Temporary Power Market

Aggreko, the largest temporary power provider, earned net revenue of USD 3.4 billion in fiscal 2025 and lifted data-centre revenue from USD 96 million in 2023 to USD 391 million, 11% of the total, its amended F-1 filing of 17 September 2026 shows. The temporary power market covers rented electricity generation and the equipment that delivers it: diesel and HVO generators, gas generators and mobile turbines, battery and hybrid units, load banks and distribution kit, hired for construction, industry, utilities, data centres, events and emergencies, valued at rental and service revenue excluding fuel. Douglas Insights sizes it at USD 19.89 billion in 2025, about 41.0 gigawatts (GW) on hire on average at USD 485,000 per megawatt-year, and at USD 37.22 billion in 2035, a 6.47% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). The study sits in our portable and backup power coverage, beside the Portable Inverter Generator Market, Data Center as a Bottleneck Market and Industrial Temperature Control Services Market reports; every figure follows the Douglas Insights research methodology.

Which temporary power technology earns the most: diesel, gas or battery hybrid?

Diesel and HVO generators earn the most, 62.0% of 2025 value or about USD 12.33 billion, Douglas Insights estimates. Battery and hybrid units grow fastest, 14.0% a year from USD 1.59 billion to USD 5.90 billion by 2035.

Diesel leads because a skid-mounted generator can be trucked to almost any site and started the same day. Aggreko’s fleet held 6.3 GW of diesel and HVO generation, 2.1 GW of gas and 0.3 GW of other generation, out of 17 GW including temperature control, its F-1 of 17 September 2026 shows. Diesel value grows 4.2% a year to USD 18.60 billion as fleets swap fuel to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO); about 250 generators ran on Eni HVO at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, cutting power-generation emissions about 71%, Eni’s release of 23 December 2025 states.

Gas generators and mobile turbines, USD 3.98 billion, grow 9.2% to USD 9.59 billion on long bridging contracts. New APR Energy deployed more than 100 megawatts (MW) from 4 mobile gas turbines for a US artificial intelligence (AI) hyperscaler, part of an 850 MW fleet, its release of 25 February 2025 states. Battery and hybrid units, USD 1.59 billion, grow fastest; Aggreko’s modular microgrids pair gas generators of 210 to 1,500 kW with battery storage from 65 kWh to 1.2 MWh, its release of 3 June 2026 shows. Distribution, load banks and other kit, USD 1.99 billion, grow 5.6%. Technology values for 2035 sum to USD 37.52 billion, 0.80% above the headline.

Who hires temporary power: construction, oil and gas, utilities or data centres?

Construction hires the most temporary power, 25.0% of 2025 value or about USD 4.97 billion, Douglas Insights estimates. Data centres grow fastest, 14.5% a year from USD 2.19 billion to USD 8.47 billion by 2035.

Construction leads because every site needs power before its grid connection is energised. Industrial, emergency and other users, USD 4.38 billion, grow 5.0% on plant shutdowns and storm response. Oil, gas and mining, USD 3.98 billion, grow 4.0% as remote sites add hybrid units. Utilities, USD 2.78 billion, grow 6.0% on grid support during upgrades. Data centres match Aggreko’s own mix: 11% of its 2025 net revenue came from them, its F-1 shows. Events, USD 1.59 billion, grow 5.0%; FIFA sought temporary infrastructure suppliers for 16 stadiums in 16 host cities for the 2026 World Cup, its request of 2 May 2024 shows. End-use values for 2035 sum to USD 36.71 billion, 1.38% below the headline.

What drives temporary power demand: data-centre bridging, rental growth or grid delays?

Average capacity on hire rises 5.0% a year in our base case, from about 41.0 GW in 2025 to about 66.8 GW in 2035. Four drivers add 6.60 points of gross growth; restraints remove 1.60 points.

