Start here / 01 Commercial landscape, radar and battlecard
Live competitive radar
Companies that do not sell controls are teaching your next buyer what to expect.
Who is teaching your next buyer what good looks like?
Radar update of 30 September 2026, extended to 5 October, on top of the radar of 24 September
23 September to 5 October 2026; the three October signals come first
| Date | Who | What moved | Kind of date | Label | What it means for EKU | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct 2026 | Wartsila (watch list) | Order for a 282 MW on-site power plant for a US data center: fifteen 50SG gas engines for an independent power producer the release does not name. Booked in the third quarter of 2026, delivery in 2028, full operation expected in 2029. The release counts it as the company's seventh US data-center order, more than 3 GW in total. | press release | Confirmed | Five days after the packaged offer with an electrical-equipment maker, a real order. The release says nothing about plant controls, batteries or other makers' engines. Large engine plants arrive with their maker's own control; the question for sales stays the same. | Wartsila news page, read 5 Oct 2026 |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Wartsila, energy storage (watch list) | Closed the joint venture for its global energy storage business with an engineering company, first announced on 15 Jun 2026. | press release | Confirmed (headline read at the issuer's page; terms not read) | The battery business, and the energy management software sold with it, now sits outside the engine company. Watch which of the two sells the control layer for a site with engines and batteries. | Wartsila news page, read 5 Oct 2026 |
| 1 Oct 2026 | Rolls-Royce Power Systems (mtu) | Licence for a Saudi manufacturer to build mtu Series 2000 marine engines locally; rail is named as the next step. Power generation sets are not in the agreement. | press release | Confirmed | Not a controls move and not a power generation move. It shows where mtu's news went in the window: marine, rail and service. Nothing on plant control or data centers. | Rolls-Royce press release, read 5 Oct 2026 |
| 30 Sep 2026 | Wartsila with Schneider Electric (watch list) | A coordinated offer for on-site power at US data centers, with an engineering firm: one supplies the engine plants, one the electrical architecture, automation and digital power management, one the engineering and commissioning. | press release | Confirmed | The controls layer is being sold inside a packaged engine plant. The release names no controller product and says nothing about engines from other makers. For EKU it sharpens the question to ask: who controls the plant when the next block comes from a different maker? | Wartsila news page, read 1 Oct 2026 |
| 24 Sep 2026 | Generac | Generac Link update: warranty registration (pilot with selected partners), a "View Site" button after deployment, better run-event detection, fallback reporting for sites with on/off monitoring only. | release notes | Confirmed | Incremental. It ties the monitoring portal to Generac's own dealer and warranty workflow. Nothing adds site control, dispatch logic or a named third-party controller. | Generac Link release notes, read 30 Sep 2026 |
| 24 Sep 2026 | DG Matrix (watch list) | Interport solid-state transformer doubled from 200 kW to 400 kW in about the same footprint, with silicon-carbide devices from STMicroelectronics; efficiency above 98.5% (vendor claim). | press release (the company's news page dates it 25 Sep) | Confirmed | No controls in it. It does show how fast the power-conversion layer of a data-center site is changing. | DG Matrix news page, read 30 Sep 2026 |
| 28 Sep 2026 | DG Matrix and TerraFlow Energy (watch list) | Commercial agreement to combine a flow-battery long-duration UPS with the Interport to power a live high-performance compute cluster. Site, size and customer not disclosed. | press release | Confirmed | A site built around these units still needs someone to dispatch and protect the generators behind the AC port. Possible integration point, not a rival. | DG Matrix news page, read 30 Sep 2026 |
