Tyson Robinett and Alex Hawes with Central Power Systems and Services

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Propane Education Research Council, Industrial Talk podcast, power generation, Central Power Systems, Tyson Robinett, Alex Hawes, generators, multi-fuel, data centers, supply chain, utility power, AI boom, venture capital, distribution gear.

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This episode of Industrial Talk is brought to you by the propane Education and Research Council committed to advancing safety training and innovative propane power technology across industries. Learn more@propane.com

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The propane Education Research Council leading the way in cleaner, safer and more efficient energy future.

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Welcome to the Industrial Talk podcast with Scott MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots,

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and let's go all right once again. Welcome to Industrial Talk. Thank you very much for joining the number one industrial related podcast in the universe that celebrates you industry professionals all around the world. You are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly, you innovate, you collaborate. You're solving problems each and every day. That's why you're making the world a better place. That's why we celebrate you on Industrial Talk. We are broadcasting here at power Gen. It is in San Antonio, and if you're not here, you're missing out. You're missing out on a lot of great problem solvers. We have two in the hot seat. One is Ed. It's Robinett right there. Tyson Robinett and Alex Hawes got the front door. Let's get cracking. There was Central Power Systems and Services. Let's get cracking. You guys doing man, good. You guys showed up on time. You know what's great. I didn't have to text you. I didn't have to say, Hey, come on vibe.

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If you're on time, you're late, right?

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Yeah, doggone it. Do I appreciate that? They're awesome. So are you guys having a good show? We are fantastic.

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Show we are good turnout.

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Lots of folks, meet a lot of people.

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I mean, are you? Are you closing deals? Yeah. I mean, everything starts with an introduction, right? It's, it's

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talking about, it just talking. It's, yes, it's about people. It's about, know that it probably screwed up the cameras. Because, I just say, because it is, you know, it's interesting. So I digress, because I can, it's, it's what I do is that I think in the world of AI, I think there is going to be a backlash. I want the human being. Yes, I want that human to human interaction. I want to know, like and trust you, and that means having those conversations. There it is, absolutely

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I'm ready to wrap this. I'm fatigued.

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Okay, we're gonna start with you, Alex. Give us a little background on who you are.

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Yeah. So I'm Alex. Hawes, been with Central Power for five years now. Prior to Central Power, I was in the distributor world. Worked for a company called VA supply out of Kansas City. Started out in sales for us, yep, and as things progressed, moved into the sales manager role for our power distribution, which is everything electrical related outside of like generators, transfer switches, paralleling, boards,

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stuff like that. So yeah, you need to, you need to know this company, Iris, we need to talk about that. Yeah, they're there. It's good stuff. You need it. They're good people. Yeah, absolutely. All right.

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for the listeners out there, what I mean when you go to your booth, you've got big equipment there, yeah, yeah, something rolled in there and it's big and it's, it's pretty powerful, yeah, back then, would you ever consider something that you're saying, look at that man, that's what we're doing.

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See. And then you were Robin, have you? Have you seen his cars?

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Oh, yes, sir, yes, we have,

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is it loud? Oh, yeah, unfortunately, we have one here. They won't let us start it, regrettably. But boy, it would in this, this concrete building, that'd be cool, wouldn't it?

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Yeah, you may not be able to hear this podcast. No, work quite a ways away.

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No, hey, yeah, because you guys are in. Then what? I don't know where you're at. You're way over that

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next to center stage. Center stage, I would give

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it anything. And they're fast.

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They are very fast.

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Yes, does Robin race him? He does. He jumps in. Oh yes.

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He drives. Nobody else drives. He drives. He drives. Oh yes. He's very involved.

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Yes, they're custom built around his frame and stature, because typically it's a little bit somebody a little bit shorter that drives drag cars and shot with his eye, those seats are kind of pushed back a little ways for him. Yeah, he's a big boy.

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Yeah, yep. Well, see that's his passion.

