Nio touts third-gen battery swap stations that can discharge to grid

Chinese electric automaker Nio is potentially on the edge of releasing the third generation of its battery swap stations which would also be able to discharge power into the grid.

In an article published to WeChat last week, Nio highlighted the need for its battery swap stations to be able to discharge power back into the grid at times of huge demand – basically turning them into a “small virtual power plant”.

Nio’s article focused primarily on the role that the company’s battery swap stations can play during heatwaves and power outages – such as has been experienced across much of China in recent weeks, which in some cases has necessitated switching off Nio’s battery swap stations.

However, Nio said 15 of its battery swap stations participated in “the grid peak regulation” of a virtual power plant in the Chinese city of Hefei. They reduced their demand on the grid by around 100kW, helping to reduce the load on the grid by 1.4% and adding only around 5 minutes to the charging time of each battery.

This operation did not see the stations feed energy back into the grid, but saw the stations “adjusted by 8MWh in five days,” which Nio explained was the “equivalent to ‘saving’ real-time power consumption for more than 3,000 ordinary households.”

Nio also referenced the ability of some of its stations to “act as a virtual power plant” by actively discharging power from the batteries back into the grid for 5- to 10-minutes.

As CnEVPost pointed out in their coverage of Nio’s article, the third-generation of Nio’s battery swap stations are nearing the end of their development and are expected to be introduced by the end of this year or early in new year.

The company’s second-generation stations were unveiled in October, boasting 14 battery slots and capable of 312 swaps per day. Meanwhile, Nio provided a preview of its third-generation battery swapping station in July during the company’s Power Day broadcast.

Credit to Phate Zhang at CnEVPost for providing the WeChat link and clarity around the English translation.