| 28 to 30 Sep 2026 | Yotta 2026, Las Vegas | The Energy Transformation track opened on 28 Sep with DG Matrix; the next panels carried Microsoft, Emerald AI and Exowatt. Day-two sessions listed Wartsila Energy, Schneider Electric, Bloom Energy and VoltaGrid. One session, on the technologies behind bring-your-own power, put a fuel-cell maker, an electrical-equipment maker, a power-conversion maker and a turnkey gas-power company on the same panel (Bloom Energy, Schneider Electric, EPC Power, VoltaGrid). ERock sat at the breakfast roundtables and Eaton spoke on megawatt racks. | event | Confirmed (agenda read 30 Sep and again 5 Oct) | On-site power for data centers was told by power-electronics, fuel-cell, engine and turnkey-power companies. No tracked genset-controls maker appears anywhere on the published agenda. The panel on bring-your-own power is the closest the program came to the question Maximus answers: several kinds of generation on one site, and someone has to run them as one. The exhibitor and sponsor lists were not read, so this says nothing about the show floor. | Yotta 2026 agenda |
| 28 Sep 2026 | Schneider Electric (scale reference) | Software-defined medium-voltage switchgear and a new UPS frame announced at Yotta; pilots through 2027, broader availability 2028. | launch announced | Observed (syndicated copy of the release) | Worth a note next to GeneSys: "software-defined" is becoming switchgear language. Not a controls move against Maximus. | Syndicated release, read 30 Sep 2026 |
| 24 and 29 to 30 Sep 2026 | DEIF | Two data-center events in one week: Datacenter Forum Copenhagen and Data Centre World Asia in Singapore, showing the iE 250 controller, AGC 150, iE 650 and a medium-voltage relay. | event | Confirmed (vendor event pages) | No new product. It confirms DEIF's push toward data-center buyers, the same week its AI-answer presence reached 41. | DEIF exhibitions pages |
| 29 Sep 2026 | Trackunit | Spot S300, a battery tracker for unpowered equipment (trailers, containers, heaters, welders). | launch announced | Confirmed | Low relevance: wider asset coverage on rental yards, no generator or power content. | Trackunit press release |
| 23 Sep 2026 | Rolls-Royce Power Systems (mtu) | New remote monitoring centre in Arcola, Italy, the first outside Berlin, built on mtu Go. Named customers are marine; power generation plants are in scope. | press release (one day before the 24 Sep cut, not listed then) | Confirmed | Service-layer build-out inside the mtu world. No mention of other makers' equipment and no EnergetIQ news in the window. | Rolls-Royce press release |
| Company | Source read | Newest item | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| ComAp | News page | Read 30 Sep: 2 Sep 2026, Advanced Reporting (already on the radar). On 5 Oct the page asked for an account. | Not re-read on 5 Oct. |
| Deep Sea Electronics | News page | Read 5 Oct: no item dated after 24 Sep 2026 (DSEWebNet app update, already on the radar). | Nothing new. |
| DEIF | News page | Read 5 Oct: newest item 22 Sep 2026, a company anniversary. | Nothing new. No product item since the award of 7 Jul 2026. |
| Generac | Generac Link release notes | Read 5 Oct: 24 Sep 2026 is still the newest release. | Nothing new. The investor page was not re-read. |
| Rolls-Royce Power Systems (mtu) | Press releases, corporate and mtu pages | Read 5 Oct: 1 Oct 2026, marine engine licence in Saudi Arabia (listed above). | No plant-control, EnergetIQ or data-center release since 23 Sep. |
| Caterpillar | Corporate press releases | Read 30 Sep: 29 and 30 Sep 2026, a dealership and a compact-equipment plant. On 5 Oct the page did not load in three tries. | Not re-read on 5 Oct. Nothing on site controllers in the last reading. |
| Cummins | Newsroom | Read 30 Sep: transit show, engine platform and mining articles. On 5 Oct the page refused the read. | Not re-read on 5 Oct. |
| Rehlko | Newsroom | Read 30 Sep: 22 Sep 2026, plant capacity (already on the radar). On 5 Oct the page refused the read. | Not re-read on 5 Oct. |
Read on 30 September and again on 5 October 2026. Four pages could not be opened on 5 October and are marked. A public date is not always a launch date.