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Yeah, I was so funny when I talked to them last year. It was last year, yeah, and I made a comment about cars right over I said, Hey, you should put one of those things in the book. And I didn't know, I didn't know anything. Of course, he went off on a tangent. And then I thought, holy cow, this is good stuff, man.

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And the next year, he brought one, yeah,

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and he should, of course, of course, I went out to the the the World Wide Web and saw it, and it's like, That's good stuff. Yeah, okay, see, we've already burned up. Yeah, six minutes talking about everything other than Central Power systems. All right, all right, Alex, there's a lot of buzz. There's a lot of demand. Where do you find Central Power Systems and Services fit that? What's that niche? Woody, I mean, there's come on you, you know, as well as I do, there's a lot of generators out there. There's a lot of engines roaming around there. There's a lot of things that are out on skids out there, that that are all looking impressive from the, you know, an an eye like mine. So talk to us about that.

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Yeah, so where we feel like we differentiate ourselves from some of these other manufacturers and people that are out on the floor right now is we're more than just a generator company. We're really a solutions provider. So if somebody has a problem or a need at hand, we work really, really well with a lot of our partners throughout the country to find the right fit solution. Most of that is in regards to timelines that we see. You know, the lack of

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product availability. I don't know how you guys do it. I don't, because

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it's all about people. So, you know, yeah,

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because the demand is there, right? There's this, and I it's sort of an interesting time, right? It's just, is the demand is there? How do you deal with that rabid demand? People want power. People need power. People want power tomorrow. And it's just, it puts a strain on on companies like yours, Tyson, to be able to satisfy the demands

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of the market, sure, and really, it's more than just the power itself. It's Alex's point. It's it's the distribution gear, it's the transformers, it's the UPS, systems. See, it's the bus way, there's all sorts of things in there. And what we do is Alex's point, we try to bring it together. Be a solution provider. Are you saying?

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Are you addressing the supply chain?

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Yes, yep, yes.

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Because, because it's one thing to say, Yeah, we got to right there. There's a generator. It's on the skin. We're going to take it out there, we're going to plop it there. We're going to do it. But there's so many other components you get to hook that bad boy off course, right?

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Absolutely. And with us, it's really about working with all those varied suppliers, custom builders all around the country that can really take something and bring it together. You know, we ask customers, what's your pain point? What's what's causing you the most problems? And we'll see if we can help solve it. And really, we have, we have no limitations. We we look at everything with a with a fresh sheet of paper. What can we find? Where can we source it? What can we put together from a variety of places to take care of the customer. And that's really, I think, where we found our success.

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Yeah, because, and I'll be the first to admit, I get pretty starry eyed when I walk around this floor and I'm thinking, that's cool, that's cool, but, but recognize that, and that's why your name has that service that's, yeah, that makes sense, because there are a lot of manufacturers that manufacture a generator, whatever you know, is your solution, Alex, is your solution? Multi fuel? Can you I mean, it's natural gas or diesel, whatever is it multi fuel capable? Yeah, we

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so we manufacture a diesel generator for data center client of ours, and then we also manufacture natural gas units that are mobile prime power, that are designed for the oil and gas, or we can tie them in and parallel them together for data center clients or industrial clients

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that need power gas centers. Boom, boom, boom. I'm going to be going down that road right now. How have from from Central Power, you know, Tyson, what are we talking about? Size? Is there something that's like, Yeah, we don't, we don't deal with that side. We deal with this, but we don't deal with that.

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No, there's really no limitations on size. I mean, I. Obviously, for single units, there is a limitation in what we provide, most of it being either diesel or natural gas products. There's somewhere between 2.7 3.25 Meg in a single unit. But there's no limitations to what we can parallel together, you know? So what we can bring together? So if you needed, you know, what do you got

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out there? Tell me what Central Power has out there? What's your largest parallel solution?

