The battery solution for AI's power problem [parter content]

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May 7, 2025

Alan Cooper, CEO of On.Energy, and Ricardo de Azevedo, CTO, tackle the challenges faced by AI data centers as they revolutionize energy storage. With a rich background in oil and gas, Cooper transitioned to renewables to co-found On.Energy, focusing on medium voltage uninterruptible power supplies. They discuss how their innovative battery systems act as a buffer for extreme power demands, transforming grid interactions and improving reliability. Their journey from childhood friends to industry pioneers highlights the urgent need for efficient energy solutions.

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ANECDOTE

Lifelong Business Partnership

Alan Cooper and Ricardo de Azevedo have been best friends and business partners since third grade in Caracas, Venezuela.
They began entrepreneurial ventures early, like throwing memorable parties at age 15.

ANECDOTE

Building Custom Battery Systems

Early on, they struggled to find off-the-shelf battery components and built a custom SCADA system adapted for energy storage.
They started with small 30 kW systems and scaled up from there, pioneering their approach.

INSIGHT

Innovative Medium Voltage UPS

They innovated a medium voltage uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that charges and discharges on command for peak shaving and resilience.
This system frees up indoor space and provides Industrial UPS that pays for itself, gaining strong market traction.

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Alan Cooper and Ricardo de Azevedo have been business partners since they were teenagers. Today, they're tackling one of the most critical infrastructure challenges of the AI revolution: how to manage the massive, volatile power demands of modern data centers.

Founded in 2016, On.Energy has grown into an integrated energy storage company that designs, builds, and manages battery systems for customers across six countries. The company deploys batteries ranging from behind-the-meter commercial installations to utility-scale projects, specializing in what they call "distribution-level storage."

As co-founders of On.Energy, Cooper and de Azevedo have developed a medium voltage uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that acts as a buffer between power-hungry AI data centers and the electrical grid.

"We're discussing with a client that is developing a thousand-megawatt facility, and they were telling us the load swings are going to be 400 megawatts every 10 seconds," says Azevedo, CTO of On.Energy. "The grid is just not designed to handle that."

Their innovation takes traditional UPS technology, typically used for backup power, and transforms it into an active grid asset that can both protect sensitive computing equipment and provide grid services.

"From the utilities' perspective, you have a data center who is a dream customer 98% of the time, and an absolute nightmare in the 2% of the time when the grid is at its maximum strain," explains Alan Cooper, the company’s CEO. "If you have a dispatchable data center, then they become the perfect customer."

In this episode, produced in partnership with On.Energy, Stephen Lacey talks with Cooper and de Azevedo about the company's approach to enabling resilient, grid-interactive data centers with storage.

They discuss how their technology could solve power quality issues, while also creating new revenue opportunities through grid services.

This is a partner episode, brought to you by On.Energy. Learn more about how On.Energy delivers turnkey resiliency solutions for utilities and enterprise customers at on.energy.