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Meet Brandon Smith, ZincFive’s Vice President of Global Sales and Product
Brandon Smith did not originally set out to build a career in data centre power. Trained as an engineer, he began his career in the broader energy sector, drawn by a fascination with the systems that quietly keep modern infrastructure running.
What ultimately pulled him toward critical power systems was the realisation that some of the most important technology in the digital economy operates largely out of sight. Early in his career, Brandon worked directly with battery systems and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), maintaining and supporting the equipment that keeps hospitals, transport networks and data centres running when the grid fails.
That hands-on experience sparked a lasting interest in the technologies behind reliable power infrastructure. Over the years he worked across multiple battery chemistries, including lead-acid, lithium-ion and advanced monitoring systems, building a practical understanding of how different technologies perform in mission-critical environments.
“When you spend time around these systems, you realise very quickly that the chemistry matters,” Brandon says. “Different batteries behave very differently when the power environment becomes volatile – and that’s where the engineering becomes really interesting.”
Today, as Vice President of Global Sales and Product at ZincFive, Brandon sits at the intersection of product strategy, partner collaboration and customer demand. His role focuses on shaping the company’s nickel-zinc battery solutions for the rapidly evolving power requirements of modern data centres.
What ZincFive does
ZincFive has spent more than fifteen years developing and refining its NiZn battery technology, advancing both the chemistry and the manufacturing processes behind its systems. Over that time, the firm has built a substantial intellectual property portfolio, with more than 80 patents covering its battery chemistry and manufacturing technologies.
Today, the company occupies a very specific position within the power infrastructure landscape. It is not, Brandon is quick to point out, an energy storage company in the traditional sense. Energy storage typically refers to long-duration systems designed to hold power for hours at a time. ZincFive’s focus is something quite different.
“Energy is long duration – think a marathon,” Brandon explains. “Immediate power is a sprint. It’s about delivering very high power for a very short period of time, exactly when the system needs it.”
This distinction sits at the heart of ZincFive’s Immediate Power Solutions approach. Rather than storing large amounts of energy for extended discharge, nickel-zinc systems are engineered to deliver repeated bursts of high power in rapid succession while maintaining stable operating temperatures and long service life.
Part of the answer lies in the chemistry itself. NiZn batteries have very low internal resistance, allowing them to release large amounts of power extremely quickly without generating the levels of heat typically associated with other battery technologies.
That electrical profile makes nickel-zinc well suited to applications where high power is required in short bursts. One example is industrial engine starting, where large diesel engines must be cranked reliably in demanding environments. Through partnerships such as its collaboration with Stored Energy Systems (SENS), ZincFive’s NiZn technology is already deployed in commercial engine-starting systems used in critical infrastructure.
As it turns out, that same capability – delivering repeated high-power bursts quickly and reliably – maps closely onto the emerging electrical behaviour of modern AI-driven data centres.