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Date & Time
April 25, 2024; 15h00 - 16h00 CEST
Speakers
- Jaap BURGER, Senior Advisor (Regulatory Assistance Project)
- Stefan DOERIG, Head of Regulatory Affairs (tiko Energy Solutions)
- Aby CHACKO, Head of Energy Services (tiko Energy Solutions)
Description
The monumental task of achieving a decarbonised economy in Europe by 2050 calls for use of all available tools. The complexity of this transition requires solutions that can meet multiple goals, such as decarbonising transport and fostering integration of electric vehicles into the grid. Failure to think broadly will result in slow progress, at a dear cost to consumers. An innovative technology that offers strong potential to decarbonise transport, support the energy system and reduce cost is vehicle-to-grid or vehicle-to-X solutions.
On 25 April 2024, the Electrification Academy welcomed Stefan Doerig, Head of Regulatory Affairs, and Aby Chacko, Head of Energy Services at tiko Energy Solutions. They shared their experiences with these V2G or V2X solutions, detailing V2X Suisse, a pioneering project in Switzerland with the aim to determine the technical feasibility of offering grid services and to assess the added value that V2G technology can provide compared to conventional smart charging. Drawing from Swiss experiences, Stefan and Aby explored regulatory barriers, operational challenges, and potential solutions.
Following a brief introduction by Jaap Burger from RAP, they delved into:
- Regulatory barriers and solutions for V2G in the EU and in Switzerland.
- Organisation and aims of the V2X Suisse project.
- Operational experiences and challenges in this project.
Recordings
Key Messages
- To unlock bidirectional charging's potential, establish a robust policy framework with three core principles:
- Build trust and establish common standards
- Get the prices right to guide charging and discharging
- Ensure equal access and treatment
- The V2X Swiss project (2022-2024) saw six companies collaborate, covering almost the entire V2X value chain, critical for success.
- The project featured 50 e-vehicles in a car-sharing setup, 40 mobility stations nationwide, 3,500 customers, and over 400,000 km travelled, with three primary objectives:
- How to charge efficiently?
- How to use flexibility?
- How to create a business case?
- The project integrated car-sharing platform data with the Sun2Wheel interface for V2G service activation.
- Observations revealed that cars were booked only 25% of the time, with 90% of trips under 100 km.
- A control strategy balanced grid flexibility needs and driver requirements by toggling between 'mobility mode' (driver control) and 'flex mode' (aggregator-controlled, grid flexibility prioritized).
- Use cases vary among stakeholders, with three discussed:
- Energy Supplier: Focused on day-ahead optimization.
- TSO (Transmission System Operator): Engaged in ancillary services such as Frequency Containment Reserves (FCR) and automatic Frequency Restoration Reserves (aFRR).
- DSO (Distribution System Operator): Concerned with shifting consumption peaks.
- The project showcased the technical feasibility of bidirectional charging, achieving a world first by obtaining technical prequalification for FCR and aFRR with 50 bidirectional vehicles managed via cloud-to-cloud control in a car-sharing service.
- Challenges include the high cost of V2G infrastructure and the limited availability of V2G vehicles in the market.
- Regulatory hurdles encompass double taxation for charging/discharging (storage), restricted access rights for grid operators (flexibility), and inconsistent, non-discriminatory access for aggregators to markets.
Q&A
Due to time constraints during the webinar, some questions were left unanswered. Below, the authors have provided written responses to those questions below.
Q: Why will the project be discontinued and the stations removed?
The cost of maintenance to operate the V2G chargers as V1G chargers are too high and of no added value. The project financing by the government ended in winter 2023.
Q: What was the round trip efficiency in the day ahead optimization use case?
Analysis is still ongoing.
Q: I would say this is a smart application as it relies on a car sharing infrastructures and this implies that the number of locations is limited and car usage is booked. Nothing similar would apply to households.
Correct. We also have good visibility since normally the cars are booked in advance. This is not the case with household EV.
Q: How do you manage with excise duties?
It is paid normally as any asset in the low voltage grid which feeds back into the grid.
Q: During implementation of project did the EVs provide actual FCR? How is FCR provided? Does the EV Charging station have Underfrequency Relay installed so supports FCR immediately? Or the FCR provided through the Cloud - the algorithm sends command for V2G discharge? What Is the delay for FCR support?
Since the prequalified amount was less that 1 MW, we did not bid in the auctions. During operations, we were following the live frequency deviation as an input signal. The FCR was done centrally through the cloud, sending the command for charge and discharge to do FCR.
Q: What is the approximate efficiency of AC-DC-AC double conversion?
Analysis is still ongoing.
Q: How does the charging and discharging power (kW) affect the energy losses? Did you optimise the charging speeds to prevent losses?
No, we did not optimise the charging speed in the project. A detailed analysis on efficiency is still ongoing.
Q: How does technology, such as smart grids and AI, play a role in conflict resolution between these entities?
Today, DSO has priority over the TSO in Switzerland. So if the DSO has blocked the charger via the ripple control, the flexibility cannot be delivered.
Q: Did you do any compares to the AC pilot to the Utrecht AC solution?
Not planned.
Q: What decision-making frameworks are commonly used to address conflicting signals?
Ideally, the conflicting signals issued by DSO and TSO should be solved by having a market for flexibility - in which the DSO and TSO can offer a price which they are willing to pay for the flexibility at a grid node.
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