Locking in Capacity Four Years in Advance
A 206GWh energy storage battery agreement has created a new connection between EVE Energy and NVIDIA's AI data centers.
On September 18, EVE Energy announced that its subsidiary, Hubei Yiwei Power, signed a framework supply agreement with Fluence, a global energy storage system integrator.
From 2027 to 2031, the two parties plan to cooperate on 206GWh of batteries, with a committed delivery of 16GWh in 2027 and a total reserved capacity of 190GWh from 2028 to 2031.
What does 206GWh mean in perspective?
In the first half of 2026, EVE Energy shipped 44.46GWh of energy storage batteries, a year-on-year increase of 54.88%.
The battery scale corresponding to this framework agreement is about 4.6 times its energy storage shipments in the first half of this year; if simply averaged over five years, it corresponds to an annual average of over 40GWh.
However, what is more noteworthy is the buyer, Fluence.
Since the beginning of this year, this energy storage system integrator, co-founded by Siemens and AES, has been rapidly entering the power infrastructure market for AI data centers.
In June, Fluence, together with Siemens and NVIDIA, co-developed an AI data center power reference architecture for the NVIDIA DGX Vera Rubin NVL72.
Therefore, a new supply chain relationship is emerging:
EVE Energy provides the batteries, Fluence is responsible for the energy storage systems, and Fluence has already entered the power architecture of NVIDIA's next-generation AI data centers.
However, there is currently no public evidence proving that the EVE cells in this 206GWh agreement have been designated for NVIDIA-related data center projects, nor is EVE a directly disclosed supplier of NVIDIA.
Rather than saying EVE has "broken into NVIDIA's supply chain," a more accurate statement is: as Fluence begins to compete for AI data center orders, EVE has secured a supplier ticket to enter this incremental market.
A Battery Order Locked in Until 2031
Fluence is not an ordinary energy storage integrator.
Its predecessor originated from the energy storage businesses of AES and Siemens, and it officially began operations in 2018. Currently, its business covers nearly 50 markets.
As of the end of June 2026, Fluence's cumulative deployed energy storage capacity reached 19.3GWh, its signed backlog for energy storage solutions reached 12.6GW, and its project pipeline reached 163.7GWh.
For EVE, the 206GWh therefore means not only a major customer but also the advance binding of energy storage capacity for the coming years.
However, this agreement still needs to distinguish between "committed volume" and "reserved volume."
According to the announcement, the 16GWh in 2027 belongs to the committed delivery volume already agreed upon by both parties; the 190GWh from 2028 to 2031 is the reserved capacity.
Specific product specifications, procurement quantities, prices, delivery schedules, and quality standards still need to be determined through the subsequent signing of formal purchase orders by both parties.
In other words, the entire 206GWh cannot be simply converted into secured order revenue.
What is truly worth attention is the structure of the agreement itself.
This agreement does not limit a specific type of energy storage cell but explicitly covers all products procured by Fluence, as well as various product types, models, configurations, and product categories that Yiwei Power and its affiliates may provide in the future. All actually delivered products will be counted towards the total volume of 206GWh.
This makes the relationship between the two parties more like a long-term supply framework rather than a one-time procurement for a specific project.
Fluence has previously released relevant signals.
In its fiscal third quarter 2026 results announced in August, Fluence confirmed the incurrence of approximately USD 15 million in upfront costs related to a planned "long-term international battery supply agreement."
However, Fluence did not disclose the supplier's name at the time, and it is currently impossible to confirm whether this agreement is the 206GWh framework agreement signed with EVE Energy.
The importance of cell supply is still rising.
On September 16, due to supply chain issues such as the delayed ramp-up of its contract manufacturing plant in Houston, USA, Fluence lowered its fiscal 2026 revenue expectation from approximately USD 3 billion to about USD 2.4 billion, and lowered its adjusted EBITDA guidance to a loss of approximately USD 200 million.
Fluence also stated that its international supply chain remains operational.
Against this backdrop, the significance of a long-term battery supply framework covering up to 2031 goes beyond just procurement costs; it represents an advance lock-in of delivery capabilities and supply stability.
