Insights · Case study
The Alestra case: the first data center with cogeneration in Mexico
A data center cannot shut down. In 2013–2014 in Querétaro, the group designed and built a data center for Alestra and the cogeneration plant that supplied 100% of its power and chilled water. This is what was done and why it matters again today.
Originally published on · Updated on
The project
Alestra chose the group for an unusual mandate: to design and build, under a single EPC contract, a 35,000 m² modular data center and the cogeneration plant that would power it. The USD 31 M project ran from 2013 to 2014 and was completed in June 2014.
- 4.2 MW of cogeneration with two GE Jenbacher engines.
- Two 350-ton absorption chillers.
- 100% of the data center’s electricity and chilled water produced on site.
- Documented energy-cost savings of 45%.
- DC Dynamics “Innovation in the Mega Data Center” award, October 1, 2014.
The full profile is in Alestra Green Data Center.
How it works: power and cooling from one fuel
A data center needs two things in abundance: electricity for compute and cooling to remove the heat that compute produces. Cogeneration delivers both.
- On-site power: gas engines generate the data center’s electricity.
- Absorption chilled water: engine heat drives the absorption chillers, which produce chilled water for cooling without using electricity for a compressor.
- Efficiency: by using the heat, overall system efficiency can reach up to 85%.
Why it matters today
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that global data center electricity use will rise from around 415 TWh in 2024 to around 945 TWh in 2030, and that cooling ranges from about 7% of consumption in an efficient hyperscale facility to over 30% in less efficient enterprise data centers. The denser the load, the more it pays to use heat rather than fight it with more electricity.
What Alestra solved with cogeneration, GIS Power now approaches with solar and storage as primary power: the Green Data Center by GIS Power model, with grid and gas as backup, built and financed in phases. Where there is gas-fired generation, absorption still produces the cooling.
A mission-critical track record since 1983
Alestra was not the group’s first data center. The ESI · PMI · GIS Power lineage has designed and built 13 mission-critical facilities, including GTE data centers in Tampa, Fort Wayne, Sacramento and Mexico, Telemar in Brazil and Terminal 2 of Mexico City’s airport, and designed BBVA’s Tier 4 data center at Lago Esmeralda. More in critical power.
Sources
- Group project history: Alestra Green Data Center (PMI International and GIS Power company profiles).
- International Energy Agency, Energy and AI (2025).
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