Abinand Rangesh: Thank you, Norman. The time-of-day question that was very interesting question. So what we initially tried to do to identify some of these regions where we might have good opportunities was not only look at areas, again, with these high time-of-day charges but also look at areas where the utility of offering programs to curtail power those times of day. So we’ve definitely done some marketing in that space. But what has typically happened is customers, in a lot of cases, don’t even — it just gets baked in and they don’t — it’s not enough of an impetus for a lot of them to actually make a change. And that tends to be the same for any energy-saving technology. When you degrade that urgency, they either need to do something right now.
And some of that is driven by the need to put a generator and put some of these other metrics, and that’s really what we’re finding. I mean we — the time-of-day, the very, very high utility rates help us close the deal. But typically, the driver underneath that will be something much more time constrained.
Unidentified Analyst : Okay. Great answer. I appreciate it. It will take time. That’s fine, but I think it’s real. Second question has to do with these large AI centers, their need for constant power. I have a colleague who is in the field. And I really wonder about how a large energy demand you can satisfy. Are the AI large centers beyond your size of generation or is that, in fact, still an opportunity?
Abinand Rangesh: So that, again, great question. The AI data centers typically running above 5 megawatts. So they are better suited by the large turbines. We’re probably not the ideal for that size rate, but the place that we can help in that area of the cooling because a lot of those areas are still not only power constrained, they’re cooling a lot of these big data centers. They operate at slightly higher temperatures than they did before, but they still need a lot of cooling. And that’s really where we’re trying to break into that market. If you happen to have any introduction there, we’d love some. It’s a pretty tough market to break in. We are working with partners trying to get into that. But the other knock-on effect of those AI data centers is everything around it.
And that’s also where we see the big opportunity because there’s a ton of industrial facilities that have power needs between 100 kilowatts and 1 megawatt, and they also have cooling in that size range. And that’s really what we’re targeting right now because those people are all constrained by these data centers taking all the available power. So when they’re trying to expand the power is not available. So there is where I see the market for Tecogen’s products.
Unidentified Analyst : What kind of customer would that be not specifically be generically?
Abinand Rangesh: Pretty much any industrial customer that has a need for heat either as process hot water or an industrial customer that is requiring climate control. So just to give you an example, food processing, right, anywhere — like let’s just take meat processing as an example. I mean they need a cool dry environment. They — again, they would use our chillers, they would use the chiller to cool the air and then remove the humidity from there and then warm it back to the temperature they need using the waste hot water. We’ve seen people like chocolate manufacturing, which, again, they’ve used our equipment. There’s plenty of industrial processes that use hot water year around. And then, of course, any multifamily, any residential building, I mean they don’t tend to be quite as large a set of power users, but they have a consistent hot water load. So those are all good customers for us as well.
Unidentified Analyst : Would that include what do you call centers for aged centers or whatever you want to call it, medical facilities for home or general care home for aged people, stuff like that because these are relatively large systems, the systems, meaning numbers of buildings, does that represent a market?
Abinand Rangesh: Yes, definitely. And I’m glad you mentioned that, yes, the healthcare industry as a whole is a very, very good market for Tecogen’s products. I mean we see large hospitals using our chillers, again, because the need for it to power can be used in other parts of the hospital for MRI machines and things like that. So they use our chillers. Then a lot of these rehabilitation and nursing facilities use our cogeneration machines. They’re usually smaller, but they do have a constant need for hot water for domestic and other requirements, some cases for heating and they’ll use the power year-round. So pretty much for the Tecogen product anywhere with a bed is a very good fit for us. And with the chiller product anywhere that you are controlling the climate is a good — where you’re controlling both temperature humidity is a very good fit for us.
Unidentified Analyst : I’m sorry, final last question. I don’t mean to take this much time, but the third top-down question is the question of regionality. I kind of sense that over the last two or three years, you’ve expanded your geography. That’s a generic question. I don’t know if that’s true. And how would you describe your expansion of your geography or not, either one?
Abinand Rangesh: So yes, that is definitely the case. In the past, we’ve — our sale has been predominantly dominated by high utility rate areas and very driven by just pure payback on the equipment. And in most cases, we can have the energy cost. But then if your energy cost is low to start with, the payback is going to be further out. So we’ve typically stayed in areas which have had very high utility rates like New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts and the West Coast. But now we’re seeing the combination of power constraints and then utility rates becoming much more time-of-day based. And then right now, I mean, we have the tax credit that’s helping improve the payback. But it also seems that customers are looking at our type of solution, just part of how we’re selling has also changed a little bit in terms of really showing a customer that you’ve got — having some savings better than none.
And I mean, it’s — you don’t necessarily need a really short payback. A lot of the existing equipment like a chiller, it’s just a net cost to the customer, whereas even if it has a slightly longer payback in the region that has a lower utility rate, everybody sees the utility rates are going up with the time. So putting something in now during a replacement cycle can help them benefit. So we’ve also changed how we sell, how we go to market. A lot of the sales channel partners that we have right now have good customer relationships that they’re taking us to. So the end -owners can see that benefit.
Unidentified Analyst : I guess I was directed more to the service side, the expansion of your serviceability. Is that true or not?