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Gosh, we have got projects with 103

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megs, yeah. And we've also have even for bridge solutions, for data centers and what they can't get utility power fast enough. We'll take some of like the 400 KW we have in our booth right now. We'll put up to 50 of those together on one site. It's very scalable, it's very affordable, it's very fuel efficient, and we're soon to be releasing a natural gas product up to 2.7 megawatt. So yeah, whatever we don't we come to a certain size, and after that we parallel and we scale.

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What do you do with a situation where it seems like a real estate issue? There's a real estate of course, you know? I mean, I, I can scale and parallel and do everything, and it could be the size of this conference center. I can't but it, but I'm a data center. I'm I'm limited in my my footprint, so they've got to design that in such a way. Do you guys help with sort of making that? It's like, Hey, I see where you're going. I just Alex,

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yeah, yeah, we will absolutely help design based off of what their footprint availability is, and design it based around that. So, you know, I always tell people, there's kind of like three sides to a triangle. I want something yesterday. Bumper sticker, yeah, it really revolves around what are, what are your biggest I'm not going to give this up. Statements that you have. This is what I have to have in these and we're willing to vary from this stuff over here.

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See, I like that. I like that a lot because it just does. It's but, you know, Tyson, there's a lot of buzz out there. There's a lot of demand. What are the challenges? What do you see are really challenging and and putting a pinch on on that objective? I mean, it's one thing to say, Yeah, we need power. We need power. But come on, let's be real

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well for customers, obviously, the the biggest, the biggest obstacle is utility power. You know, they just either can't get it or they can't get it fast enough. Sometimes, this is they can't get it at a site period. Sometimes utility tells them it's going to be one years, two years before I think I can get you utility power. Well, they have to be up. So then we get into bridging solutions, you know, with generators to carry that gap from the moment they they need the power to when they can actually get it from utility. And then our products might turn into more of a backup, you know, world after that. But it really is. It's a challenge. This whole industry is really stretched, you know, so many suppliers, so many manufacturers, and just various supply chain manufacturing capabilities. And some of these pieces, like, you can get the large Gen sets, you know, three megs and up, you know, there's those blocks are enormous. There's only so many places that can cast those blocks, yeah. And can machine those blocks, yeah, you know. And what? It just, so, yeah, it's, it's just, it's, it's, it's challenges at every corner, but it's also opportunities. But see, it's

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also, I look at the capital markets, right? Just, Oh, it's great. Thank you very much. I'm glad you're saying that this is wonderful and it's great stuff, but the reality is, well, that money, yes, and be able to do that and have it available, or everything else, you know, stops, yeah, yeah. So what do you? How do you? Does? Does Central Power. Alex, does Central Power help without you. You're saying, Hey, I see a company's doing this. And I mean, capital is

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everything it is. Can you explain a little bit more on what you're asking on that I

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need money. I have a vision that I need. I need a I need my megawatts. But I just, there's so much capital that is necessary, it puts a strain on you. Yes, I mean, it's like if I came to you and I said, Hey, I need, I need five of these, and you're gonna say, well, that's great. Show me the money. And then there's, it's just, it's a money game.

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It is, well, we're, we're not a finance institution. So we can work with customers. We can help get them in touch with people who can help. That's that's key, yes, but you know, there's really, boy, there is so much venture capital that is interested in the kind of things that we see here. There's a lot of private equity, there's a lot of venture capital, there's a lot of institutional investors. So, you know, when somebody has a good idea to to get that money. It's a challenge, of course, but there are people that are interested in, you know, willing to participate and help finance those sorts of things.

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Yeah, I just think that when you start looking at all of the the financial touch points in this particular and coming up with a success again, it's. It's easy for me to say, Yeah, I need a generator out there. Yeah, yeah, boy. That just brings about just a series of questions and and solutions. It's not just financial, it's all logistics. It's all everything. It's an amazing major thing, of course. All right, what are some of the, let's say, from your perspective, Alex, put your future cap on what are we seeing? Where you think it's going? What? What's that? Because i What is it?

