Gogoro, the Taiwanese maker of electric motor scooters, has deployed more than 2,000 battery-swap racks around the island nation so people riding its scooters—as well as people riding electric motorcycles—need not fear of being far away from a new supply of power.

A rider stops at a rack, pulls the spent battery from the scooter, pulls a new one from the rack, slots it into the scooter, and puts the used battery in the open cubby where it’s recharged.

Now Gogoro has partnered with utility company Enel X to turn its battery racks into a virtual power plant.

The racks are linked through a computer network to Enel X’s grid. When electricity demand is critically high or there’s a power outage, the utility can tap the electricity stored in the racks.

When demand returns to normal or the outage has been fixed, the grid releases its hold on the racks and goes back to charging them as usual.

After a successful pilot test last year, the partnership will have more than 2,500 of Gogoro’s “Go Stations” in 1,000 locations wired into its network.

Gogoro operates its battery-swapping stations in several other countries and could replicate its utility partnership elsewhere but has made no such announcements yet.

TRENDPOST: Gogoro’s utility partnership is likely to save Enel X from having to think about building a new centralized power generating plant any time soon.

It also is an invitation to others to think of ways to synergize different power sources to augment and, in many instances, decentralize electricity’s availability.

Gogoro’s “Go Station” battery swapping rack that doubles as an auxiliary power source for the Enel X utility company.

Photo: Gogoro