On December 23, 2023, NIO announced an important plan to build 1,000 battery swap stations in 2024, bringing the total number of NIO swap stations to over 3,310. In 2025, NIO aims to complete a high-speed battery swap network covering "nine north-south routes, nine east-west routes, and 19 major city clusters," with the global number of swap stations exceeding 4,000. The primary goal of this strategic plan is to provide car owners with more convenient charging and battery swap services. Compared to traditional charging stations, NIO's battery swap stations can complete battery charging and swapping in a short time, offering a faster energy replenishment solution, which has become a major highlight for attracting new energy vehicle consumers.
Battery swap stations are capital-intensive assets that require significant financial investment during the construction and initial operation phases. Managing and operating them through a digital platform can evidently enhance user experience while substantially reducing operational costs for the swap stations.
Acrel Provides Solutions to NIO for the Digital O&M of Battery Swap Stations
Project Location: China
Battery swap station power distribution systems commonly use container-type substations. These consist of three separate compartments: high-voltage, transformer, and low-voltage. Their electrical capacity ranges from 630kVA to 1250kVA, varying with the station's size, as shown in the figure.
NIO has established standardized requirements for the intelligent management of battery swap station container-type substations, specifying monitoring requirements for electrical parameters, temperatures of contact points, and environmental parameters in the transformer room as well as the high- and low-voltage compartments.
|
1 |
Environmental Temperature and Humidity |
High-voltage Room, Transformer Room, Low-voltage Room |
Temperature and Humidity Detection Module |
Heater/Fan |
|
2 |
Joint Temperature |
Transformer Body, High-voltage Cable Head (Connection Point of High-voltage Cabinet), Upper Terminal of Low-voltage Frame Circuit Breaker, Lower Terminal of Low-voltage Molded-case Circuit Breaker, Low-voltage Busbar |
Wireless Temperature Measurement |
Fan/Alarm/Trip |
|
3 |
Voltage Detection |
Input End of Infeed High-voltage Cabinet or Output End of Outfeed High-voltage Cabinet, Lower End of Main Switch of Low-voltage Sub-distribution Board |
Relay or Multi-functional Electric Meter |
- |
|
4 |
Current Detection |
Output End of Infeed High-voltage Cabinet or Output End of Outfeed High-voltage Cabinet, Upper End of Main Switch of Low-voltage Sub-distribution Board, Upper End of Outfeed Low-voltage Molded-case Circuit Breaker, Output End of Outfeed High-voltage Cabinet, Low-voltage PE Busbar |
Relay, Multi-functional Electric Meter |
- |
|
5 |
Energy Metering/Power Factor |
Input End of Infeed High-voltage Cabinet or Output End of Outfeed High-voltage Cabinet, Upper End of Main Switch of Low-voltage Sub-distribution Board, Upper End of Outfeed Low-voltage Molded-case Circuit Breaker |
Multi-functional Electric Meter |
- |
|
6 |
Harmonic Detection |
Output End of Outfeed High-voltage Cabinet |
Harmonic Detection Device |
- |
|
7 |
Door Access Detection |
Outdoor Doors of High-voltage Room, Low-voltage Room, Transformer Room, Indoor Door of Transformer Room |
Limit Switch |
Alarm |
|
8 |
Smoke Detection |
High-voltage Room, Transformer Room, Low-voltage Room |
Smoke Sensor |
- |
|
9 |
Water Immersion Detection |
Lower Part of Transformer Room Box-type Substation |
Water Immersion Sensor |
- |
|
10 |
Surge State Detection/Protection Fuse Detection |
Low-voltage Sub-distribution Board |
Surge Protector with Communication |
- |
|
11 |
High-voltage Circuit Breaker State Detection |
High-voltage Circuit Breaker, High-voltage Earthing Switch, High-voltage Load Switch, High-voltage Main Fuse, Low-voltage Frame Circuit Breaker, Low-voltage Molded-case Circuit Breaker, Fan Switch |
Auxiliary Contact |
- |
|
12 |
Remote Compensation Control/Monitoring |
Low-voltage Capacitor Cabinet |
Power Capacitor Compensation Device |
- |
Equipment Configuration and Network Scheme
According to the on-site requirements, the box-type substation is equipped with Acrel microprocessor-based protection devices, harmonic detection devices, multi-functional meters, wireless temperature sensors, reactive power compensation controllers, and intelligent capacitor compensation devices. These devices are connected via an RS485 bus to the intelligent gateway ANet-2E4SM located in the smart measurement and control cabinet. Finally, the data is uploaded to the NIO battery swap station operation and maintenance management platform via 4G.
