Industry Segments for Diesel Generator Sets

Sectors are industries within the market, for example: telecoms, data centers, healthcare, oil & gas, mining. Looking at the market in this way can be useful in product development where a sector has specific product needs. 

And a good understanding of sectors helps you tailor your marketing communication for each. 

Looking at segments gets into customer behavior that may cut across sectors.  For example, a customer buying a generator set for a critical application is likely to approach its purchase in a different way to someone buying for a commercial reason, or because regulations require them to install a source of standby power.  Someone operating a generator set for 3,000 or more hours a year will think differently about its purchase than someone buying for light standby usage.  

Sometimes an industry sector can be treated as an entire segment all of its own because customer needs and behavior are very specific to it: the rental sector is a good example.  

From 7.5 - 1,500 kVA

Commercial Segment

Particularly at lower power ratings, the Commercial segment is dominant at around 80% of the market opportunity and spread across a wide range of applications. With opportunity scattered widely, broad distribution coverage is required to reach customers.  

Around a quarter of the entire global market from 7.5 - 1,500 kVA is accounted for by light usage in the Commercial segment, below 150 hours a year.  These are just in case products and much of this opportunity is in North America, Europe, parts of the Middle East and mature markets in Asia Pacific.  

At the other end of the scale, a quarter of the entire global market from 7.5 - 1,500 kVA is accounted for by higher usage (1,000+ hours a year) in the Commercial segment and 15% of the global market is accounted for by units operating more than 2,000 hours a year, all of them being worked extremely hard and regularly requiring parts and service.  

Critical Segment

Most installed diesel generator sets in the Critical segment are accounted for by the telecoms sector with generator sets commonly used in remote regions where there is no grid connection or where there are significant power outages.  

Globally, although most diesel generator sets at smaller ratings fall into the Commercial segment, in Africa and parts of Asia and the Middle East, the Critical segment can be significant, around 25 - 30% of the regional opportunity, driven by sectors such as telecoms, banking and healthcare. 

Around two thirds of the market from 7.5 - 1,500kVA is held by independent packagers buying in their own components, including engines.  A few of them are global players but more often they are smaller operators, mainly serving their own regional markets.

Above 1,500 kVA

Above 1,500 kVA, the market is skewed strongly towards critical applications and lighter standby usage in the Commercial segment. Together these account for around 70% of the global opportunity above 1,500 kVA.  Most of the market, around 75%, is held by premium vertically integrated OEMs, all of them major global players. 

Critical Segment

Over the last decade and particularly in the last 2 - 3 years, the data center sector has been a major driver of growth in the Critical segment.  The chart on the right shows the Critical segment at almost 40% of the total installed population above 1,500 kVA.  Most of these units are operating for light standby usage.  

Commercial Segment

The Commercial segment accounts for around 60% of the market and, again is heavily skewed towards light standby usage, with around a third of the market accounted for by units operating less than 150 hours a year, most of them in North America, Europe and other mature markets.