Securing enough power is becoming a development problem rather than an engineering one
AVK is responding by changing the commercial model around data-centre power. In September, the company launched AVK Capital, a dedicated funding arm that will finance and own on-site power infrastructure, allowing data centre customers to secure electricity through long-term Power Purchase Agreements rather than funding the infrastructure themselves. The move follows Partners Group’s August agreement to acquire a majority stake in AVK and invest more than $1 billion of equity to support the company’s expansion. Partners Group said AVK has more than 2GW of behind-the-meter power opportunities in its European pipeline.
Power is becoming a speed-to-market issue
The significance for AI infrastructure operators is straightforward: a data centre cannot deploy compute until it has power. Partners Group cited grid congestion and connection delays across Europe as a major constraint, saying connections in the FLAP-D markets can take between seven and 15 years. AVK’s strategy is to use on-site generation and microgrids to provide an alternative route to capacity.
AVK Capital takes that concept further; Instead of simply designing and building a behind-the-meter system, AVK can fund and own the infrastructure while the customer purchases the resulting energy under a long-term agreement. Projects can incorporate microgrids, PowerPods, fuel cells, renewable integration and standby generation, depending on site requirements. This potentially changes how operators think about power procurement.
Modular power for an AI buildout
AVK is also pushing modularity through its PowerPod platform. The company introduced PowerPods in April as prefabricated units integrating critical electrical infrastructure, with options including UPS systems, batteries, transfer switches, controls, cooling, fire systems, BMS and SCADA. Their new Haydock facility can assemble up to 25 PowerPods at a time and has annual capacity of up to 100 units, according to the company. AVK says this factory-based approach is intended to improve testing, quality control and deployment speed for data centre projects. For AI operators, the attraction is not simply modular equipment: It is the ability to add power infrastructure in stages rather than build an entire site around its eventual maximum load,
From power equipment to infrastructure partner
These recent announcements point towards a broader change in the data centre power market; by combining generation, modular electrical infrastructure, microgrids, financing and long-term operations into a single proposition, it’s stated objective is to give developers a route around both grid constraints and upfront capital requirements. For AI data centre executives, this makes AVK worth watching for a reason beyond it’s generator and power-equipment business.
Competition is increasingly about who can get a site powered, how quickly it can scale, and who carries the capital and operational responsibility for that infrastructure. As AI accelerates data centre construction across Europe, power may increasingly be procured not just as infrastructure – but as a service.