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I think it's the data center market, to be honest with you, on the AI boom. I mean, that's that's really driving a lot of the supply chain issues that I see where solution driven opportunities are forming a lot of these developers, the builders, the general contractors, even the end users. It's more about how fast can you get me the equipment so I can turn this stuff on, so I can turn my machine learning on, so it can start learning, yeah, rather than what's the cost? It's, it's a lead time.

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I think supply chain is a, is a

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big deal. Yeah, it's, it's, it's almost back to where covid levels were, in all honesty. And it's, it's because of this AI boom, the data center boom, the growth of that industry.

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Yeah, because I could say, Hey, I got a generator out there. That's fine. I had it delivered. Now I need the transformer. I need this. I need this, I need this. And everything's going out there. It's all great. It's on time, except for that one product, one thing that's keeping me from getting up,

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yeah, it can even be just as simple as

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a breaker. Fantastic. That's That's exactly correct. You guys gonna be at distribute tech.

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Don't believe we have plans on that one just yet, not

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sure, because they talk about breakers. You talk about all of it. Yeah, it's all it's definitely all there, most definitely All right, if I were to a betting guy and I want to get a hold of you, Tyson, how would I do that?

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Boy, LinkedIn works. Great. I'm on LinkedIn.

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They were coached.

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Yeah. Alex is on LinkedIn.

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Everybody's on LinkedIn, everybody's on LinkedIn, Alex and Tyson, you guys are great. Well, thank you.

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Thanks, Scott. Appreciate you having us on it's,

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it's, it's a conversation that's way above my pay grade. I'm just telling you right now. I don't know how that happens. I don't know. It's just Outstanding, outstanding. Thank you very much. All right, we're gonna have all the contact information for these two jets out on Industrial Talks. So fear not. We will have them. You need to connect with them. They're doing great things. I like the service part of all of this. It's one thing to be able to spit out generators. It's another thing to be able to really commit to the success of that climb. How about that? You can use that. I'm going to use the three sided. A triangle has three sides. Yes, it does, no doubt about it. All right. Once again, we're broadcasting from power Gen. San Antonio is the location great people you get to meet people like Tyson and Alex. They're all around. They're all around. They're great people. All right, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned. We will be right back.

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You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

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Another, another conversation banger that was power Gen. That is an exciting market. Power Generation is an exciting market. You go to that event, you wander around, get you know, you use your eyeballs and you see what's going on, and you have conversations with these individuals, and you will be dazzled. It's an exciting time. It's always exciting. Industry's exciting. Yeah, you need to be involved. You need to do this, whatever industry you decide it's there. Power Gen the two gens, Alex and Tyson, the company have the business card right in front of me, just because I don't want to mess that up, because I can mess it up, Central Power, systems and services. I always get the Central Power, but it's, it's, you know, systems and services. So make a note of that, because all of their contact information is out on Industrial Talk. We're here. Industrial Talk is here. We're trying to work diligently to create this network. And the reason why we want to create this network is because you, your voice needs to be heard. You need to tell your story. You need to inspire the next generation of industrial leaders. That's why Industrial Talk is here. You need to be a part of it, just like Alex and Tyson, be a part of it. It's painless, it's fun, and you get to tell your story, and you get you get to use all the social platforms to be able to sort of bring that. Whole Life, doesn't you know, out there on social, it's all good. It's all good. Industrial Talk. All you have to do is go out to Industrial Talk.com. Click say, Hey Scott, let's have a conversation. We do marketing. We do it all. We want you. Yes, you out on video. We want you to succeed. That means get that message out. That means getting attention and eyeballs on your solutions, and that means being able to inspire that next generation, to be able to create that business that is resilient. You can tell I've thought through all of this. It's I can really get excited about this, and you are definitely the heroes in this story. All right. You need to connect with Alex and Tyson. That's number one. You need to go out to Industrial Talk and connect with me. That's number two. And we're gonna have again, great conversations coming from power. Gents, be bold, be brave. Derek, greatly hang out with these two gents. Change of the world. We're going to have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned.