🌐 Modernization Is Electrification: How Schneider Electric Builds at Gigawatt Scale

I spent two days at Schneider Electric's Innovation Summit in Las Vegas, talking to the executives who build the infrastructure the global economy runs on.

Schneider Electric is a 189-year-old company that makes everything from the cooling systems in AI factories to the switchgear moving gigawatts across the grid. Corporate Knights named Schneider the world's most sustainable company in 2025—the only company to receive that honor twice.

What struck me wasn't just their sustainability credentials. It was how differently they think about the moment we’re in and what’s on the horizon.

Jim Simonelli, SVP and CTO of data centers, looks three years out to figure out what infrastructure AI factories will need before industries even know they need it. 

Vincent Petit runs Schneider's Sustainability Research Institute, modeling scenarios for 2050 to understand what happens when factories go fully autonomous and buildings stop wasting energy.

Most companies project current trends forward. Schneider imagines 25 years into the future and then works backwards to determine what needs to exist now.

Modernization Is Electrification

Vincent asked a question that stumped me: "Do you know anything modern that runs on anything besides electricity?"

New HVAC systems? Electric heat pumps. Autonomous vehicles? Battery-powered, all-electric. The stove today’s top chefs increasingly prefer? Electric induction range.  

I’ve seen it firsthand. At Plantd, the carbon-negative materials company I co-founded, we eliminated the smokestack because going all-electric not only cuts emissions but also unlocks cheap and fast factory buildouts and supply chain flexibility (I recently rejoined Plantd as the company’s fractional CMO — more on that soon).

"The reality is that the more the economy modernizes, the more it actually electrifies," Vincent said.

This isn't about signaling climate virtue—it's about achieving higher performance. 

AI data centers are suddenly everywhere in our cultural conversation. Yet, while their impact is massive, they’re not the entire electrification story. Vincent's research shows that they account for 40-50% of new electricity demand. The rest is industries automating, buildings getting smarter, and manufacturing eliminating combustion.

Which means we need more grid infrastructure—fast.

We Lost the Muscle to Build

Following the Great Recession, U.S. electricity demand was flat for 15 years. Utilities didn't expand. Supply chains atrophied. Institutional know-how disappeared.

Demand is now growing at 2-4% annually. That means 1,000 terawatt-hours of new capacity needed in the next decade—as much grid infrastructure as we built in the last 50 years.

"We did this before in the 1960s-80s," Vincent said. "It's not impossible. We just need to relearn how to do it."

But relearning the old playbook isn't enough because the scale has fundamentally changed.

Gigawatt Scale Changes Everything

On the AI data center front, Schneider is the world’s biggest infrastructure provider, with projects now reaching gigawatt-scale. Meaning, you can't send technicians to manually check 1,000 UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) units. You can't discover design flaws after construction. The margin for error has disappeared.

Every Watt Is Revenue

And now every watt that doesn't reach compute is lost revenue. You're paying for that electricity whether it powers a GPU or turns into waste heat.

"Our job is to make sure every electron that is generated finds its way into compute," said Jim.

This completely reframes energy efficiency. It's not just an environmental virtue—it's the actual business model. Which means carbon reduction and business performance are now the same thing.

But you can't optimize for efficiency by looking at components in isolation.

Grid to Chip, Chip to Chill

Jim calls it "grid to chip, chip to chill." You can't optimize the GPU without thinking about power delivery, cooling systems, and controls working together.

Power comes in from the grid, moves through switchgear and UPS systems, and reaches the chip. The chip generates heat. Cooling systems remove it. Most companies optimize each piece separately. Schneider optimizes the whole chain.

That's why Schneider works closely with Nvidia on reference designs for GB 200 and GB 300 deployments—modeling how power, cooling, and IT infrastructure work together before anything gets built. They joined Nvidia's USD (Universal Scene Description) Alliance to develop shared digital-twin standards, enabling different systems to work together seamlessly.

To optimize the whole system, you need to see it before you build it.

Build Digital Before Building Physical

"If you want to build fast, you want to first build digital, then operate physical," Jim said.

Schneider models entire facilities digitally before anything gets built. You build the virtual factory first. Test it. Optimize it. The system tells you when a battery needs service based on performance data, not a fixed schedule. Then you build the real one.

Once you've modeled it digitally, the physical build has to match that speed.

Prefab in Warehouses, Not Job Sites

AI factories get built as modules in warehouses, not assembled on-site. Schneider takes UPS systems, switchgear, and medium-voltage equipment and assembles them in 40-foot containers in a factory.

Pre-test everything. Ship it. Plug it in.

"You can't possibly build at gigawatt scale with electricians and plumbers coordinating on-site," Jim said. "You have to rethink your supply chain and delivery vehicle."

