay on a 60 MW facility and notes the Amazon–Talen Energy long‑term arrangement for up to 1,920 MW from Susquehanna nuclear as an example of a bring‑your‑own‑power approach.
  • Background and policy context: Federal rulemakings—FERC Order 2023 (generator interconnection reform) and RM26‑4 (large‑load interconnection standards)—are underway but will take years to implement; the Department of the Interior’s late‑2025 stop‑work orders paused multiple offshore wind projects (putting billions of dollars temporarily in limbo), and domestic transformer manufacturing still supplies only a fraction of demand (lead times and an ~80% import reliance for transformers were reported).
• Mar 13, 2026

  The Gigawatt Bottleneck: Power Constraints Define AI Data Center Growth

  Bloom Energy has released the 2026 Data Center Power Report finding electricity availability has become a defining boundary on data center expansion.

  • Main announcement: The Bloom Energy 2026 Data Center Power Report concludes electricity availability is now a primary constraint for data center growth; it projects U.S. IT load could rise from ~80 GW (2025) to ~150 GW (2028), and highlights major grid forecast revisions such as ERCOT increasing its 2030 data center demand projection from 29 GW to 77 GW and a possible statewide peak of 218 GW by 2031. The report also states roughly one-third of U.S. data centers may rely entirely on onsite power by 2030 and that ~20% of campuses could exceed 1 GW by 2030, rising to nearly 1 in 3 by 2035.
  • Background and details: The analysis is based on surveys of hyperscalers, colocation providers, utilities, and equipment suppliers through 2025 and documents operational shifts: Texas may exceed 40 GW by 2028 (nearly 30% national share); Georgia market share projected +75% while several legacy markets could lose >50% relative share; utilities and developers show a 1–2 year expectation gap on “time to power”; >70% of developers are evaluating onsite power providers; by 2028, 60% expect higher-voltage busways and 45% expect DC architectures.
• Mar 9, 2026

  Babcock & Wilcox Will Deliver 1.2 GW of Gas-Fired Capacity for Applied Digital Data Centers

  Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) has received notice to proceed on a $2.4-billion design-build agreement with Base Electron to supply 1.2 GW of natural gas-fired capacity supporting Applied Digital’s AI data center campuses.

  • Main announcement: B&W will engineer, procure, and build four 300-MW natural gas-fired boiler and steam turbine generator systems (total 1.2 GW) supplied by Siemens Energy under a $2.4-billion design-build agreement with Base Electron to supply power for Applied Digital’s AI factory campuses; work already is underway.
  • Background and details: Applied Digital’s Delta Forge 1 (southern U.S.) is designed for initial 430 MW utility power (up to 300 MW critical IT load), with operations expected mid-2027; Applied Digital also has the Polaris program (a $3-billion, 700-MW complex expected online later this year) and is evaluating an option with Base Electron for an additional 1.2 GW of generation capacity.
• Jan 30, 2026

  The Benefits of Amazon Investments       

  Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a major data center investment and related developments in Mississippi.

  • Main announcement: AWS announced a $10 billion Madison County project (Jan 2025) covering 1,700 acres across two sites, with 1,000 direct high-tech jobs averaging $80,000 annually, and 6,000–7,000 construction workers needed through 2027; AWS also announced a $3 billion investment in Warren County. The first building is coming online soon, with full construction completion targeted for 2027.
  • Background and additional details: Local firms have scaled rapidly (e.g., Mighty Fresh expanding from one truck to 14 trucks and adding two more within 90 days at $150,000–$200,000 per vehicle); ABB is investing $40 million to double its Senatobia facility and add 122 jobs; direct AWS suppliers must meet $5 million–$10 million insurance minimums and other requirements; primes listed include Yates Construction, Gray Construction, Haskell, Cupertino Electric, MMR Group, Faith Technologies Inc., and Edwards Electrics.