Bridging power for AI data centres: 2.20 points

Data-centre bridging is the largest driver, worth 2.20 points. Data-centre electricity use rose 17% in 2025 and is expected to double by 2030, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a release reported on 20 April 2026, noting that onsite gas projects cluster in the United States because grid connections are slow. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) puts US data centres at 649 terawatt-hours (TWh) in its 2030 reference case, about 11.8% of US electricity, in its 2025 update published in June 2026. Shelby County permitted 15 Solar SMT-130 turbines of up to 247 MW at xAI’s Memphis site, TechCrunch reported on 3 July 2025. Douglas Insights estimates each 100 MW campus waiting two years for grid power hires about 120 MW of generation and storage, with redundancy.

Rental fleet growth at the large hirers: 1.60 points

Rental expansion adds 1.60 points. United Rentals’ Specialty rental revenue, which includes power and HVAC, rose 34.7% to a record USD 1.70 billion in the third quarter of 2026, and the company raised 2026 revenue guidance to USD 18.0 billion to USD 18.2 billion, its 8-K of 21 October 2026 shows. Sunbelt Rentals’ North America Specialty revenue grew 6.5% to USD 3.72 billion in the year to 30 April 2026, with fourth-quarter growth “led by Power & HVAC, in particular Load Banks”, its results of 23 June 2026 state. Herc closed its purchase of H&E Equipment Services on 2 June 2025, creating 613 locations, its release states.

Grid connection delays and utility support: 1.40 points

Grid delays add 1.40 points. 2,061 GW of projects sought interconnection at the end of 2025, and the typical project took more than 3 years to a signed agreement and more than 5 years to commercial operation, LBNL’s Queued Up 2026 edition of 16 July 2026 shows. US electricity use set records in 2025 and 2026, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected on 13 May 2025. Douglas Insights estimates utilities hire about 5.7 GW on average for substation work, outage cover and peak support.

Disasters and large events: 1.40 points

Emergencies and events add the last 1.40 points. The United States declared 133 disasters from January to September 2026 against a 2021 to 2025 average of 125 a year, USAFacts reported on 13 October 2026 from FEMA data. Loxam supplied temporary energy for the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, its 2025 results of 18 March 2026 state. Summed, 2.20 + 1.60 + 1.40 + 1.40 = 6.60 points, a Douglas Insights estimate.

What holds temporary power back: weak construction or tighter engine rules?

Two restraints remove 1.60 points a year from capacity growth: soft construction and specialty rental demand takes 0.90 points, and stricter engine and grid-first event rules take 0.70 points.

Construction is the heavier drag because it is the largest end use. US construction spending fell 1.4% to USD 2,164 billion in 2025, with private spending down 2.9%, the US Census Bureau reported on 27 February 2026. Atlas Copco’s Power Technique revenue fell 4% organically to SEK 7.63 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, with specialty rental demand “somewhat weaker”, its presentation of 27 January 2026 shows. Speedy Hire’s revenue was flat at GBP 416.1 million in the year to March 2026 with a GBP 32.3 million pre-tax loss, its results of 17 June 2026 show.

Engine rules and grid-first planning take 0.70 points. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) set 31 December 2026 as the end date for Tier 3 portable diesel engines of 50 to 750 brake horsepower unless they convert to low-use or emergency service or add filters, its notice of 17 November 2025 states, forcing fleet write-offs. The International Olympic Committee said Milano Cortina 2026 kept temporary generators “to a minimum” and ran venues on certified renewable grid power, its update of 13 February 2026 states, a model other organisers may copy.

Which region hires the most temporary power, and where does demand grow fastest?

North America hires the most temporary power, USD 7.56 billion or 38.0% of 2025 value, and also grows fastest, 7.4% a year to USD 15.43 billion by 2035, on data-centre bridging and storm response.

North America leads because its rental houses are the world’s largest and its grid queue is the longest. United Rentals booked USD 4.64 billion of Specialty rental revenue in 2025, up 13.6%, RER reported on 29 January 2026, and Herc grew 2025 revenue 23% to USD 4.38 billion, its results of 17 February 2026 show. Regional value grows 7.4% a year.

