The Data Center Frontier Executive Roundtable features insights from industry executives with lengthy experience in the data center industry.
Here’s a look at the Q4 2025 insights from Ben Rapp, Manager, Strategic Project Development, Rehlko.
With a BS in mechanical engineering and an MBA, Ben Rapp is interested in alternative fuels for power generation, and has been deeply involved in researching the use of hydrogen to solve sustainability challenges through his work at Rehlko, a provider of power backup systems for industrial applications including data centers. Recognizing the potential of hydrogen fuel cells to provide reliable, pollution-free backup power, he has led Rehlko’s transition of this technology from research and development to market readiness. The multifaceted nature of the project involved research and development efforts, where Rapp led the project alongside product management, sales, and customer engagement teams, aiming to meet market needs for decarbonization solutions. This effort culminated in a partnership with Toyota and the launch of a pilot project, showcasing a 100-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell solution aimed at reducing data center carbon footprints without sacrificing performance. Rapp began work with Rehlko as a mechanical engineer, advanced to senior project engineer for applications, and now serves as manager of strategic project development for power systems. A winner of the DataCloud Global Award for Young Talent of the Year in 2024 and contributor to the Greener Data anthology series, Rapp has served as a speaker for several data center industry events and publications such as Yotta, DICE, and Data Center Dynamics.
Data Center Frontier: As liquid cooling shifts from pilot deployments to baseline design, what new coordination is required among equipment manufacturers, construction teams, and chemical/process experts to standardize safe, maintainable systems across global portfolios?
Ben Rapp, Rehlko: As liquid cooling shifts from pilot programs to standard design practice, alignment across disciplines becomes essential. Success now requires earlier collaboration among equipment manufacturers, construction partners, and fluid chemistry experts to ensure interoperability, safety, and operational consistency at scale.
As a global energy systems provider, Rehlko plays a key role in ensuring power delivery, controls, and backup systems are engineered to meet the unique electrical and operational requirements liquid cooling introduces, both at commissioning and throughout the asset lifecycle.
Our focus is seamless integration, enabling operators to adopt and scale liquid cooling with confidence, reliability, and long-term performance in mind.
Data Center Frontier: With hyperscale timelines collapsing and AI demand surging, how are owners and operators balancing speed-to-market with long-term cost of ownership, especially when power infrastructure and sustainability mandates move at different speeds?
Ben Rapp, Rehlko: The pace of AI deployment is outpacing grid capacity in many regions, which means power strategy is now directly tied to deployment timelines.
To move fast without sacrificing lifecycle cost or reliability, operators are adopting modular power systems that can be installed and commissioned quickly, then expanded or adapted as loads grow.
From an energy perspective, this requires architectures that support multiple pathways: traditional generation, cleaner fuels like HVO, battery energy storage, and eventually hydrogen or renewable integrations where feasible.
Backup power is no longer a static insurance policy, it’s a dynamic part of the operating model, supporting uptime, compliance, and long-term cost management.
Rehlko’s global footprint and broad energy portfolio enable us to support operators through these transitions with scalable solutions that meet existing technical needs while providing a roadmap for future adaptation.
Data Center Frontier: As data centers are expected to evolve into energy hubs—producing, storing, and recycling power, water, and heat—what innovations or partnerships are emerging to make these facilities active participants in grid and resource stability?
Ben Rapp, Manager, Rehlko: As data centers evolve into fully integrated energy hubs, the architecture supporting them is changing. Traditional standby systems are now part of a broader, more intelligent energy strategy designed to manage growing loads, offset grid constraints, and provide greater operational flexibility.
As deployment timelines accelerate and sustainability expectations rise, operators are looking for systems that do more than ensure uptime, they must actively support efficiency and long-term cost performance.
Hybrid power architectures are becoming central to this shift. By integrating traditional generation with battery storage, renewable energy sources, and advanced controls, data centers gain greater flexibility to manage peak demand, improve efficiency, and support evolving sustainability requirements.
Hydrogen-ready engines and fuel cells are also emerging as important pathways, giving operators the option to deploy proven technology today while transitioning to lower-carbon fuels when the infrastructure and supply chain mature.
This approach is redefining backup power, not as equipment waiting for failure, but as an integrated component of a dynamic energy ecosystem that supports resilience, efficiency, and future scalability throughout the facility’s lifecycle.
Data Center Frontier: AI infrastructure now demands tight choreography among diverse disciplines, i.e. power, cooling, construction, chemistry, and digital systems. How are your teams aligning design and operations data across organizational silos to deliver performance and transparency from site prep to steady-state operation?
Ben Rapp, Rehlko: As AI-driven energy demand surges, coordinating design and operational disciplines isn’t just valuable, it’s essential for resilience and sustainability. We’re bridging these silos by grounding decisions in shared operational and lifecycle performance data.
That includes fuel flexibility considerations, redundancy and response modeling, emissions forecasting, energy storage planning, and real-world load behavior over time.
A key area where this integration is advancing quickly is generator maintenance strategy.
Historically, generators were exercised using legacy assumptions, high-load, high-runtime schedules designed for older engines. By shifting to data-driven maintenance programs and leveraging modern engine capability, operators can dramatically reduce environmental and operational overhead without compromising reliability.
Optimized exercise schedules and no-load testing procedures can cut annual GHG emissions by up to 78% and fuel use by up to 79%, while service contracts and continuous monitoring ensure the system remains ready during critical events.
When these operational insights are unified with design intent from the start, rather than becoming separate departmental decisions, operators aren’t just deploying equipment.
They’re implementing adaptive systems that evolve with regulatory expectations, sustainability targets, and operational realities. The result is a more transparent, scalable, and future-ready power and mechanical ecosystem from site development through steady-state operation.
About the Author
Matt Vincent
A B2B technology journalist and editor with more than two decades of experience, Matt Vincent is Editor in Chief of Data Center Frontier.
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