Grid interconnections take years. AI workloads need power now. Natural gas — delivered by pipeline or virtual pipeline — closes the gap.
Behind-the-meter fuel supply, deployed in weeks.
Data center demand is growing faster than the infrastructure that feeds it. Three numbers explain why developers are going around the queue instead of waiting in it.
Industry analyses put average queue-to-operation timelines at well over five years in constrained markets — and those timelines have grown roughly 60% since 2017. Capital deployed today can't wait for 2031 power.
AI training and inference run around the clock. Natural gas provides continuous, dispatchable baseload power at data center scale — something intermittent sources can't deliver alone without cost-prohibitive storage.
The entire fuel chain — CNG tube trailers, trailer-mounted pressure reduction, packaged generation — arrives on trucks. Deployment is limited by logistics, not by permitting and construction of fixed infrastructure.
Behind-the-meter generation is straightforward when a gas pipeline serves your site. When it doesn't — or won't for years — a CNG virtual pipeline does the same job on wheels. Broadwind builds the critical middle step.
Compressed natural gas arrives by truck from the nearest compression station — a rotating supply of trailers keeps fuel onsite continuously, sized to your generation load.
Our trailer-mounted pressure reduction systems decompress trailer gas (up to 4,900 PSI) to the precise inlet pressure your turbines or engines require — continuously, with PLC control and remote monitoring your operations team can watch from anywhere.
Conditioned gas feeds your generation — reciprocating engines, turbines, or hybrid microgrids — producing the 24/7 power your facility needs, with no interconnection queue in sight.
CNG virtual pipelines aren't just an alternative to permanent infrastructure — they're how you compress the schedule at every phase.
Power the build itself — cranes, tools, site facilities, commissioning loads — from day one of groundbreaking, long before any permanent utility arrives.
Energize the facility and start serving workloads while your grid interconnection or dedicated pipeline is still in the queue. Revenue starts years earlier.
Scale fuel supply in step with your buildout — add trailer deliveries and parallel PRS units as each data hall comes online, instead of overbuilding upfront.
Keep CNG supply as an independent backup fuel path for emergency generation — diversity the grid alone can't provide.
When pipeline capacity is curtailed or peak demand exceeds firm transport, virtual pipeline supply fills the gap without interrupting operations.
For edge compute and remote facilities that will never justify fixed infrastructure, mobile gas power is the permanent answer, not the bridge.
The questions developers, operators, and site selection teams ask us most.
By generating it onsite with natural gas — known as behind-the-meter power. Gas-fired generators or turbines produce electricity at the site. Where a gas pipeline isn't available or isn't built yet, CNG is delivered by tube trailer, stepped down to usable pressure by a pressure reduction system, and fed to the generators — deployed in weeks instead of the years a grid interconnection takes.
Electricity generated on the data center's own site rather than purchased from the utility grid. The facility controls its own generation — typically natural gas turbines or reciprocating engines — avoiding interconnection queues and giving the operator direct control over reliability and cost.
Industry analyses put average interconnection timelines at well over five years in constrained markets, with queue-to-operation timelines up roughly 60% since 2017 — and only a fraction of queued capacity ever gets built. That's why many developers plan onsite natural gas generation from day one.
Temporary onsite generation that powers a facility between construction completion and permanent infrastructure coming online. Mobile natural gas equipment — CNG tube trailers plus trailer-mounted pressure reduction feeding generators — is a common bridge solution because it deploys fast and redeploys when permanent supply arrives.
Yes — CNG virtual pipelines fuel construction power, early-phase operations, bridge power, and supplemental supply today. A single H250 delivers up to 250,000 SCFH — fuel for tens of megawatts of gas-fired generation depending on generator efficiency — and units run in parallel banks to scale higher. For gigawatt-scale permanent operations, a pipeline is the endgame; CNG is how you get power flowing years earlier.
It redeploys. Broadwind PRS units are trailer-mounted and self-contained — when your interconnection or pipeline is energized, the bridge equipment moves to the next site or stays as an independent backup fuel path. Mobile capacity, not stranded capital.
Start with our Natural Gas 101 page — plain-English answers on CNG, virtual pipelines, tube trailers, and how gas becomes power.
Every Broadwind PRS is trailer-mounted, PLC-controlled, and remotely monitored — built in the USA and designed to run in parallel banks as your load grows. Combined deployments exceed 400,000 SCFH.
Tell us your load, your timeline, and what infrastructure exists at your site — we'll help you map the fuel chain that gets power flowing first.