Page 122 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

These data centers are massive facilities. The volume that we’re doing is unbelievable at the scale we’re working at right now.
– Gene Hamilton, general sales manager, Peterson Power Systems
THE BIG BOYS
Peterson Power’s largest data center customer came through a relationship with one of its longtime customers, Rosendin Electric. In 2013, Rosendin contacted Peterson salesman, Bob Tanzer, about getting some generators delivered quickly for a cli- ent up in Oregon. Tanzer came through and a year later, Peterson was selling engines directly to that data center. Today, that customer is Peterson Pow- er’s largest account, and consistently in Peterson’s Top 5, company-wide, every year. They are one of the largest Internet-based companies in the world and the largest purchaser of gen sets in the world. In 2020 alone, they took delivery on 125 engines for installations all across the country. Peterson Power has indeed earned their trust.
CAT’S NATURAL CHANNELS PROGRAM
The Hyperscale business affords Peterson a reach far beyond its regular borders. Traditionally, Cat requires its dealers to stay within their territories to maintain equilibrium within the dealership net- work. However, back in the late 1990s, Caterpillar developed a special program to capture the bur- geoning cellular business. “There were cell towers every 20 miles or so,” recalls Kludjian, who was in on it from the beginning. “Much of it was out in
places where no reliable power existed. Cat’s ma- jor accounts program (Natural Channels) allowed a dealer to sell multiple small generators for cell towers to a company outside its territory.”The pro- gram stipulated that a dealer could sell a contract if (1) the jobsite was located in its territory; or (2) the customer’s headquarters was located in its ter- ritory; or (3) the dealer was hired by a consultant to help write the job specs.
Cat also put a million-dollar minimum on the busi- ness, designed to confine it to just a few dealers.4 Peterson had one local customer who was building data centers all across the country. For them, a mil- lion dollars was a low threshold. “At first, dealers didn’t like it and pushed back,” recalls Kludjian. “But we’d be standing there with a purchase order for five million dollars, asking Cat: “Do you really want us to give the P.O. back and have it go out to bid again in another dealer’s territory? Maybe they’ll get it. Maybe they won’t. Maybe Cummins or Detroit will get it. Or, should we just proceed as planned?’ ”
According to Tim Treat, project manager on many of those early jobs, “we did 80 sites for Sprint back in the late 90s. It was actually another dealer’s cus- tomer but all the work went through us since we were the PSD (parts & service distributor) for the region. Most of the installations were out of our
4 Cat’s five main data center dealers are: Peterson, Carter, H.O. Penn, NC Power, and Holt of Texas. Most serve one or two customers. Peterson serves four.
120 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG