Behind-the-meter generation

Behind-the-meter generation designates electrical generation installed on the consumer side of the meter, powering a site directly without passing through the public distribution grid. For data centres facing grid saturation and connection delays of several years, this approach allows powering from dedicated sources, gas plants, fuel cells, even small nuclear projects, bypassing the connection queue. It turns the digital operator into an energy producer, with the corresponding responsibilities. For insurance, this model shifts a substantial share of risk toward generation assets the operator has historically mastered poorly, adding industrial perils, explosion, mechanical failure, environmental liability, to the IT risk. The combination of a high-value compute asset and a generation asset on the same site concentrates a multi-peril exposure whose assessment requires industrial and energy underwriting skills.

An operator installing a dedicated gas plant behind the meter to power its servers combines energy generation risk and IT risk on a single site.

behind-the-meter, production derrière le compteur, autoproduction