Europe, USD 4.38 billion, grows 4.9% to USD 7.06 billion as low-emission rules reshape fleets; Loxam’s 2025 revenue slipped 4% to EUR 2.47 billion, its 18 March 2026 release shows, and Kiloutou’s rose 3% to EUR 1.29 billion, its 2025 results release states. Rehlko bought the UK’s Wilmott Group, which supports more than 4,000 critical power plants from 19 locations, its release of 4 August 2025 shows. Asia Pacific, USD 3.98 billion, grows 6.9% on mining, island grids and data-centre builds. The Middle East and Africa, USD 2.59 billion, grow 6.6% on utility shortfalls and project sites. Latin America, USD 1.39 billion, grows 6.1%. Regional values sum to USD 21.19 billion in 2026 and USD 37.65 billion in 2035, 1.16% above the headline.

Which companies lead the temporary power market?

Aggreko leads temporary power with about 12% of 2025 value, Douglas Insights estimates, ahead of United Rentals at about 6%, Sunbelt Rentals at about 5% and Herc at about 3%. The top five, adding New APR Energy, hold about 28%.

Aggreko is the specialist leader. Its fiscal 2025 adjusted EBITDA reached USD 1.26 billion, up from USD 1.1 billion, and about 50% of net revenue came from contracts longer than a year, its F-1 of 17 September 2026 shows, as owners TDR Capital and I Squared Capital prepare a New York listing first filed publicly on 24 August 2026, the original F-1 shows. With roughly two-thirds of its revenue from power, about USD 2.3 billion, Aggreko’s share is about 12%, a Douglas Insights estimate.

General rental groups are closing in. Herc’s equipment rental revenue rose 12% to USD 1.25 billion in the third quarter of 2026, and it raised full-year rental guidance to USD 4.48 billion to USD 4.55 billion, citing data-centre projects, its 8-K of 27 October 2026 shows. A US antitrust notice named Elon Musk as buyer of New APR Energy, with Duos receiving USD 50.4 million for a 5% stake, implying at least USD 1 billion, the Jacksonville Daily Record reported on 23 June 2026. Equipment makers supply these fleets: Caterpillar’s power generation sales rose 30% in the third quarter of 2026 on data centres, Utility Dive reported on 3 November 2026, and Cummins’ power generation sales reached USD 1.56 billion against USD 1.28 billion, its 8-K of 5 November 2026 shows.

How much does temporary power cost per megawatt, and what moves rental rates?

Temporary power realises an average USD 485,000 per megawatt-year on hire in 2025, Douglas Insights estimates, about USD 55 per megawatt-hour before fuel, from USD 35 on long utility contracts to over USD 90 for event hires.

Published government schedules show the scale of all-in costs. FEMA’s 2025 Schedule of Equipment Rates, which includes operating costs, lists a 400 kW diesel generator at USD 175.49 an hour, 500 kW at USD 296.15, 1,000 kW at USD 654.36 and 2,500 kW at USD 801.68, the FEMA schedule shows; commercial hirers quote most large units only on application. Douglas Insights puts monthly rental, before fuel, of a 500 kVA diesel set at about USD 9,000 to USD 14,000 and a 1 MW gas set on a multi-year bridging contract at about USD 30,000 to USD 40,000.

Average price per megawatt-year rises 1.4% a year in the base case, to about USD 557,000 in 2035, as battery and gas units with higher rental value gain share and Stage V and Tier 4 Final engines cost more to buy. Generac’s commercial and industrial product sales rose about 28% to USD 552 million in the third quarter of 2026 and its data-centre backlog reached about USD 4.5 billion, its 8-K of 28 October 2026 shows, which keeps new generator prices firm and rental rates with them.

What if data-centre bridging fades or spreads: how large is the temporary power market in 2035?

