Mesa expands Wyoming manufacturing for natural gas generation

Mesa Power Solutions’ new 220,000-square-foot manufacturing and administrative campus in Evansville, Wyoming. (Image: Mesa Power Solutions)

Mesa Power Solutions has opened a new 220,000-square-foot manufacturing and administrative campus in Evansville, Wyoming, as the company expands production of natural gas-fired generation equipment for data centers, utilities, energy companies and other commercial and industrial customers.

The facility, located at One Mesa Way, will consolidate about 300 existing employees and manufacture Mesa’s stationary and mobile generator-set platforms. Combined with the company’s San Antonio operation, Mesa said the two facilities will provide annual production capacity of approximately 3 to 4 GW.

Mesa expects the Wyoming investment to generate an economic impact of about $200 million by 2030.

22-liter engines anchor current production

Mark Widener, chief commercial officer at Mesa Power Solutions, said both the Wyoming and San Antonio plants manufacture the company’s PowerCore stationary generators as well as mobile, trailer-mounted units.

The product range uses engines from 8 liters to 22 liters, with the 22-liter platform currently representing the core of Mesa’s production.

Mesa is an engine distributor for Hyundai Construction Equipment and imports bare long blocks from South Korea. The company then adds the components required for operation and integrates the engines with alternators to produce complete generator sets.

Depending on duty cycle and application — including continuous, prime, standby and emergency service — Mesa’s 22-liter units can produce more than 500 kW each, Widener said.

The Wyoming operation also manufactures paralleling and distribution equipment that allows multiple generator sets, typically as many as six, to operate together. The configuration enables customers to increase installed generation incrementally and more closely match output to changing loads.

Fuel-gas requirements are configured around individual applications rather than a single fixed specification. Widener said Mesa designs systems around commercially available natural gas and works with customers to match gas quality and pressure with the engine package.

Data centers drive distributed generation demand

The expansion comes as electricity demand increases and customers face constraints on new utility and transmission capacity.

Widener said data centers have become one of the clearest examples of the challenge, with artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other high-density computing applications requiring large blocks of new generation.

At the same time, transmission limitations and long utility interconnection schedules can prevent projects from receiving grid power as quickly as developers require.

“That is where onsite natural gas generation can play an important role,” Widener said. “It allows operators to generate reliable power close to the load rather than waiting for new transmission infrastructure or a utility interconnection to become available.”

Mesa’s paralleling technology also allows an operator to begin with a smaller number of units and add generators as demand increases.

“The 3–4 GW of combined annual production capacity at the Wyoming and San Antonio facilities is really about responding to that changing power landscape,” Widener said.

Mesa designs, manufactures, installs, commissions and services its generation systems internally, a model the company says gives it greater control over deployment schedules and aftermarket support.

Scott Gromer, CEO of Mesa Solutions, said the Wyoming investment is intended to position the company for continued growth as customers seek more resilient sources of onsite power.

“Our team will produce on-demand power generation equipment to help energy, technology and utility companies meet the needs of their customers in an age where downtime is not an option,” Gromer said.

Mesa manufactures natural gas- and propane-powered mobile and stationary generator sets and natural gas engines for applications including data centers, utilities, healthcare facilities and energy operations.