Joe Rudie, Operational Manager at Hanley Energy Electrical talks about how, from our facility in Boardman, Oregon, we’ve been meeting rising demand for the specialized services Hanley Energy and Hanley Energy Electrical (HEE) provide.
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How Hanley Energy is Winning in the West
The 2024 opening of a new $12m HQ in Ashburn, Virginia, illustrated the continued growth of Hanley Energy US East, but Data Center Alley isn’t the only location where business is booming. Hanley Energy also have a respected presence in the west too, serving a number of customers out of our Boardman, Oregon facility. Here’s how our team on the West Coast is meeting the rising demand for the niche technical services that Hanley Energy and Hanley Energy Electrical can provide.
Hanley Energy’s first foothold in the West was laid down in March 2016, serving one client on a short-term contract in Boardman, Oregon. Back then, there were relatively few data centers in the region. Today, there are 23 in Boardman alone and 100+ in Oregon.
Our early operations certainly reflected the pioneering spirit that’s celebrated in the folklore of the West. As recently as 2020, we had five employees in Oregon, working from their vehicles and a 20-foot shipping container.
One of the first five out west was then-US West Regional Manager Joe Rudie (now Operational Manager at HEE), who joined Hanley Energy in February 2020, coming from an electrical contracting background. Joe remembers flying to Virginia to meet Hanley Energy founders Dennis Nordon and Clive Gilmore, expecting grand surroundings for a company with such a large global footprint. The reality was a quite modest office. When Joe shared his surprise, Dennis saw the compliment, replying that “We’re doing something right then.”
There was nothing understated about management’s ambitions, however, and Clive made it clear that the plan was to start a permanent electrical contracting business on the West Coast to align with the Virginia operation. By June 2020, Joe was out in Oregon setting up the licences.
The Origin of Our Oregon Operation
As often happens in the data center service sector, the clients outline the target destination and the support follows. The client our team was working with was investing heavily in Oregon and we were growing alongside them, albeit without a permanent residence of our own. That didn’t necessarily matter, because back in 2016 no one else was coming out to the west coast to compete at the same level, so our market share was steady at 20% (up to 50% today).
As long as we continued to overdeliver, more products came our way and we were able to expand our service offering and build the Hanley Energy reputation in the region to match our standing in Virginia.
Establishing a Permanent Foothold in Boardman
In 2020, during the pandemic, we opened a modest 1,200 sq ft brick and mortar office in Boardman, as well as a US West regional entity for our sister company HEE. In October 2022, we moved to a larger 11,000 sq ft facility, which currently accommodates 75 employees.
The Boardman region isn’t typical of wider Oregon, and that has been a big factor in its emergence as the favoured destination for data center operators. For a start, Boardman is in a warm, dry desert area away from seismic activity and most natural hazards. It also happens to be in an area with a substantial amount of affordable power production – especially from renewable and sustainable sources – and has abundant water for cooling. Not to mention the fact that there’s a lot of land available for the big players to stretch out and coexist in peace and relative privacy.
According to Joe, there’s a cultural nuance too. “These are [small ‘c’] conservative rural communities where people just want to get things done,” he says. There are those who might talk about the ‘Magic of the West’, but really it’s as simple as supporting each other and collaborating readily. To illustrate the point, Joe remembers the response of one of his electricians when he congratulated him on a job well done. The electrician declined to take credit and sent Joe a list of all the people on his team who’d played a part in the project’s success.
“The leaders on the west coast are very mindful to make sure that they are giving credit where credit is due. It’s the people who are going to do these jobs who are making a difference, not just the managers,” he notes.
Expanding to the Bay Area and Beyond
Oregon has established itself as the most popular state for major data center providers after Virginia, not least because of favourable tax incentives and lower property taxes, but the Bay Area is only two hours away and within the catchment area for business.
By customer request, Hanley Energy now supports a large number of buildings throughout the Bay Area that belong to our Oregon clients. Being flexible and ready to scale to the customer’s need is key to unlocking further opportunities.
Much of our work in the regions has been focused on intelligent changeover panel refits, a complex task with a lot of associated risks. These refits, which allow power to be switched over to a generator if the source quality isn’t satisfactory, typically have to be deployed in buildings that are already operating. They’re a fundamental function for mission-critical buildings so the stakes are high for both partners. Nevertheless, the quality of the work done by our HEE teams in the Bay Area of California has been so consistently high that further opportunities are emerging throughout the US West Coast region.
Tapping into Local Talent
Each location has its recruitment hurdles to overcome. Nevertheless, Hanley Energy has made a considerable effort to recruit people to the region and employ local resources as much as possible.
Being an active participant in the growth of the region supports that effort. Hanley Energy engages with local communities to give back in the areas we’re operating in. From supporting kids’ youth clubs, to being involved in 4th July parades with Boardman Chamber of Commerce, to charity golf tournaments (where our team take part to show their support), we’re establishing a strong and supportive local presence.
For our projects in the Bay Area, there’s a different recruitment challenge to address. Talent is so abundant in San Francisco, despite the cost of living, that competition is ferocious. In response, the company works even harder to make sure existing employees are satisfied, so that skilled staff are not lured away to competitors.
One feature that helps Hanley Energy and Hanley Energy Electrical compete in the recruitment market is the exceptional training on offer. Whatever their level of experience, new hires can expect to be working hands-on with cutting edge technology, with the best tools at their disposal.
What Does the Future Hold?
Less than ten years after we started with a single client in Oregon, we now have a steady stream of new business. Our reputation continues to spread, but our focus remains fixed on preserving our status as a niche contractor. We’re the company cloud computing customers who have control systems and need critical power controls’ call to keep their data centers up and running.
As long as we maintain that unique market position, we can expect to grow with the sector. All the major tech companies are currently adding square footage in Oregon, and we’re in a great position to be the partner they choose to support operations. We’re also planning to use our stronghold in Oregon to bring Salt Lake City, UT and Phoenix, AZ, into the West Coast region. At that rate of expansion, we can expect staff numbers in our west coast division to increase accordingly over the next three years.
“It helps that Hanley Energy is a customer obsessed organization,” says Joe. “Our service is why people come back. We perform, to solve the customer’s problem, whereas other companies might be more rigid and less willing to work outside of a framework.”
As in Virginia, our reputation in the West is built on trust, and clients trust us to deliver.
To find out more about our work in Oregon, and how Hanley Energy and Hanley Energy Electrical are supporting the next generation of data centers on the West Coast, click here: https://www.heellc.com
