Can Energy Control and Data Centre Demand Coexist in 2026?

The conversations around burgeoning demand for and investment in data centres cannot be separated from the associated questions regarding energy provision. 

Beyond the notion of whether data centre operators have enough electricity, now the concepts of deployment speed, market volatility and control are rising to the fore.

Stuart Thompson, President of ABB's Electrification Service, offers his perspective on the shifting energy landscape in 2026 and how industries must adapt to it.

A rising priority on the C-suite agenda

“Walk into any boardroom discussion about industrial power in 2026 and you'll hear different questions than a year ago,” says Stuart.

“The past year highlighted the challenges facing energy systems globally. We saw grid operators issue warnings about capacity constraints, significant renewable curtailments in Europe and critical infrastructure experiencing outages that affected millions.

“Meanwhile, AI and data centres have introduced power requirements that continue to grow exponentially. Against this backdrop, Europe is revisiting baseload generation strategies – including nuclear – as they balance renewable integration with grid reliability.”

Stuart notes that the companies moving fastest are not waiting for grid solutions.

“They’re deploying storage systems, building control capabilities and turning energy management into a competitive advantage,” he explains, “while their competitors treat it as an unavoidable cost.”

Moving from experimentation to competitive advantage 

According to Stuart, energy storage is a key operational consideration that has gone beyond the sustainability pilot phase into capital allocation agendas as a “core infrastructure investment”.

“The shift is most visible in the UK, Ireland, Japan and Australia – markets where volatile energy costs and capacity constraints have turned power management into a P&L issue,” he explains.

“What's changed is the risk profile. Energy Storage as a Service eliminates the traditional question of whether the investment will pay off over time because the value accrues from day one. 

Stuart says that this model sidesteps the usual obstacles like technology becoming outdated, financial risk and disposal costs by eliminating the need for large upfront investments.

He also flags a “notable shift in ownership”. 

“Finance teams are driving these decisions because energy costs are now material to competitiveness, Stuart explains.

“Where pricing fluctuates, the calculation is brutal: manage your energy costs or let the market control them for you. Sitting on the side lines is no longer neutrality; it’s actively ceding ground to early movers.

“This dynamic is playing out across industrial infrastructure. AI workloads have pushed power requirements in some facilities to levels that seemed implausible just five years ago. Infrastructure designed for 30-year lifecycles now requires major upgrades every decade, and sometimes sooner. The old playbook is finished.

“Install-and-maintain has given way to continuous modernisation. For data centres where downtime costs millions an hour, phased upgrades that incorporate new technology without shutting down operations are now the norm. But this pressure extends beyond data centres.

“Any business where technology demands outpace infrastructure planning (which these days, means most of them), faces the same choice: adapt continuously or watch competitors pull ahead.”

How field service must evolve

With electrical systems becoming increasingly complex, Stuart describes how the expertise to maintain them is disappearing.

“In the UK alone, predictions suggest that by next year, nearly 20% of the engineering workforce will have retired,” says Stuart. 

“Globally, the picture is similar, where experienced engineers are leaving faster than new ones can be trained.

“Much of what they know is experiential: what a failing transformer sounds like, how a particular installation behaves under stress, which means traditional mentoring can't scale fast enough to transfer this knowledge before it walks out the door. One senior engineer can only train so many juniors before retirement.

“The key is to multiply expertise through technology. Remote diagnostics mean one specialist can support multiple sites simultaneously. Augmented reality systems allow senior engineers to guide less experienced technicians through complex procedures in real-time, essentially putting expert knowledge into their hands exactly when needed.

“Digital response can be immediate even when physical presence takes hours, which is critical when facilities require support in minutes rather than days.”

Why this matters for 2026 and beyond

In 2026, Stuart sees businesses “taking direct control of their energy supply rather than remaining entirely grid dependent”. 

“They're responding to both competitive pressure and sustainability commitments,” Stuart elaborates. “Where these two drivers align (predictable costs and reduced emissions), energy management becomes both strategically and financially compelling.

“What's enabled this is business model innovation. Service-based approaches that eliminate upfront capital requirements and guarantee performance have made direct energy oversight accessible to a much broader range of organisations. The companies acting decisively in 2026 aren't necessarily the largest. They're often the ones recognising that energy security is too critical to delegate entirely.

Stuart summarises that “infrastructure strains of 2025 made the stakes visible”. Looking ahead, it is a question of how businesses will respond in 2026.

“Whether they take control or remain passive consumers will determine who builds advantage and who explains to boards why competitors moved faster,” he says. 

“Waiting for someone else to solve your energy problem is a choice: just not a strategic one.”