Critical Power and Cooling Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Critical Power and Cooling Market is projected to expand significantly, growing from USD 22.53 Billion in 2025 to USD 35.77 Billion by 2031, reflecting a CAGR of 8.01%. This market encompasses specialized infrastructure hardware and services, such as uninterruptible power supplies and precision thermal management systems, which are essential for ensuring continuous electrical power and temperature regulation for sensitive electronic equipment. The primary driver behind this growth is the exponential increase in digital data volumes, which necessitates robust data center facilities to support global cloud computing and virtualization activities. Furthermore, the absolute reliance of critical sectors like healthcare, telecommunications, and finance on continuous availability creates a nonnegotiable demand for these resilient infrastructure solutions to prevent costly operational interruptions.

A significant challenge hindering market expansion is the difficulty of modernizing legacy infrastructure to accommodate rapidly increasing server densities and strict sustainability mandates. Older facilities often struggle to manage the intense thermal output of modern computing equipment without incurring prohibitive energy costs or requiring extensive structural retrofits. According to AFCOM in 2024, 38% of data center professionals reported that their current cooling solutions are inadequate to meet their current needs. This statistic highlights the operational strain operators face as they attempt to balance the imperative for high-capacity performance with capital budget constraints and environmental compliance pressures.

Market Drivers

The rapid expansion of hyperscale and colocation data centers serves as a primary engine for market growth, creating immediate requirements for electrical and thermal management infrastructure. As operators race to build larger facilities to accommodate digital services, the need for uninterruptible power supplies and large-scale cooling units scales linearly with floor space and power capacity. This construction boom is quantifiable in recent market activity, which directly translates to hardware orders. According to CBRE's 'North America Data Center Trends H1 2024' report from August 2024, under-construction activity in primary markets reached a record high of 3,871.8 MW, underscoring the massive physical scaling that manufacturers of critical infrastructure must support.

The integration of high-density artificial intelligence and high-performance computing systems is further altering technical specifications within the critical power and cooling sector. AI workloads generate significantly more heat than traditional processing, compelling facilities to adopt liquid cooling technologies and deploy power distribution units capable of handling higher kilowatt loads per rack. According to the International Energy Agency's 'Electricity 2024' report from January 2024, global electricity consumption from data centers, AI, and cryptocurrency sectors is projected to double to approximately 1,050 TWh by 2026. This surge in energy intensity necessitates advanced efficiency solutions, particularly as the Uptime Institute noted in 2024 that the industry average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio remained stagnant at approximately 1.58, highlighting the urgent market need for modern thermal management systems to handle these intense new loads.

Market Challenges

The difficulty of upgrading legacy infrastructure serves as a substantial restraint on the critical power and cooling market. Many older data center facilities lack the physical space and structural capacity to accommodate the weight and piping requirements of modern precision cooling systems or the footprint of high-capacity power backup units. This physical incompatibility forces operators to engage in expensive and time-consuming retrofits before they can procure new equipment, effectively lengthening sales cycles and delaying revenue realization for vendors. When the cost of structural modification approaches the cost of the equipment itself, investment decisions are often postponed.

These modernization hurdles are further compounded by the operational fragility of aging systems, which complicates integration efforts. According to the Uptime Institute in 2024, power-related issues accounted for 52% of all significant service outages, underscoring the struggle of aging power infrastructure to maintain reliability under increasing loads. This statistic demonstrates that while the demand for reliability is acute, the practical barriers to replacing obsolete infrastructure with new market solutions prevent rapid equipment turnover. Consequently, the market experiences slower adoption rates in the brownfield segment as operators struggle to align modern hardware requirements with the limitations of existing built environments.

Market Trends

The rising implementation of Lithium-Ion battery technology in UPS systems is reshaping the technical landscape of the critical power market. Operators are aggressively shifting from traditional valve-regulated lead-acid batteries to advanced chemistries that offer higher energy density, faster recharge rates, and reduced physical footprints. This transition is motivated by the need to maximize white space for revenue-generating servers and address the reliability shortcomings of legacy storage solutions. According to the '2024 Data Center Energy Storage Industry Insights Report' by ZincFive and Data Center Frontier in August 2024, 50% of industry professionals identified energy storage technology limitations as the primary driver for changing their battery backup systems. Consequently, vendors are redesigning UPS architectures to accommodate the specific thermal and charging characteristics of modern lithium-based storage, effectively phasing out older battery technologies in high-performance facilities.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence for Predictive Infrastructure Management is becoming essential for ensuring operational continuity in complex facility environments. Unlike basic monitoring tools that merely report current status, AI-driven Data Center Infrastructure Management platforms analyze vast historical datasets to forecast equipment failures before they result in outages.

This capability allows facility managers to transition from reactive repairs to proactive maintenance strategies, significantly optimizing component lifecycles and reducing emergency service costs. According to Data Centre Magazine in April 2024, in the article 'Predictive Maintenance in the Data Centre: The Power of AI', implementing AI-enabled predictive maintenance strategies can reduce equipment breakdowns by 70%, substantially enhancing system reliability. These intelligent systems automate thermal adjustments and power balancing, ensuring that critical cooling and power assets operate at peak efficiency without constant human intervention.

Key Players Profiled in the Critical Power and Cooling Market

• ABB Ltd.
• Ac Power Corp.
• Asetek A/S
• Eaton Corporation
• General Electric Company
• Riello Elettronica Group
• Rittal GmbH & Co. Kg
• SPX Corporation
• Schneider Electric SE
• Siemens AG

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Critical Power and Cooling Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Critical Power and Cooling Market, by Critical Power Type:

• UPS
• Generators
• Others

Critical Power and Cooling Market, by Cooling Solutions Type:

• Chilling Units
• Cooling Towers
• Air Conditioning
• Liquid Cooling Systems
• Others

Critical Power and Cooling Market, by End-Use:

• Commercial
• IT & Telecommunication
• Industrial
• Transportation
• Others

Critical Power and Cooling Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Critical Power and Cooling Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

This product will be delivered within 1-3 business days.