EPC Power's Carolina Bet: Fueling the AI Boom, Securing America's Grid

FOUNTAIN INN, SC – July 15, 2026 – In the quiet Upstate of South Carolina, a critical component for the global AI revolution is now rolling off a new production line. EPC Power, a key player in power conversion technology, today unveiled a 167,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, a move that does more than just triple its production capacity. It represents a significant strategic maneuver in the high-stakes race to power the future of artificial intelligence while simultaneously addressing the profound vulnerabilities in America's energy infrastructure and supply chains.

The new plant, which will create 275 new skilled jobs, is a direct response to a market grappling with an unprecedented challenge: the voracious and volatile energy consumption of AI data centers. By bringing a massive 27 gigawatts of annual inverter production capacity online—scalable to 40 GW—EPC Power is making a calculated bet that the future of digital dominance will be won not just with silicon chips, but with the sophisticated power electronics that keep them running.

The Anatomy of an Energy Crisis

The explosive growth of artificial intelligence is creating a silent crisis for the world's power grids. The sheer scale of the demand is staggering. According to JLL's 2026 Global Data Center Market Outlook, the industry is on track to add nearly 100 GW of new capacity by 2030, effectively doubling the current global footprint. This expansion is driven almost entirely by the computational demands of AI models, which require power on a scale that dwarfs traditional data processing.

But it's not just the volume of energy that's problematic; it's the nature of the demand. Industry experts note that AI workloads create highly dynamic and unpredictable load profiles. Unlike the relatively stable power draw of older data centers, AI applications can cause power demands to swing by many megawatts in mere milliseconds. These “transient load swings” send shockwaves through electrical grids that were designed for predictability, risking instability and blackouts. Utilities and grid operators are finding themselves unprepared for this new era of volatile, high-intensity demand, creating a significant bottleneck for AI expansion.

This is the problem EPC Power aims to solve. The company's expansion isn't just about making more hardware; it's about manufacturing a specific technological solution designed to act as a shock absorber between the ravenous AI data centers and the fragile grid.

Forging a Domestic Solution

At the heart of the new Fountain Inn facility is the production of EPC Power’s M and MRACK series power inverters, equipped with the company's proprietary Agile Grid Forming™ technology. These are not standard inverters. They are intelligent systems designed to manage the chaotic power demands unique to AI. The technology allows the inverters to respond almost instantaneously to fluctuations, smoothing out the volatile load swings before they can destabilize the grid.

In essence, these inverters create a stable microgrid environment for the data center, drawing power from the grid when stable and using integrated battery storage systems to handle the sudden peaks and troughs in demand. This capability not only ensures the data center runs reliably—a mission-critical requirement for AI operations—but also protects the broader public utility infrastructure from the strain. The M series inverters, for example, are built in 500-kW blocks that can be paired with various battery chemistries, providing the flexibility needed for both data center backup and utility-scale energy storage projects.

The immediate addition of 27 GW of annual capacity is a figure that requires context. It's a massive volume of power conversion capability, enough to support a significant portion of the new data center construction projected over the next several years. By manufacturing these systems at scale in the U.S., the company is providing a direct, domestically sourced solution to one of the biggest hurdles facing the tech industry.

The Geopolitics of a Power Inverter

EPC Power's consistent emphasis on being an “independent, American-owned manufacturer” producing all its inverters in the U.S. is far more than a marketing slogan; it's a core strategic advantage in an increasingly fractured global landscape. The recent memory of pandemic-era supply chain disruptions, coupled with ongoing geopolitical tensions, has made domestic sourcing for critical infrastructure a matter of national security.

While global industrial giants like Siemens, ABB, and Schneider Electric offer competing power electronics, EPC Power carves out a vital niche. For utility operators, government agencies, and data center developers subject to “Buy American” provisions or simply seeking to mitigate risk, a secure, domestic supply chain for a component as critical as a power inverter is invaluable.

“Our expansion in South Carolina is a direct response to the AI infrastructure investment and power demands we're seeing worldwide,” said Jim Fusaro, CEO at EPC Power. “By tripling our capacity, we're giving data center and utility operators access to more critical components domestically, which de-risks their expansion plans and strengthens supply chain resilience.”

This statement cuts to the core of the issue. Building a multi-billion dollar data center is a monumental undertaking, and its success can be jeopardized by the inability to source a single critical component. By onshoreing the entire manufacturing process, the company is effectively selling certainty and security alongside its technology—a powerful combination in today's market.

South Carolina's Growing Tech Hub

This major investment is also a significant win for South Carolina, reinforcing the state's quiet transformation into a destination for advanced manufacturing and technology. The 275 new positions at the Fountain Inn plant are not just assembly-line jobs; available postings call for skilled roles including production managers, quality engineers, test technicians, and electrical engineers. This follows the company's initial 2022 investment in nearby Mauldin, which brought 150 jobs to the region.

State and local officials have actively courted companies like EPC Power, recognizing that such investments create a powerful ripple effect. They bolster the local economy, raise the median income with high-paying technical jobs, and build a regional ecosystem of expertise that attracts further investment. This new facility is a testament to a deliberate economic development strategy focused on positioning the state at the forefront of emerging industries like renewable energy and the digital infrastructure that supports them.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony in Fountain Inn, therefore, marked more than just the opening of a factory. It signified a crucial link being forged in America’s 21st-century industrial strategy, where the ambition of artificial intelligence is directly connected to the resilience of the nation’s manufacturing base and the stability of its power grid.