The power grid borrows the charging for seconds
The project, which has exploited data from 1400 electric cars in Copenhagen, has shown that the more electric cars participate in the provision of FCR-D services, the more stable the power supply becomes.
"The individual electric car owner will not notice that the power consumption is being adjusted up or down since there will only be a need to adjust the consumption for a few seconds or minutes in extreme cases so that the system operator can maintain a stable frequency when there is an extreme imbalance in the power grid, and it does not wear down the car batteries," explains Jalal Kazempour.
"It's a win-win situation for everyone, both power system operators, electric car owners, and the environment," he says.
Although the system is technically possible, it must be tested on a smaller scale before being rolled out.
"Given the increasing demand for renewable energy and the need to upgrade the power grid to meet the demand, solutions like this may prove crucial for a sustainable future," says Jalal Kazempour.
Mobile buffers
In Denmark, Energinet is responsible for the electricity grid – and for keeping it balanced. According to Thomas Dalgas Fechtenburg, Head of Energinet's System Services department, Energinet is interested in all solutions that can help balance the grid.
"Energinet is generally very interested in flexibility from both consumers and electricity producers. We are working to make more technologies act flexibly. Electric vehicles will be important pieces in this puzzle to ensure a green energy system. We would like to see the proportion of electric vehicles contributing to grid balancing increase," he says, working to ensure the framework for new technologies to deliver that flexibility.
Initially, electric vehicles can contribute through smart charging and system services such as FCR-D, which can adjust charging during power grid outages. In the long term, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), where electric vehicles can receive power from the grid for charging and return excess power to the grid, is also a solution that Energinet is monitoring. However, while more and more electric vehicles are capable of smart charging, very few on the market can deliver Vehicle-to-Grid technology (V2G) yet.
About the project
The project “Investment Model for Power Flexibility Services” is funded by Innovation Fund Denmark. The researchers behind are industrial PhD student Peter Gade, recently graduated MSc students Emil Damm and Gustav Lunde, and Associate Professor Jalal Kazempour as the supervisor and leader of the project.