DG Matrix is the benchmark to study. It sells a power-conversion box and leaves site control alone, so it is no rival to Maximus or Sophia today. What matters is how it grows: two funding rounds in eleven months, strategic investors from the power industry, a place in a chip maker's reference architecture, named advisers, and its own track at the main data-center event.
| Company | What it sells | Dated signals | Why watch it | Label | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DG Matrix | Multi-port solid-state transformer (Interport): one silicon-carbide unit that routes power between the grid, solar, batteries, generators and DC loads. Morrisville, North Carolina. | Seed round of $20M (12 Mar 2025); Series A of $60M (18 Feb 2026); named in the NVIDIA 800 VDC ecosystem (17 Jun 2026); 400 kW unit (24 Sep 2026); opened the power track at Yotta (28 Sep 2026). | A growth benchmark. It sells power-conversion hardware and leaves controls alone. Watch how a small company earns authority with data-center buyers: strategic investors, an ecosystem badge, named advisers and a conference track of its own. | Confirmed at the company's releases; the classification is a Working Hypothesis | open |
| Emerald AI | Software that flexes data-center compute load and on-site resources when the grid is stressed. | Series A of $150M reported 26 Aug 2026; founder on the Yotta power track, 28 Sep 2026. | It sets the criteria buyers will use: response speed, duration, repeatability, emergency behavior. Those are the four numbers EKU should publish. | Funding Observed (trade press); Yotta slot Confirmed | open |
| ERock (formerly Enchanted Rock) | Natural-gas on-site microgrids for data centers and critical sites, Houston. | Listed in June 2026; a 470 MW equipment agreement and a $1.7B backlog reported 19 Aug 2026; at the breakfast roundtables of Yotta, 29 Sep 2026. | A Houston neighbor selling complete on-site power. Channel or competitor depending on who owns the controls. | Observed (regional press) | open |
| VoltaGrid | Turnkey behind-the-meter gas power for data centers. Already on the tracked list as a scale player. | $5B financing for more than 4 GW by 2028 (arranger page dated 17 Feb 2026); panel at Yotta, 29 Sep 2026. | Proof of demand. It sells megawatts with its own stack: a reference for scale. | Confirmed (arranger page; Yotta agenda) | open |
| Bloom Energy | Solid-oxide fuel cells as on-site prime power for data centers. | Panel speaker at Yotta, 28 Sep 2026. | Fuel cells enter mixed sites next to gensets and batteries: one more asset type for Maximus to orchestrate. | Confirmed (Yotta agenda) | open |
| Wartsila Energy | Modular 10 to 20 MW engine plants pitched as large on-site data-center power. | Session at Yotta, 29 Sep 2026; joint data-center offer with an electrical-equipment maker, 30 Sep 2026; 282 MW US data-center order, 5 Oct 2026. | Large engines with their own plant control. Watch whether the control layer opens to other makers. | Confirmed (Yotta agenda) | open |
| Schneider Electric | Electrical distribution and energy software at enterprise scale. | Software-defined medium-voltage switchgear announced at Yotta, 28 Sep 2026. | A scale reference. EKU's claims have to sound credible next to its language. | Observed | open |
No battlecard answer changes. If a prospect mentions a solid-state transformer or a fuel cell, the answer is the same question: who dispatches and protects the generators behind it, and what does the site do when the cloud link drops? Use it too when a prospect mentions a packaged engine plant.
The companies shaping the data-center conversation publish measured claims and have a stage of their own. The Event Language Map in the Phase 2 package is the template for the next show.
Two asset types are entering mixed sites: solid-state transformers and fuel cells. Confirm how Maximus treats each one, so the claim can be confirmed.
The benchmark companies grew by naming one owner for data centers and by publishing proof early. The decision on the data-center segment is the gate.
A public date is not always a launch date. Vendor documentation is the vendor's own claim. Absence of public proof is not proof of incapacity.
Closing
In the pages read, no tracked rival shipped a controls product in two weeks. Meanwhile an engine maker booked a 282 MW data-center plant and paired with an electrical-equipment maker.
The rival documents read hold no measured report of a whole mixed-brand site with the cloud link down. That report is EKU's to publish.
Read this page with the radar of 24 September. Use the routine every Monday. Add the next update as a new dated page.
Validation status. Sources read at the issuer's page on 30 September and 5 October 2026; four rival pages could not be re-read on 5 October. Items marked Observed were read at a third party. Performance figures of the watch-list companies are their own claims. Classification of each company is Kanbina Lumina's inference.
Working foundation for executive review. Not approved external copy. Prepared for EKU Power Drives, 30 September 2026, by KanbinaLUMINA