Cummins to Supply BESS for U.S. Data Center

Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) announced that its Power Generation business has been selected to supply battery energy storage systems (BESS) for a major U.S. data center project. The systems will help address utility requirements associated with AI-driven fluctuations in power demand, while reducing load oscillations and improving ride-through performance for enhanced grid stability.

This announcement marks a significant milestone for Cummins’ BESS business as this project would be the company’s largest BESS deployment to date. It also reflects Cummins’ continued role in supporting the North American data center market with reliable, sustainable power solutions.

“This project is an important achievement for Cummins and reflects the confidence customers place in our ability to deliver innovative energy solutions at scale,” said Jenny Bush, president of Cummins’ Power Systems business. “As demand for data center capacity continues to grow, Cummins is well positioned to support customers with a broad portfolio of power solutions, from diesel standby and natural gas prime power to BESS and integrated microgrid solutions. This project reinforces our commitment to helping customers build reliable, resilient and increasingly sustainable power infrastructure.”

The BESS solution adds another layer of capability to the project’s power architecture. The system is designed to help meet utility-defined requirements for managing AI-driven load fluctuations, mitigating load oscillations, and supporting ride-through performance. It can rapidly charge or discharge to reduce demand spikes, improve power quality and maintain a more stable load profile at the utility interconnection point.

Launched in May 2025, Cummins BESS solutions reflect the company’s commitment to innovation and evolving with the needs of its customers.

For data center developers, BESS is emerging as a strategic power enabler. As grid constraints intensify, interconnection queues grow longer and energy costs increase, BESS can help accelerate deployment timelines, enhance resilience and optimize available power capacity.

Cummins offers a flexible, utility-scale BESS solution designed to support near-term power availability and long-term energy resilience strategies. Whether deployed as a bridge-to-grid solution, integrated with backup power systems or incorporated into a broader microgrid architecture, Cummins BESS can help customers maximize available grid capacity, manage peak demand and meet utility-defined load-management requirements by smoothing rapid fluctuations in AI-driven power demand.

Key specifications of Cummins BESS for data center and AI campus applications include:

Designed specifically for hyperscale workloads, ensuring resilient operation
Flexible DC block architecture compatible with multiple PCS and EMS ecosystems
Bridge-to-grid ready and designed for integration with diesel and natural gas generators
5MWh nominal capacity
Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry
Liquid cooling thermal management
UL 9540A, UL 9540, UL 1973, NFPA 855, NFPA 68, IEEE 1547 and UL 1741 SA/SB

Backed by more than 100 years of Cummins power generation expertise, Cummins BESS solutions are more than energy storage assets. They are tools that enable developers to build resilient energy ecosystems that support faster deployment and reliable operation of hyperscale and AI-driven data center campuses.

“The future of data center growth depends on finding smarter, faster ways to deploy and manage power. BESS is quickly becoming a critical part of the modern data center power strategy,” Bush said. “From bridge-to-grid applications and peak demand management to long-term resiliency, BESS gives data center operators greater flexibility to deploy, optimize and scale their power infrastructure.”