About GridReadiness, an independent data center consulting firm
One contact. The right experts for every issue of your data centers.
A data center project depends on issues no single discipline covers: regulation, grid connection, equipment, permits, local acceptance, financing. GridReadiness brings independent specialists in each of them together, coordinated by a single point of contact.
WHO WE ARE
GridReadiness is a pure-play data center consulting and owner's representative firm, independent of design and construction. Backed by a network of independent experts, from grid connection and the PTF to local acceptance and crisis management, GridReadiness supports you on market intelligence, grid connection audits, equipment audits, electrical and standards audits, independent project coordination (Readiness Manager), see also our consulting firm overview, regulatory compliance, lender and investor due diligence, support for elected officials and public bodies, crisis management, and expert staffing for long assignments.
We work for data center developers and operators, EPC contractors and electrical integrators, infrastructure funds, lenders, battery storage developers, and the municipalities and public bodies that host a project, in France and across Europe. Our market intelligence on grid and equipment bottlenecks (AI infrastructure intelligence) feeds every mission.
HOW WE WORK
A single point of contact scopes the mission, coordinates the experts and delivers. Independent experts are brought in as needed, each in their own field. Every mission is scoped in writing (scope, deliverables, timing) before it starts. Our independence rule: never, on the same project, for both the developer and the host community, and no commission on equipment or site transactions. If one of our experts is on assignment with a developer or an EPC contractor, we do not carry out the due diligence of that same project for a lender, nor support the host community on it.
How an engagement runs, step by step →
THE EXPERT NETWORK
Independent specialists in ten fields, from grid connection to permits, crisis management and financing. Among them: Xavier Watrelos, engineer (INSA Strasbourg), 20+ years of industrial projects including HV and MV grid connections, utilities and commissioning; Blandine Cazelles (IHEDN), crisis management and communication, with a network of senior experts; Geoffrey Garriga (Aix-en-Provence area) for energy compliance: tertiary decree, OPERAT, modulation files and BACS. Further experts are joining in permitting, community acceptance and finance. Meet the network.
HOW TO CHECK US
We think a client should be able to check a consulting firm before calling it. The company: GridReadiness is a brand operated by a company registered in France; its legal name, registration number and registered office are in our legal notice and on its public company record (Pappers). The people: the founder's career is on LinkedIn, and our experts are named, with their background, on the network page. The terms: a first call to understand your situation, then a written proposal for every mission, with scope, deliverables, timing and price. References: our missions are confidential by default; we share comparable references on request, with our clients' consent.
RECENT MISSIONS
Grid connection timeline review for a European data center developer: independent analysis of the connection documents and of the announced energisation date.
Equipment sourcing audit for a petrochemical group: review of suppliers, manufacturing lead times and supply risks to the project schedule.
FOUNDER
Frédéric Arnaud founded GridReadiness and coordinates its expert network. He started in financial audit at PwC, then in industrial performance consulting at Celerant Consulting (Hitachi Consulting), analysing bottlenecks and long-lead supply chains for major European groups.
He then spent fifteen years in general management: founder and CEO of a regulated services company that he took from zero to a structured organisation with a €1.5M fundraise, and managing director of an industrial SME for six years.
Not an electrical engineer, and proud to say so: a manager who reads a data center project as an industrial and financial operation, and who knows which expert to bring in, on which question, at what moment.
OUR CONVICTION
Compute ordered is not compute installed. Between a project announcement and a live data center sit the grid connection, high-voltage equipment, permits and local acceptance. That is where projects slip, and where an independent view pays for itself.
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A first exchange, confidential and free of commitment.
fred@gridreadiness.com · +33 6 63 93 78 35