China Southern Power Grid, NIO Energy team up on virtual power plant, battery swap station businesses

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On February 26, 2024, China Southern Power Grid Peak Regulation and Frequency Modulation (Guangdong) Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. ("CGS Energy Storage Tech"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Southern Power Grid ("CSG"), and NIO Energy Investment (Hubei) Co., Ltd. ("NIO Energy"), signed a framework cooperation agreement in Guangzhou, marking a strategic alliance between the two entities.

Photo credit: NIO

In line with the principles of mutual benefit, complementary advantages, and shared development, the agreement outlines comprehensive collaboration in virtual power plants, battery swap stations, battery cascade utilization, recycling, and electric station businesses. The collaboration aims to facilitate the integration of resources into virtual power plant platforms, enhancing grid services such as peak regulation, frequency modulation, and demand-side response. This effort is expected to improve asset operational efficiency and benefits. The partners will also explore the construction of electric stations to promote their commercial application as distributed energy storage.

Virtual power plants, as innovative power coordination management systems, play a crucial role in bidirectional flexibility adjustments within the power system. Utilizing communications, IoT (Internet of Things), and software algorithms, virtual power plants aggregate, coordinate, and optimize distributed resources like charging stations, photovoltaics, and energy storage across different spatial locations, maximizing resource utilization.

As the builder of China's first megawatt-level lithium battery energy storage station, CGS Energy Storage Tech currently manages nine electrochemical energy storage stations, accumulating advanced experience in the fields of integrated photovoltaic storage and electric battery cycling. During the 14th, 15th, and 16th Five-Year Plans periods, an additional 2 million kilowatts, 3 million kilowatts, and 5 million kilowatts of new energy storage capacity will be added by the company, respectively.

NIO's battery swap station, as the country's first intelligent microgrid-type distributed charging facility, efficiently participates in grid adjustments through charging load forecasting and real-time assessments. NIO has actively engaged in grid peak-shaving initiatives since 2019, leveraging its "Energy Cloud" platform to coordinate charging stations and home chargers in Shanghai for peak-load reduction. Additionally, NIO has initiated pilot projects in collaboration with local power companies and energy generation enterprises, implementing the application of virtual power plants in the power auxiliary service market.

With technologies like “quantum encryption” and 5G dedicated slices, NIO's power swap stations possess the capability to respond to virtual power plant control commands in seconds. Built on this capability, NIO Energy, in collaboration with CGS Energy Storage Tech, aims to further enhance the controllable capacity of flexible resources like electric vehicles, enabling more efficient participation in the electricity market through virtual power plants.

As of today, NIO has established 2,375 battery swap stations and 21,603 public charging piles nationwide. In response to the national demand and peak-shaving auxiliary services, NIO has organized 587 battery swap stations and over 27,000 charging piles, with a total peak-shaving capacity of approximately 300,000 kilowatts.

In the five southern provinces and autonomous regions (Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hainan) in China, NIO has built 373 battery swap stations and 3,944 public charging piles. The collaboration with CGS Energy Storage Tech is expected to help NIO accelerate its deployment of power swap stations. Both entities plan to explore standards for vehicle-grid interaction, aiming to enable more new energy vehicles to access the grid and contribute to the construction of a new power system.