Around 2,500 of Gogoro’s stations for electric two- and three-wheelers will be able to provide power to the grid when demand spikes.
(Bloomberg) — Gogoro Inc., a Taipei-based company whose battery-swapping stations serve electric moped drivers across Taiwan, said on Tuesday that it has converted roughly 20% of those stations into “virtual power plants” capable of sending spare electricity back to the grid.
Since it was founded in 2015, Gogoro has opened more than 12,000 stations with batteries that can be changed out on the fly, giving drivers of electric mopeds and three-wheelers the ability to add dozens of miles of range without losing time on charging. The company says it has more than 500,000 monthly active users, and over 260 swaps taking place on its network every minute. Some 2,500 Gogoro stations have been converted into VPPs capable of storing up to 150 megawatt hours of electricity collectively — enough, it says, to power 500 local households for a month.
“The Gogoro community is contributing to Taiwan’s net-zero targets by helping to integrate more variable power generation resources onto the grid,” Gogoro founder and Chief Executive Officer Horace Luke said in a statement. Roughly 80% of Taiwan’s power supply relies on fossil fuels, but the self-governing island has pledged to zero out its greenhouse gas emissions before 2050.
By tapping into the power of its parked batteries, Gogoro joins a growing number of companies exploring virtual power plants, which can help utilities avoid blackouts during periods of high demand and reduce the need for electricity generated by fossil fuels. Additionally, companies selling excess power back to the grid through VPPs can realize a new revenue stream.
Under the same announcement, Gogoro said it will participate in a program introduced by Taiwan Power Corporation under which the company’s battery-swapping stations would temporarily disconnect from grids if there is critical energy demand elsewhere. (They can still operate for up to 65 hours powered by their own batteries.) The utility pays a premium for companies to participate in the program, which helps ensure overall grid stability.
Read More: One-Minute Battery Swaps Spur EV Adoption in Asia
As power grids around the world continue to buckle under the pressures of extreme weather, more VPPs will be needed. An acute example occurred in 2021 in Texas, when a frigid winter storm sent electricity demand soaring while also hampering power production from fossil fuels, wind and nuclear plants. The resulting grid failure left millions without power.
Adding more renewable energy to the mix will also require solutions for absorbing excess power during particularly windy days, for example, or doling out stored energy when clouds lower solar output.
The global market for VPPs hit $1.9 billion last year, according to consultancy The Business Research Company, and the industry is on track to grow more than 20% in 2023. That potential has already lured electric vehicle giants: Tesla Inc. is turning some houses in Texas that use its home batteries into VPPs, while Nio, a leading EV manufacturer in China, is touting its own battery-swapping stations as a source of power supply and storage. Last summer, when the country was hit by scorching temperatures that evaporated hydropower, Nio’s more than 100 swapping stations were able to step in.
(Corrects to clarify that Gogoro’s VPPs don’t stop working if they stop drawing power from the electrical grid.)
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