The temporary power market ends 2035 between USD 28.36 billion and USD 47.76 billion across our three cases, around a base of USD 37.22 billion. Grid queue length and data-centre build pace set most of the spread.

In the slower case interconnection reform cuts queue times, hyperscalers build their own permanent onsite plants and construction stays weak, taking 1.8 points off capacity and 1.0 point off price. In the faster case AI campuses keep outrunning grid upgrades into the 2030s and more utilities rent mobile turbines for peak cover, adding 1.6 points of capacity and 1.0 point of price. One extra point of yearly revenue growth adds about USD 3.70 billion to 2035 value, a Douglas Insights estimate.

Live signals sit between the base and faster cases. United Rentals’ 34.7% Specialty growth, Caterpillar’s 30% power generation rise and a USD 78 billion Caterpillar backlog point up; weak US private construction and Atlas Copco’s softer specialty rental demand point down. The signal to watch is the next LBNL queue count: a further fall below 2,000 GW with shorter waits would push toward the slower case.

Which rules shape temporary power, from Tier 4 and Stage V to CARB and London NRMM?

Four rule sets shape temporary power: US EPA nonroad engine standards and backup-generator guidance, the EU Stage V regulation, California’s portable engine rules, and city low-emission zones such as London’s for non-road mobile machinery.

Engine limits set what a rental fleet may run. Regulation (EU) 2016/1628 caps Stage V engines of 130 to 560 kW at 0.40 g/kWh of nitrogen oxides and 0.015 g/kWh of particulates, with a particle number limit, and generator sets above 560 kW at 0.67 g/kWh of nitrogen oxides, its Annex II shows. US Tier 4 standards under 40 CFR 1039.101 set the comparable American limits. London requires Stage IV across the city from 1 January 2025, Stage V from 1 January 2030 and zero emission from 1 January 2040, and constant-speed generators must already meet Stage V, the Greater London Authority’s NRMM page shows.

Operating rules set how often standby sets earn money. The EPA said emergency engines may run up to 50 hours a year for non-emergency use when a balancing authority or utility dispatches them to prevent local outages, in a memo of 1 May 2025 citing 40 CFR 63 subpart ZZZZ. CARB’s 31 December 2026 Tier 3 phase-out, set out in its 17 November 2025 notice, will push California hirers into newer engines or battery units.

Douglas Exclusive: the Grid Wait Bridging Index

The Grid Wait Bridging Index is a Douglas Insights model built from 12 inputs: 6 government or laboratory releases and 6 company filings or statements, listed below. It estimates how much rented generation a grid-connection delay creates.

The finding, a Douglas Insights estimate: Aggreko’s data-centre revenue grew about 102% a year from 2023 to 2025, from USD 96 million to USD 391 million, far faster than the 17% rise in data-centre electricity use the IEA reported. At our USD 485,000 per megawatt-year, USD 391 million equals about 810 MW on hire. If each year of grid wait keeps about 1.2 MW of rented capacity on site per MW of new campus load, a 5-year queue turns every 1 GW of delayed load into about 6 GW-years of rental demand.

The index changes how to read the market. Temporary power used to follow construction and storms, which come and go; bridging contracts tie it to grid queues that last years. Douglas Insights therefore forecasts the data-centre line from queue length and campus pipelines, not from construction spending.

How does the methodology turn 41 gigawatts into USD 19.89 billion?

Our methodology multiplies about 41.0 GW of average capacity on hire in 2025 by USD 485,000 per megawatt-year to reach USD 19.89 billion, then grows capacity 5.0% a year and price 1.4% a year.

