The European project V2Market is reaching its final stretch, generating knowledge on the use of electric car batteries for temporary electricity storage and grid flexibility services. The project’s closing conference, held in June in the Belgian capital, served to confirm that initiatives like V2Market must take the lead and pave the way
“We shouldn’t wait for Europe.” This is how forceful the European Commission was during the final conference of the V2Market project held in Brussels in June. A clear message to encourage initiatives like V2Market to pave the way and advance in promoting the energy transition.
Statements reiterated throughout the final event, co-organized with smartEn – Smart Energy Europe and which can be viewed online , have served to delve deeper into the world of bidirectional charging for electric vehicles (EV), a decentralized resource that could be crucial in the European Union’s clean energy transition . Led by Ecoserveis, the V2Market project focuses on exploring the benefits, challenges and business models surrounding bidirectional charging to take advantage of the storage opportunities offered by electric vehicles.
During the conference, in which project partners, but also members and experts in energy efficiency, electricity markets and mobility from the European Commission, as well as other actors related to the energy transition, participated as speakers, it served to share lessons learned and provide a set of regulatory recommendations aimed at unlocking the full potential of bidirectional charging of electric vehicles in Europe .
The importance of pilots
The V2Market explores the possibilities of the market and does so based on the results of two pilots implemented in Spain. One of them has been deployed with vehicles from the fleet of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB), and another has been done in homes with photovoltaic self-consumption and electric vehicles, through the company Holaluz. These pilots have realistically simulated the electricity grid, thanks to an electricity market simulator developed by OMIE where it has also been possible to simulate participation in local flexibility markets, and have shown that electric vehicle batteries can respond to demands from the grid and buildings . Although the electricity market has been simulated, in order to demonstrate viability, the vehicle loads and discharges have been real and have used intelligent and automatic software (in the case of the AMB), and real market prices on the days of the simulations.
Thus, the project has been able to carry out several feasibility studies, policy and regulatory recommendations, training and innovative business and financing models: including innovative business models for potential aggregators. Aggregators are a new actor in the electricity sector that acts as an intermediary between consumers and networks in order to provide services such as flexibility and storage.
Knowledge transmission
One of the project’s strengths has been the exploitation of knowledge generated during the project, through, among others, the webinars and open online sessions that have been held. One of them, the most recent, has been promoted by the AMB and Ecoserveis and has consisted of online training to talk about electric vehicles and bidirectional charging points . Among others, it has allowed us to reflect on where we are in the energy transition and to expose the steps that are being taken at a European, state, Catalan and local level to advance towards decarbonization and the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. The content can now be found in open access for viewing .
Conclusions drawn
According to what has been studied, it has been found that, for example, the batteries of electric vehicles can be used to store electricity of renewable origin when there is an excess in the network or in a building with self-consumption , and discharge this energy when the network or the building to which it is connected needs it. These actions require bidirectional chargers, and are called Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and Vehicle to Building (V2B). Generically, they are also called V2X technologies. This increases the volume of renewables that can be integrated into the electrical system, but also allows households and different economic sectors to use more energy than they self-produce. This generates savings that could reach the end consumer, helping to reduce consumption in general (since there would be fewer losses in the network because it is used less), and increasing the volume of renewables that can be integrated into the network.
But, in order to obtain these benefits, state regulations must change, because, for the moment, they do not allow this activity. For the moment, and although the European Union has already modified its regulations on this model, there are very few European countries where this is possible.
In any case, the incorporation of V2X technology into electric vehicles and regulatory deployment so that they can participate in the markets can be a way to accelerate the decarbonization of the transport sector, while at the same time making the electric vehicle more affordable for the end user.
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