Fluence Begins to Compete for AI Data Centers
Another change comes from Fluence's own customer structure.
AI data centers are becoming a new source of growth for it.
In May this year, Fluence disclosed that it had signed master supply agreements with two major hyperscalers;
As of the end of July, the company further confirmed that it had secured approximately USD 850 million in data center-related business, including its first large behind-the-meter energy storage order and a project award of about USD 550 million from a hyperscaler.
In June, Fluence further entered NVIDIA's data center power design system.
The reference design developed by Siemens in conjunction with NVIDIA and Fluence is specifically targeted at the NVIDIA DGX Vera Rubin NVL72 AI Factory.
The demonstration architecture corresponds to a total facility capacity of approximately 136MW and a 100MW IT load, extending from 34.5kV grid connection, medium-voltage distribution, and low-voltage power modules all the way to the AI rack interface.
In this architecture, energy storage is no longer just "power outage backup" in the traditional sense.
Fluence provides Grid-interactive Energy Storage, which refers to energy storage systems that operate in coordination with data centers and the power grid.
Together with Siemens' power supply and distribution, automation systems, and NVIDIA's computing architecture, it is incorporated into the infrastructure design of the AI Factory.
This is also where the mega deal with EVE deserves to be re-understood.
In the past, when discussing data center batteries, the industry focused more on the Battery Backup Units (BBUs) inside the racks: backup power for tens of seconds to several minutes, high-rate discharge, and coping with the rapid changes in GPU loads.
However, as individual AI data centers expand to 100MW or even GW scale, batteries are moving outward.
From rack-level BBUs to data room UPS, and then to campus-level Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), energy storage across different time scales is beginning to enter the same AI data center power supply system.
Fluence is competing precisely in the outermost layer, which is also the campus-level energy storage market with the largest battery usage.
And EVE has already entered its long-term cell supply system.
EVE Itself is Also Moving into the Racks
In fact, EVE Energy's layout for AI Data Centers (AIDC) goes beyond this cooperation with Fluence.
In April this year, EVE explicitly disclosed the BBU commercialization timeline, stating that BBU batteries are a strategic direction for the company, and planned to output A-samples and send them to customers from May to June.
By August, this progress had moved a step forward.
In investor communications, EVE stated that the BBU business has already engaged in cooperation with leading domestic and international customers, the validation work is basically completed, and formal delivery is expected in the second half of 2026.
At the same time, the company has specifically established an AIDC product department to extend its products from a single BBU to the entire data center power supply system.
Currently, EVE divides AIDC batteries into three levels.
On the rack side, there are cylindrical BBU cells; on the data room side, there are high-power UPS prismatic cells; and further outward on the campus and site side, 6.9MWh energy storage systems take on the long-duration energy storage needs.
Among them, the BBU has already formed a relatively clear product roadmap.
EVE disclosed in June this year that its BBU uses self-developed 21700 lithium iron phosphate (LFP) high-power cells, forming a product matrix of 12V, 50V, and 800V, supporting 15C-30C high-rate discharge, and the backup power of a single 800V BBU module can reach over 25kW.
During OCP China in July, EVE also placed high-rate backup power cabinets and long-duration energy storage products into the AIDC solution: rack-level BBUs are responsible for short-term high-power response, 6C and 10C high-rate backup power is deployed on the power distribution side, and large-capacity energy storage systems are used on the source and grid side.
This creates an interesting intersection in this cooperation with Fluence.
On one hand, EVE is advancing BBUs from a cell manufacturer into the interior of AIDC racks; on the other hand, through Fluence, its large-scale energy storage cells have the opportunity to move in the opposite direction, from campus energy storage into AI data centers.
The two paths ultimately point to the same market.
If in the past, the incremental volume brought to battery manufacturers by AI data centers was mainly individual high-rate BBU cells, then as companies like Fluence and Siemens begin to write BESS into the standard power architecture of 100MW-class AI Factories, AIDC is transforming from a "small cylindrical market" into a system-level market that requires batteries from the rack to the campus.
The significance of the 206GWh agreement lies precisely here.