The model covers 4 technologies, 6 end uses and 5 regions, using 56 data points, 22 sourced and 34 modelled. Capacity comes from a regional build: about 15.0 GW in North America, 9.2 GW in Europe, 8.4 GW in Asia Pacific, 5.4 GW in the Middle East and Africa and 3.0 GW in Latin America, Douglas Insights estimates drawn from Aggreko’s 8.7 GW generation fleet, rental company revenue and fleet utilisation of about 60%. Arithmetic: 41,000 MW x USD 485,000 = USD 19.89 billion; USD 19.89 billion x (1.050 x 1.014)^10 = USD 37.22 billion. Capacity reaches about 43.1 GW in 2026 and 66.8 GW in 2035.

Two cross-checks agree. First, Aggreko’s 8.7 GW of generation at about 60% utilisation is about 5.2 GW on hire, or USD 2.5 billion at our rate, close to the roughly USD 2.3 billion of power revenue we infer from its USD 3.4 billion total. Second, the data-centre line of USD 2.19 billion implies about 4.5 GW on hire for data centres, consistent with Aggreko’s 11% data-centre mix and the 247 MW permit at a single xAI site. AI tools help draft the text and automated checks test the arithmetic and links; the Douglas Insights research desk chooses the sources, builds the model and approves publication, as our editorial standards explain.

Sources

1. US SEC Aggreko Inc. Form F-1/A (2026)
2. US SEC Aggreko Inc. Form F-1 (2026)
3. Aggreko Aggreko bridges the grid power gap (2026)
4. APR Energy New APR Energy deploys 100MW of mobile gas turbines (2025)
5. Jacksonville Daily Record FTC filing identifies Elon Musk as buyer (2026)
6. US SEC United Rentals Q3 2026 results, Exhibit 99.1 (2026)
7. RER United Rentals tops USD 16 billion in 2025 revenue (2026)
8. Sunbelt Rentals Sunbelt Rentals FY2026 Q4 results (2026)
9. Herc Holdings Herc completes acquisition of H&E (2025)
10. Herc via Business Wire Herc FY2025 results (2026)
11. US SEC Herc Q3 2026 results (2026)
12. Loxam Loxam 2025 results (2026)
13. Kiloutou Kiloutou 2025 results (2026)
14. Speedy Hire RNS Speedy Hire final results (2026)
15. Atlas Copco Atlas Copco Q4 2025 results presentation (2026)
16. Rehlko Rehlko completes acquisition of the Wilmott Group (2025)
17. Utility Dive Caterpillar posts highest sales quarter ever (2026)
18. US SEC Cummins Q3 2026 results (2026)
19. US SEC Generac Q3 2026 results (2026)
20. IEA Data centre electricity use surged in 2025 (2026)
21. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory United States Data Center Energy Usage Report 2025 update (2026)
22. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Queued Up 2026 edition (2026)
23. US EIA US electricity consumption to reach record highs (2025)
24. TechCrunch xAI gets permits for 15 natural gas generators (2025)
25. USAFacts Federal disaster declarations (2026)
26. US Census Bureau Construction spending, December 2025 (2026)
27. Eni Eni products for Milano Cortina 2026 (2025)
28. IOC Milano Cortina 2026 advances sustainability (2026)
29. FIFA Request for expressions of interest: temporary infrastructure (2024)
30. FEMA Schedule of Equipment Rates 2025 (2025)
31. legislation.gov.uk Regulation (EU) 2016/1628 Annex II (2016)
32. eCFR 40 CFR 1039.101 (2026)
33. CARB CARB PERP Tier 3 notice (2025)
34. Greater London Authority Non-road mobile machinery (2026)
35. US EPA RICE memo on Duke Energy regulatory interpretation (2025)

What counts in the temporary power study, and what is excluded?

The temporary power study counts rental and service revenue from hired generators, mobile turbines, battery and hybrid units, load banks and distribution equipment. Fuel resale, equipment sold outright, permanent independent power plants and temperature control rental are excluded.

The study splits value by 4 technologies, 6 end uses and 5 regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. Small consumer units appear in our Portable Inverter Generator Market report, grid-constrained computing in the Data Center as a Bottleneck Market study and rented chillers in the Industrial Temperature Control Services Market report.