Wärtsilä has secured an order to supply a 282 MW onsite power plant for a data centre project in the US, with equipment deliveries scheduled for 2028 and full operation expected in 2029.
The project, being developed by a US independent power producer, will use 15 Wärtsilä 50SG gas engines. The order was booked in the third quarter of 2026.
The plant is intended to provide dedicated generation for the data centre as developers face constraints on grid capacity and lengthy connection times. Rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence and other high-performance computing applications is adding to pressure on available grid connections in several US markets.
The engine-based plant will also allow the data centre to increase its power supply in phases as computing requirements develop, according to Wärtsilä.
The 50SG engines use closed-loop cooling, which the company says can reduce water consumption compared with conventional thermal generation. The engines can also be converted to operate on future fuels, providing flexibility as fuel technologies and emissions requirements develop.
“The U.S. data center market is moving faster than traditional power infrastructure can support,” said Risto Paldanius, vice-president, Americas at Wärtsilä Energy. “This order shows how flexible onsite power can help developers secure reliable power, reduce deployment risk, and scale their operations.”
The order is Wärtsilä’s seventh for a US data centre application, taking the company’s total contracted capacity for such projects in the country above 3 GW.
Onsite generation is increasingly being considered for large data centre developments where transmission and distribution infrastructure cannot provide the required capacity within the construction timetable. Engine-based plants can be installed alongside grid connections, potentially allowing facilities to begin operations before additional network capacity becomes available.
The 282 MW project adds to the growing role of flexible thermal generation in meeting near-term electricity demand from US data centres while longer-term grid infrastructure is developed.