| Product | Acrel Model | Function | Notes | |
| 1 | Energy Meter | AMC73-AI3 | Three Phase Current Meter | 0.4kV Incoming Line Circuits, Display Three Phase Current |
| 2 | Power Compensation Controller | ARC-28F/Z-USB-L | Equipped with 28 groups of capacitors for separate and combined compensation, automatic switching control to achieve the target power factor. | Power capacitor compensation cabinet |
| 3 | Intelligent Capacitor | AZC-SP1/450 | Intelligent capacitor, selectable separate or combined compensation, equipped with RJ45 network communication interface, compatible with power compensation controller for reactive power compensation. | 0.4kV power compensation |
| 4 | Wireless Temperature Sensor Receiver | ATC450-C | Receives data from wireless temperature sensors and uploads it to the intelligent gateway via RS485 interface. | Wireless temperature measurement |
| 5 | Wireless Temperature Sensor | ATE400 | Monitors the temperature of high-voltage cable joints, upper terminals of low-voltage frame circuit breakers, lower terminals of low-voltage molded-case circuit breakers, and low-voltage busbars. | Wireless temperature measurement |
| 6 | Switch Quantity Collection Unit | ARTU100 | Equipped with up to 32 channels for telecommunication signal collection, uploads data to the gateway via RS485 communication. | Telecommunication collection |
| 7 | Intelligent Gateway | ANet-2E4SM | Edge computing gateway, embedded Linux system, supports Socket communication, provides AES encryption and MD5 identity authentication, supports continuous data transmission, supports Modbus, Modbus TCP, DL/T645-1997, DL/T645-2007, 101, 103, and 104 protocols. | Collects, converts, and logically judges data such as electricity, environment, etc. |
| 8 | Gateway Expansion Module | ANet-M4G/M485 | Can be used with ANet-2E4SM intelligent gateway to expand 4G wireless communication or RS485 interface. | Gateway expansion module |
| 9 | Temperature and Humidity Sensor | / | Collects the temperature and humidity of the high-voltage room, transformer room, and low-voltage room environments, and uploads data to the gateway via RS485 communication. | Environmental parameters |
| 10 | Door Access, Water Immersion, Smoke, Surge | / | Connects to the switch quantity collection unit via switch quantity signals. | Environmental parameters |
Platform
As NIO has established a battery swap station operation and maintenance platform, data from this project's container-type substation is collected by the ANet-2E4SM intelligent gateway and uploaded to the platform in the required format. The gateway, with an embedded system, offers local data collection, logical judgment, protocol conversion, breakpoint resume, data encryption, and customizable protocols, ensuring seamless integration with higher-level platforms.
Acrel EMS Electrical Operation and Maintenance Platform also suffices for substation operation and maintenance. It can connect to data from thousands of user substations, including electrical parameters and environmental data like current, voltage, power, switch status, transformer temperature, environmental temperature and humidity, water immersion, smoke, video, and access control. In case of abnormalities, it sends alert signals via SMS and APP within 10 seconds. The platform assigns operation and maintenance tasks to personnel via the mobile APP and tracks task execution using BeiDou positioning to form a closed-loop process, enhancing efficiency and enabling timely defect detection and rectification.
Demo Websites: http://cloud.acrel.cn
Account: acrel
Password: 123456
Power Monitoring
The operation and maintenance (O&M) platform collects data from the container-type substation's power distribution system via a 4G network. The data includes current, voltage, power, energy, and switch status, providing both real-time and historical data on the substation.
Energy Statistics
The platform offers time-of-use energy statistics, analyzing energy consumption and costs during peak, shoulder, and off-peak periods. It generates daily, monthly, and annual reports, and compares data through year-on-year and month-on-month analysis. This helps users calculate operational costs.
Anomaly Alarm
The platform monitors various parameters of the container-type substation, such as current, voltage, power, switch status, transformer load rate and winding temperature, electrical joint temperature, environmental temperature and humidity, smoke, water immersion, video, and access control information. In case of any anomalies, it promptly sends alarm messages to maintenance personnel via APP and SMS.
Operation and Maintenance Management
The platform helps users create inspection plans, record defects found during inspections, issue defect elimination work orders, and track inspection routes and defect elimination progress. Users can also provide feedback on task progress, enabling a closed-loop O&M management process.
User Reports
The O&M platform automatically generates user reports on power usage and operational diagnostics. It provides periodic diagnostic reports on the power distribution system, summarizes existing issues, and offers improvement suggestions.
In addition, the platform offers environmental monitoring, video surveillance, power quality analysis, demand analysis, and equipment inventory management functions. These features assist users in managing geographically dispersed and numerous container-type substations, enhancing power supply reliability and equipment lifespan, and reducing O&M and power usage costs.
Project Outcomes & BenefitsField Installation
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +86-18702106858 / +86-21-69156352No.253 Yulv Road, Jiading District, Shanghai, PRC 201801
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