Taiwan's electric smart scooter maker Gogoro Inc. and state-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) have established what they called the world's first bidirectional charging system via Gogoro's existing battery swapping stations, the two companies announced Tuesday.
Through the use of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, they said, energy stored in Gogoro's electric vehicle batteries can be transferred back to the power grid when the batteries are returned to the stations, which could help smooth out temporary spikes in electricity demand.
The project is part of Taipower's efforts to expand the country's distributed energy storage system through more diverse sources, said the company's chairman Yang Wei-fu (???).
In contrast to unidirectional charging, where electricity only flows from the grid to the electric vehicles, the new project works as a "virtual power station" to prevent power fluctuation and power quality problems in the grid, Yang said.
According to data from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, there were nearly 530,000 electric vehicles in Taiwan as of the end of September, which have become an ideal energy storage alternative.
Gogoro founder and CEO Horace Luke (???) said the smart batteries the company has in its stations will be able to generate 1.3 gigawatt hours by the end of this year.
The electricity from each battery could generate around 60 kilowatt hours, which could support four to five days of power consumption for a regular household, Taipower said.
A proof-of-concept pilot run of the system started on Oct. 20, with more features to be added in the future, Taipower said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel