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This five-part series explores the operational characteristics of diesel fuel, which is the most common form of industrial-scale backup generation. With the rapid rise of AI-driven data centers, the series will examine how conventional backup practices need to adapt to meet the industry’s growing demand for resiliency and performance.
The fourth installment looks at the operational and safety headaches that come with site logistics and security for diesel backup systems.
If you’ve ever tried to lock in guaranteed fuel supply during a regional crisis, you quickly learn that contracts and promises mean very little when the entire map is red. And that reality comes into sharp focus when you start looking at what it actually takes to store and move diesel fuel onsite. When people think about the storage and logistics related to diesel backup systems, they often picture a fuel tank or two located onsite and a couple of trucks rolling in when needed. But at the scale of a 500 MW data center, the reality couldn’t be further from that illusion. The logistics of simply storing, moving, and securing the fuel become a challenge that eats away at land, time, budget, and peace of mind.
Take storage, for example. A facility of this size needs around 1.7 M gal/MWh of diesel fuel gallons on hand to cover even 48 hours of run time. That isn’t a neat row of above-ground tanks tucked out of sight; it’s an entire tank farm that eats up valuable acreage. In hotspots like Northern Virginia, data center facilities already account for more than 43 million square feet of space and continue to expand into limited industrial zones. Dedicating a sizeable footprint on these properties to fuel storage means sacrificing expansion space or battling through painful permitting processes that delay construction timelines.
Then there’s the choreography of the trucks. Each one must supply dozens or even hundreds of fuel tanks, which could be a combination of belly tanks located directly under each unit and larger day or bulk storage tanks used to extend runtime. Belly tanks are common, but they typically only hold enough fuel for 12–24 hours of operation, so during an extended outage, both the belly and bulk tanks require constant resupply.
To keep the generators running, the deliveries don’t just roll up, dump fuel, and drive away. The trucks must be staged, checked, cleared, and carefully routed through secure campuses. Now picture the logistics around that same convoy of 200-plus trucks in the middle of an outage. If you order them at the beginning of an outage, and they arrive after 24 hours of a multi-day outage, you have up a truck arriving every 7.5 minutes for 24 hours depending on the fill level of the tanks. On top of that, the roads and entry gates will be gridlocked with constant traffic, staging lots will be overflowing, and staff will be scrambling to direct trucks while attempting to keep the site locked down.
And speaking of staff, managing that kind of operation isn’t automated. It requires round-the-clock crews cycling through shifts, monitoring tank levels, sequencing refuels, and troubleshooting problems as they come up. During a prolonged outage, fatigue sets in. A single mistake such as an overfill, a missed handoff, or a contaminated batch can sideline generators at exactly the wrong time.
Layer on top the security exposure. Many operations, including data centers, are designed for controlled access, but diesel resupply means a steady stream of outside drivers, third-party fueling contractors, and maintenance crews passing through your perimeter. Each interaction is another potential point of vulnerability that can compromise both physical and operational security. And that’s before you consider the environmental risk of moving that much diesel in such a compressed time window. Spills, leaks, and fires are real safety concerns that could trigger regulatory investigations, reputational harm, and extended downtime. These incidents aren’t theoretical; they’re a matter of probability when you’re handling millions of gallons of diesel under pressure.
These logistical and security pressures reveal a bigger issue—the diesel model isn’t just a fuel challenge; it’s an operational and security burden. The infrastructure required to make it work competes with the core mission of data centers and other operations that need 24/7 uptime. This exposure to risks outside your control puts a strain on your resources when you can least afford it. As data center footprints grow and available industrial land tightens, the cost and complexity of maintaining diesel-based resiliency become increasingly difficult to justify. According to Loudoun County’s Data Center Land Use Study, the previously mentioned power demand and land scarcity in the Northern Virginia region is pushing data center operators to consider cleaner, more space-efficient solutions. Onsite generation powered by natural gas is one of those solutions, and it’s available now, with established pipeline infrastructure, smaller spatial requirements, and no need for constant fuel deliveries. And most importantly, it’s a proven path forward for operators ready to move beyond the diesel dilemma.
Next up in the series, we’ll look beyond the fence line again, focusing on the uncertainties of suppliers and contracted fuel.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
