In order to use electric cars to stabilize the power grids, seven companies are taking an innovative approach with “V2X Suisse”. In the future, Mobility electric cars will be able to charge bidirectionally – in other words, feed electricity back into the power grid when they are not being driven. This is the first large-scale demonstration project of its kind and will therefore help shape the future of this technology in Switzerland and beyond.
novatlantis is a project partner with a focus on knowledge and technology transfer as well as support for project management and quality assurance. In addition, novatlantis played a major role in the project design and application process.
Initial situation
By 2030 at the latest, all 3,000 vehicles of the car sharing provider Mobility will be electric. What is good for the environment can bring challenges in power consumption and grid stability. The newly launched “V2X Suisse” project aims to join forces to find solutions for this. Mobility providers (Mobility), car manufacturers (Honda R&D Europe and Honda Motor Europe), software developers (sun2wheel), charging station developers (EVTEC), aggregators (tiko), flexibility consumers and science (novatlantis, in collaboration with ETH) are working hand in hand. Marco Piffaretti, project manager of “V2X Suisse” and electromobility expert at Mobility, wants to get the bidirectionally charging cars on the road quickly and thus gain urgently needed experience. Because there is still hardly any practical knowledge in this country regarding the technical, regulatory and organizational challenges of bidirectional charging. The demonstration project has a pioneering character and will deliver results that will give this technology a boost in Switzerland and beyond. The project is supported by the pilot and demonstration program of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE).
Test with 50 Mobility electric cars throughout Switzerland
Joint preparations will run until September 2022, when 50 “Honda e” cars will be in use for a year at around 40 Mobility locations throughout Switzerland. This will be the first time that bidirectionally charging series electric cars will be in use across the board in people’s everyday mobility – and that they can be tested under different conditions, from rural to urban. The outlook looks promising in this regard: When a bidirectional mobility electric car is not being driven, it can feed up to 20 kilowatts of power back into the grid. That would amount to 60 megawatts for the entire car-sharing fleet – more power than the Peccia pumped-storage power plant in Ticino can provide, for example. This electrical regulating power will help stabilize the power grid, minimize bottlenecks in the distribution grid and prevent, reduce or delay expensive grid expansions in the distribution grid. The project team is convinced: the electric mobility of the future is shared, bidirectional and grid-serving. For the first time worldwide, “V2X Suisse” uses the Combo-CCS charging plug, the international plug standard for DC fast charging.
Goals
“V2X Suisse” sets a high bar for itself by the end of the project at the end of 2023: First, it wants to explore how this technology can stabilize the power grid and how locations with photovoltaic systems can optimize their own consumption. Second, the business potential of bidirectional vehicles in Switzerland is to be investigated. And thirdly, competition between potential flexibility buyers (Swissgrid, distribution grid operators and interconnection for self-consumption) will be tested.
Technical details
“V2X Suisse” operates throughout Switzerland and thus under different conditions. Around 40 sites will be equipped with a total of 50 Honda e Mobility electric cars bidirectionally up to max +/- 20kW. Two different types of charging stations will be used: on the one hand, bidirectional DC charging stations from EVTEC with dual and combinable CCS (Combined Charging System) output developed specifically for this project, and on the other hand, bidirectional Honda Power Manager DC charging stations with single CCS output. Both are equipped with ripple control receivers for the distribution network operators as well as with a digital interface. This requires the development of a cloud-to-cloud IT platform that manages (i.e., offers, allocates, releases, directly regulates if necessary, and “counts” available power at each mobility electric car on a quarter-hourly basis to enable/control billing). This cloud-to-cloud solution developed by sun2wheel connects the availability inputs of the Mobility bookings with the tiko aggregator relevant for Swissgrid.
Media release in 4 languages
The media release (19.1.2022) in German, French, Italian and English is available here:
More Information:
V2X – Carsharing ganz neu gedacht
Weltpermiere: “v2X Suisse” erfolgreich präqualifiziert