Deploy GPU-Dense AI Infrastructure Without Grid Upgrades
EticaAG, Inc., a U.S.-based manufacturer of immersion-cooled battery energy storage systems, today announced the commercial availability of its AI Data Center Retrofit platform. The system enables data center operators to deploy GPU-dense AI infrastructure using their existing utility service — eliminating the need for multi-year grid upgrades and costly substation expansion.
Utility interconnection delays alone can extend deployment timelines by three to five years, delaying revenue and leaving existing data center infrastructure underutilized. In parallel, permitting constraints and critical equipment shortages further slow the development of new capacity.
EticaAG’s retrofit architecture addresses these constraints directly by upgrading existing facilities rather than requiring new grid infrastructure. By integrating high-power battery systems with existing generators and UPS infrastructure, operators can deploy AI workloads immediately while maintaining stable, grid-quality power.
Three Barriers to AI Data Center Deployment
Across the United States, data center operators with 10 to 30 MW of existing utility service need to deploy AI workloads demanding two to five times their contracted capacity. Upgrading utility service routinely costs $10 to $55 million and takes 18 to 48 months in typical markets, stretching to three to five years in constrained regions such as Northern Virginia, Silicon Valley, and the Chicago suburbs. Demand charges of $15 to $25 per kilowatt per month further penalize the unmanaged peak profiles that GPU clusters produce.
AI workloads are inherently bursty. Average power consumption during a GPU training run is typically only 60% to 70% of peak demand. If the peaks can be buffered and a flat, predictable load presented to the utility meter, significantly more AI compute can operate within the existing utility allocation with no service upgrade required.
Grid delays are only one constraint. New data center construction faces 12 to 24 months of permitting, environmental review, and growing community opposition. In Northern Virginia, multiple jurisdictions have imposed moratoriums or restrictive zoning on new data center development. Similar resistance is building in the Chicago suburbs, central Ohio, and parts of the Southeast.
Even projects that clear permitting face critical equipment shortages. Power transformers — the single component that connects a new facility to the grid — now carry lead times of two to four years from major manufacturers.
EticaAG’s retrofit architecture sidesteps all three barriers: no new interconnection, no new building permits, and no dependency on transformer delivery. The facility already exists, is already permitted, and is already connected to the grid.
Compounding these challenges, critical grid infrastructure such as power transformers is facing severe supply constraints, with lead times extending from two to four years in many regions. Even when interconnection capacity is approved, the inability to procure transformers and related equipment further delays deployment of new data center capacity.
“Every data center operator we talk to has the same problem. They have the building, they have the generators, they have the UPS, and they have a three-year wait for enough utility power to run GPUs. Our retrofit architecture removes that wait. The Fortis handles the millisecond-scale transients that generators cannot follow. The Legion handles the hours-scale energy shifting that keeps you under your utility demand cap. And the Fortis 185 gives your UPS the high-power battery it was never designed to have. No new utility service required.”
Jaime Hidalgo, Founder and CEO, EticaAG, Inc.
Permitting Delays and Community Opposition
Beyond grid constraints, new data center construction is increasingly slowed by local permitting processes, community opposition, and environmental review. In major markets such as Northern Virginia and the Chicago suburbs, new-build projects can face 12 to 24 months of delays before construction even begins.
Retrofitting existing facilities avoids these barriers entirely. By upgrading infrastructure within already approved and operational sites, operators bypass zoning challenges, accelerate deployment timelines, and bring new AI capacity online without the uncertainty of new construction approvals. Because the system upgrades existing facilities, deployments typically avoid the building permits and zoning approvals that delay new data center construction.
The Solution: A Tiered BESS Architecture
EticaAG’s retrofit architecture deploys two complementary outdoor battery tiers alongside indoor UPS companion storage, with one tier optimized for instantaneous power and the other for sustained energy. Each tier uses a different cell chemistry matched to its role, and all three share EticaAG’s LiquidShield™ immersion cooling and HazGuard gas neutralization safety platform.
This retrofit architecture bypasses the three primary constraints limiting AI data center deployment today: grid interconnection delays, permitting and community opposition, and critical infrastructure shortages.
Fortis 2600: High-power transient buffer
An outdoor 20-foot container delivering 13.0 MW continuous and approximately 31 MW peak from 2.6 MWh of NMC energy storage, with 480 VAC three-phase output via external power conversion system. The Fortis 2600 responds within milliseconds to absorb the fast, high-magnitude power swings that GPU training clusters produce every one to three seconds. It also provides synthetic inertia, harmonic filtering, and voltage regulation — grid services that standalone generators cannot deliver.
Legion C20: Energy shifting and extended buffering
A 20-foot container delivering 3.75 MWh of LFP energy storage, rated for 10,000 cycles at 80% depth of discharge. The Legion C20 charges overnight on low-cost off-peak energy and discharges during peak GPU operating hours at a sustained one-to-two-C rate, holding the metered utility load flat below the contracted demand threshold. It provides minutes-to-hours of bridge power during generator start sequences, covering the sustained energy demand that the high-power Fortis would deplete too quickly.
