About GridReadiness
GridReadiness combines market advisory depth with on-the-ground HV technical expertise.
That combination tells you not just whether a site is available — but whether its grid connection will actually work, on the timeline you need, with the transformer procurement path to back it up. That is a different answer from what a site database or a general consultant provides.
THE PRACTICE
GridReadiness is a market advisory and advisory practice focused on the physical bottlenecks blocking AI data center deployment in France and Europe: grid connection timelines, HV transformer procurement, and brownfield site identification. Founded in 2026 by Frédéric Arnaud, with technical validation by Xavier W..
One subject. Deep. No junior staffing. No open-ended retainers. Every mandate begins with a framing call and concludes with a written deliverable and a documented verdict. The practice serves developers, infrastructure funds, and hyperscalers evaluating AI data center deployment in France in the 2026–2029 window.
THE THESIS
GridReadiness was founded from one observation: the conversation about AI infrastructure was dominated by compute — GPUs, chips, data center construction costs. The power infrastructure layer — grid connections, transformers, substations — was barely covered, poorly understood, and consistently underestimated as a deployment risk.
In 2026, that gap closed in the worst possible way. 85% of major AI data center projects are delayed or cancelled because of power infrastructure. The US government declared transformers a national security emergency under the Defense Production Act. Northern Virginia's grid queue stretches a decade. Meanwhile, France has what the US needs now: nuclear baseload at €50–70/MWh, brownfield industrial sites with existing HV connections, and EU transformer manufacturers delivering in 20–32 months.
GridReadiness documents this gap and helps developers and investors navigate it — with the specificity that general market advisory cannot provide.
THE TEAM
Fifteen years of general management across two complementary environments: building a company from zero to a structured organisation with a €1.5M fundraise, and leading an established SME through an ownership transition. That double background produces a reading of infrastructure projects that pure technicians and pure financiers do not share — the founder urgency and the institutional patience, simultaneously.
At Celerant/Hitachi Consulting, He spent years analysing industrial bottlenecks for major European groups — Ishikawa root cause analysis, value stream mapping, long lead time industrial supply chains. The AI power infrastructure crisis is the same analytical problem applied to a new industry: where is the constraint, what is its timeline, and how do you route around it? The answer — France brownfield sites, EU second-tier transformer manufacturers, nuclear baseload — is available to anyone who looks at the supply chain with the right lens.
Our founder is not an electrical engineer. He is a CEO and industrial supply chain analyst who reads the transformer and grid connection market as what it is: an industrial supply chain with long lead times, monopoly risks, and geographic constraints that most technology investors do not understand. GridReadiness provides the lens.
30+ years of HV technical expertise across RTE and Enedis, specialising in HTB grid connections, industrial HV procurement, and on-site transformer assessment. Xavier is the field layer of GridReadiness — the person who goes on site, confirms the substation condition, validates the grid connection feasibility, and tells you whether a brownfield HTB asset is recoverable or not.
That on-site capability is what separates GridReadiness from every intelligence service that relies on public data alone. A 1,400 MW former thermal station shows a 400 kV connection on the RTE map. Xavier tells you whether the substation was maintained, whether the transformer is functional, whether the connection can be reactivated in 6 months or requires 24 months of works. Those are different answers.
Xavier operates independently and engages on GridReadiness mandates on a project basis. He joins debrief calls when technical validation is required and conducts on-site assessments for brownfield HTB confirmation mandates.
WHAT GRIDREADINESS IS — AND IS NOT
Grid connection feasibility · transformer procurement intelligence · brownfield HTB site identification · deployment timeline modelling · water stress assessment · GridScore™ evaluation
Out of scope
Structural engineering · building permits · data center architecture · cooling design · IT procurement · legal and regulatory compliance beyond grid · engineering execution · construction management
The difference from general DC consulting
General data center consultants cover everything. GridReadiness covers one subject — power infrastructure — with the depth that comes from exclusive focus, monthly data tracking, a proprietary brownfield site database, and on-the-ground HV technical expertise. If your question is whether your grid connection will work on the timeline you need, that is the question GridReadiness answers.
Every engagement begins with a 30-minute framing call. No preparation required.
frederic@gridreadiness.com · gridreadiness.com · Response within 24 hours