Carsharing fleets transformed into flexible energy storage systems
Brugg-Windisch/Rapperswil-Jona - The University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and OST - Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences have demonstrated how carsharing fleets can contribute to grid stability thanks to bidirectional charging. Both grid and fleet operators stand to benefit from this building block of the energy transition.
(CONNECT) If the charging processes of electric vehicles from carsharing fleets can be flexibly controlled, they would be able to selectively take in or discharge electricity at specific times depending on grid load. This would allow, for example, electricity to be fed back into the local distribution grid when supplies of renewable electricity are low and demand is high.
According to a press release, grid loads were successfully reduced in up to 60 percent of cases as part of an innovation project carried out at the School of Engineering and Environment of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and OST - Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences. Together with the energy providers AEM, ewz, and Primeo Energie, as well as the Mobility Cooperative, they investigated how bidirectional charging could be integrated into existing power grids in a technically and economically viable manner.
In this context, smart forecast data was able to predict when and for how long a vehicle would be available. This data is based on millions of real booking entries from the carsharing system. In addition, the charge levels of the vehicle batteries were analyzed to ascertain how much energy could be stored or fed back into the grid.
The project participants consider the developed product model for the commercialization of flexible charging to be a particularly practical success. According to the information, it can be easily integrated in the existing systems used by distribution grid operators. Moreover, it is said to be standardizable across Switzerland and focuses on two applications: charging during power surpluses and feeding energy back into the system during grid load peaks.
As the company states, the project clearly shows how decentralized electric vehicles are “more than just a means of transport mobile, controllable energy storage devices – and therefore a key to the successful sector coupling of mobility and energy”. ce/mm