AIDC Opens 9MW/54MWh Taichung Microgrid With 6-Hour Island Backup
Taiwan's AIDC commissioned a 9MW/54MWh behind-the-meter battery microgrid at Shuinan on Oct 22, claiming 6 hours of full-site backup and a 40% energy-cost cut, and now targets AI data centers.
2 min readAI-assisted
AIDC's 9MW/54MWh microgrid at its Shuinan plant in Taichung, inaugurated on Oct 22, as shown in the company's newsroom photo.
Image: AIDC
Source · Press image from the AIDC newsroom, used for news reporting.
Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), Taiwan's aerospace manufacturer, commissioned a 9MW/54MWh behind-the-meter battery microgrid at its Shuinan plant in Taichung on Oct 22, which it calls the largest industrial system of its kind in Taiwan.
AIDC said at the opening ceremony that the system can switch the whole site to island mode when the external grid fails and carry it for up to 6 hours, according to China Times and United Daily News (UDN). The company said production equipment ran normally in testing. AIDC, which trades in Taipei as 2634, also estimates the system will cut its annual energy costs by close to 40%.
AIDC says the 9MW/54MWh system can run the whole Shuinan site for up to 6 hours in island mode, per China Times and UDN.
Illustration (AI-generated)
What AIDC built
AIDC calls the installation a "power island": a small power plant that ties together Taipower's behind-the-meter storage, wind, solar, emergency generators and a large battery energy storage system (BESS). Control runs on an energy management system and microgrid software that AIDC developed in-house, China Times reported. AIDC lists four core functions: island operation, smart dispatch, layered safety protection and self-supply.
The saving comes from price arbitrage. AIDC said the summer peak and off-peak gap in Taipower's current industrial tariff structure is NT$9.29 per kWh. The battery charges off-peak and discharges at peak, while the controller adjusts wind, solar and storage to the site's live demand. The 40% figure is AIDC's own estimate, not a measured result.
Why it matters for power and AI load
Nine megawatts over 54 MWh makes a six-hour storage block, longer than the four-hour batteries that recent cost comparisons with gas peakers use. That duration lets one system cover a whole peak window for arbitrage and also keep the plant running through an outage. Voltgrid News reported earlier on Wood Mackenzie's 4-hour BESS comparison.
AIDC is explicit that the Shuinan plant is a showcase. It said it is moving from in-house validation to commercial sales, and named large industrial users, AI data centers, large hospitals, strategic national sites and utilities as targets.
AIDC entered energy storage in 2021 and began developing core technology in 2023. In 2025 it opened a 2MW/2.7MWh demonstration site, and it broke ground on the large power island that November. Building it took under a year, the company said, according to China Times.
UDN reported that representatives of Hiwin, SPIL and Pou Chen attended the ceremony. AIDC's chairman described them as potential customers with high power demand, said the company will show operating data first, and did not rule out working with TSMC when asked.
What is not confirmed yet
AIDC's reports do not state the battery chemistry, the cell or container supplier, or the project cost. The 6-hour backup is a company statement and a test claim, and it is not stated at what load. No customer contract has been announced. The 40% saving is a projection that depends on tariff spreads, and no independent party has checked it.