It’s the kind of modular, off-site, just-in-time production that still struggles to reach its potential in residential homebuilding. For massive AI data centers, however, the drivers are more acute: the labor to build on-site simply doesn't exist, and the demanding production timeline doesn't allow for slow on-site builds.

But even with perfect execution, no single company can do this alone.

Too Big for Proprietary

Beyond Nvidia, there's Schneider’s newly announced agreement with Switch—a $1.9 billion commitment for cooling technology—the largest such project in North America. Vincent's team works with NREL on 2050 scenarios and the Rocky Mountain Institute on modernization and investment economics.

"You're never an expert in everything," Jim said. "Insight comes from partners."

This transformation is too big for any one company to own. Infrastructure leaders compete on execution within shared standards, not proprietary advantage. Winners enable ecosystems, not own them.

All of this—the partnerships, the digital twins, the prefab modules, the systems thinking—requires betting on infrastructure that won't pay off for years.

Forecast Boldly

Vincent brought up the 1893 Chicago World's Fair—when electricity was brand new and anything seemed possible.

"Sometimes I wonder whether we're not living in a similar moment as the late 19th century," he said. "When I see the potential of modernization that we have now, I'm actually in awe."

He thinks their 2050 scenarios might be "too conservative" given how fast AI is accelerating scientific R&D.

Jim called it living through "one of these types of transformations you don't get too many times." His company gives him three years where he "can't get fired"—his job is to look out to the future and think about where Schneider needs to be.

It's the mindset that lets you imagine a future that doesn't exist yet, then build the infrastructure that future needs.

Supercool Takeaway

Schneider Electric recognizes that efficiency isn't an environmental objective at odds with profits; when infrastructure moves to gigawatt-scale, efficiency is the profit model.

Operator Takeaways

Build digital before physical. Model the entire system virtually, test scenarios, optimize operations, then deploy.

Think systems, not components. Map power, cooling, controls, and operations together. Optimizing pieces creates bottlenecks. 

Make efficiency the business model. When speed to revenue is everything, every watt counts. Carbon reduction stops being a cost center and becomes core business strategy.

This Week’s Podcast Episode

Modernization Is Electrification: How Schneider Electric Builds at Gigawatt Scale

🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all other platforms.

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Stat of the Week: 1.09

That’s Google’s industry-leading Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) score, measuring efficiency across its data centers. The general industry hovers around 1.58. The goal is to achieve a perfect PUE of 1.0, where all power goes to computing.

Quote of the Week:

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Related

Data Centers and The Race Toward Clean Energy

Economic and climate commitments are driving data center operators toward clean energy to achieve cheap, reliable power at scale.

Most operators are decarbonizing through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)—long-term contracts that guarantee renewable electricity from specific projects. According to BloombergNEF, the hyperscalers Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft collectively signed 43% of all corporate clean power purchase agreements (PPAs) in 2024. 

Here are data centers now operating on clean energy:

Switch Citadel Campus Powers 650 MW on Nevada Solar

The Switch Citadel Campus in Las Vegas operates as one of the world's largest renewable-powered data centers, delivering 650 MW of capacity across 7.2 million square feet. The entire facility runs on 100% renewable energy through robust solar partnerships—over 800 MW of dedicated solar projects in Utah alone support operations. 

Dubai's DEWA Data Center Runs Entirely on Solar Power

Digital DEWA's data center inside Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is the world's largest solar-powered data center, operating at 100+ MW capacity. The facility runs exclusively on solar power from the surrounding solar park, avoiding more than 10,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually. It supports regional digital transformation as part of Dubai's Net Zero by 2050 strategy.

Meta Now Buying 2.1 Gigawatts from Operating Nuclear Plants

Meta secured immediate access to clean baseload power through a 20-year agreement with Vistra, buying 2.1 gigawatts from two operational nuclear plants—Perry and Davis-Besse in Ohio. The deal also includes 433 megawatts from planned capacity upgrades at those facilities and Vistra's Beaver Valley plant in Pennsylvania, scheduled for the early 2030s. 

Sweden's EcoDataCenter 1 Operates on Local Hydro and Wind

EcoDataCenter 1 in Sweden is a high-density hyperscale facility with 90 MW of total available power, running entirely on renewable electricity—75% from local hydropower and 25% from nearby wind farms. The facility serves European cloud and enterprise customers anddemonstrates how Nordic countries leverage their existing renewable infrastructure to power data centers without adding grid stress. 

Apple's Viborg Data Center Runs on Certified Renewable Energy

Apple's data center complex in Viborg, Denmark, has run on 100% certified renewable energy since inception. It helps power Apple’s App Store, Apple Music, iMessage, Siri, and other services in Europe. Apple procures renewable power through long-term wind and solar contracts, supporting Denmark's renewable energy infrastructure.

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