Fortis 185: Indoor UPS companion cabinet
A compact indoor cabinet delivering 927 kW continuous and 2.2 MW peak from 185 kWh of NMC energy storage. The Fortis 185 connects directly to the UPS DC bus, enabling zero-transfer-time ride-through with no switching event. Power quality is handled by the UPS power conversion system.
Up to three cabinets deploy per fire area under NFPA 855 indoor limits. Eight-cabinet configurations scale to 7.4 MW continuous and 17.6 MW peak installed capacity. With N-1 redundancy, available capacity is approximately 6.5 MW continuous and 15.4 MW peak.
Why Immersion Cooling Enables This Architecture
The transient buffering role demands a duty cycle that conventional battery systems cannot sustain. The Fortis platform cycles continuously at high C-rates, absorbing and releasing power hundreds to thousands of times per day to track GPU load fluctuations.
NMC cells deliver the power density required for this role, but they generate substantial heat under sustained high-frequency cycling. In conventional air- or liquid-cooled systems, this leads to thermal derating or accelerated degradation, preventing sustained operation at rated power.
EticaAG’s LiquidShield immersion cooling removes heat directly from the cell surface, maintaining uniform cell temperatures regardless of cycling intensity. This enables sustained high-power operation without derating and allows the system to perform under AI data center duty cycles that conventional BESS cannot support.
This allows the system to deliver rated power continuously under real AI workloads, rather than nominal capacity that cannot be sustained in operation.
Operational Architecture
During normal grid-connected operation, which represents the vast majority of runtime, a microgrid controller monitors the utility meter at sub-cycle speed. When instantaneous demand exceeds a configurable threshold, the Fortis 2600 discharges to supply excess power locally. When demand drops, it recharges at a controlled rate.
The Legion C20 follows a scheduled charge-discharge profile aligned to peak GPU operating hours and time-of-use tariff structures. The net result is that the utility meter reads a flat, stable load even as GPU clusters produce rapid oscillations, and total metered demand stays within the existing contracted allocation.
When utility power is lost, the UPS provides immediate ride-through on the critical bus. The Fortis 2600 transitions to grid-forming mode within cycles, the Legion C20 begins sustained discharge, and backup generators start and synchronize. Combined BESS energy of 6.35 MWh per container pair provides approximately 38 minutes of runtime at 10 MW average load, far exceeding generator start requirements.
Once generators accept load, the Fortis remains online as a power quality buffer, absorbing transients, filtering harmonics, and stabilizing voltage and frequency so GPU clusters operate at full performance on generator power without nuisance trips or forced derating.
Fire-safe, Indoor-Deployable, Zero Arc-Flash
All three products integrate EticaAG’s LiquidShield™ immersion cooling system, which submerges every battery cell in a dielectric fluid developed by Shell. The architecture prevents fire before it starts by suppressing ignition and thermal propagation at the cell level, while holding uniform cell temperatures during sustained high C-rate operation.
HazGuard contains and neutralizes toxic and flammable off-gases, converting them to inert compounds before release. This enables safe deployment in indoor and space-constrained environments where conventional systems face restrictions.
Module voltage stays below NFPA 70E arc-flash thresholds, enabling PPE-free service and rapid field-replaceable module swaps in active systems. Targeted certifications include UL 9540, UL 9540A, UL 1973, NFPA 855, and FM Global DS 5-33.
FEOC Compliant and ITC Eligible
All products are manufactured in the United States with FEOC-compliant supply chains, qualifying for Investment Tax Credit eligibility under the Inflation Reduction Act — a 30% base credit, potentially reaching 40% to 50% with domestic content and energy community adders. On a $20 million BESS deployment, ITC can return $6 to $10 million to the project.
Most BESS systems on the market today rely on cells manufactured in China and face FEOC disqualification. EticaAG’s compliant supply chain gives operators a defensible tax credit position from day one.
Speed to Revenue
The primary financial advantage of the BESS-buffered retrofit is time. A utility interconnection upgrade delays AI compute deployment by two to four years. A BESS-buffered retrofit can be operational in nine to twelve months from equipment order. For operators generating $50 to $100 per kilowatt-hour in AI compute revenue, every month of delay represents tens of millions of dollars in unrealized revenue.
The BESS deployment eliminates significant utility upgrade capital costs, reduces demand charges, and enables energy cost optimization through load shifting and time-of-use strategies. For large-scale AI deployments, these impacts represent millions of dollars in annual operating savings.
Availability
The Fortis 2600, and Fortis 185 are available for ODM engagement. Draft technical specifications are available at EticaAG.com
About EticaAG, Inc.
EticaAG, Inc. is a U.S.-based battery energy storage system manufacturer and joint venture between AssetGenie, Inc. (Pennsylvania) and Etica Battery, Inc. (Taiwan). The company designs and manufactures high-power-density NMC and LFP battery systems for data center, commercial and industrial, and critical infrastructure applications.
EticaAG’s LiquidShield™ immersion cooling and HazGuard gas neutralization technologies prevent lithium-ion fire before it starts and contain toxic gas risk, enabling safe deployment in indoor and occupied-adjacent environments.
All products are manufactured in the United States, FEOC compliant, and ITC eligible under the Inflation Reduction Act.
