GRID AWARE MOBILITY AND ENERGY SHARING
Creating new revenue streams for electric shared vehicle fleets by providing services for the electrical grid and energy communities!
Digitalization can enable electric shared vehicle fleets to answer to more mobility needs
The share of electric vehicles (EVs) is rapidly growing in Europe and all over the world. Batteries of EVs not only represent their fuel tanks but also hold a big potential of energy storage for our whole electrical system.
Digitalization can enable electric shared vehicle fleets to answer to more mobility needs
The share of electric vehicles (EVs) is rapidly growing in Europe and all over the world. Batteries of EVs not only represent their fuel tanks but also hold a big potential of energy storage for our whole electrical system.
Whenever an EV is plugged to a charging station this flexibility potential could be exploited in two respects
Smart-Charging
The charging process is controlled in a way that the EV is charged in times of favourable grid or market conditions (such as a surplus in solar energy generation) and stopped during unfavourable conditions (such as local grid congestions).
Bidirectional Charging
On top of smart charging, this allows to feed back energy from the EV’s battery to the electricity grid. In this way, an EV becomes not only a flexible load but even a true energy storage! This concept is also referred to as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G).
Whenever an EV is plugged to a charging station this flexibility potential could be exploited in two respects
Smart-charging
The charging process is controlled in a way that the EV is charged in times of favourable grid or market conditions (such as a surplus in solar energy generation) and stopped during unfavourable conditions (such as local grid congestions).
Bidirectional Charging
On top of smart charging, this allows to feed back energy from the EV’s battery to the electricity grid. In this way, an EV becomes not only a flexible load but even a true energy storage! This concept is also referred to as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G).
To unleash the potential of EVs as flexible energy storage in a cost-efficient way, GAMES focuses on electric shared vehicle fleets as the key target group.
This includes commercial or municipal car-sharing fleets and also corporate fleets, which are shared among co-workers for business travel. These fleets have common booking and management platforms and therefore can be easily integrated into an aggregated pool of flexibilities, such as virtual power plants.
We investigate three main use cases for exploiting the flexibility of EVs:
As EVs are charged in various points in the distribution grid, they have a key advantage to solve grid congestions in the low voltage grid.
Local PV generation can be coupled with decentral storage in EVs to increase self-sufficiency of energy communities. This can be implemented through local peer-to-peer markets.
Energy suppliers can use EVs of their customers to balance their generation portfolio and reduce imbalance costs.
To unleash the potential of EVs as flexible energy storage in a cost-efficient way, GAMES focuses on electric shared vehicle fleets as the key target group.
This includes commercial or municipal car-sharing fleets and also corporate fleets, which are shared among co-workers for business travel. These fleets have common booking and management platforms and therefore can be easily integrated into an aggregated pool of flexibilities, such as virtual power plants.
We investigate three main use cases for exploiting the flexibility of EVs:
As EVs are charged in various points in the distribution grid, they have a key advantage to solve grid congestions in the low voltage grid.
Local PV generation can be coupled with decentral storage in EVs to increase self-sufficiency of energy communities. This can be implemented through local peer-to-peer markets.
Energy suppliers can use EVs of their customers to balance their generation portfolio and reduce imbalance costs.
Technology context
The successful integration of aggregated EV batteries in the energy system requires an intelligent platform, which is able to forecast mobility needs and to control the charging process of big fleets in an optimal way. GAMES will deliver a proof-of-concept of such a digital interface that represents the electricity grid, flexibility needs and the users’ mobility patterns.
Business context
The business case of EVs delivering flexibility is still unclear. Therefore, GAMES will analyse the potential revenues through an optimal dispatch approach and compare the expected costs to other flexibility resources. As a result, valid business models and recommendations for fleet managers will be compiled in the GAMES Industry Whitepaper.
Social context
The main purpose of EVs of course still is mobility. Hence, concepts for exploiting the flexibility of EVs will be only successful if the users are carefully considered. Therefore, GAMES will conduct an in-depth study on the user’s needs and preferences with regards to shared mobility and publish the findings in a report on shared mobility user characteristics.
Technology context
The successful integration of aggregated EV batteries in the energy system requires an intelligent platform, which is able to forecast mobility needs and to control the charging process of big fleets in an optimal way. GAMES will deliver a proof-of-concept of such a digital interface that represents the electricity grid, flexibility needs and the users’ mobility patterns.
Business context
The business case of EVs delivering flexibility is still unclear. Therefore, GAMES will analyse the potential revenues through an optimal dispatch approach and compare the expected costs to other flexibility resources. As a result, valid business models and recommendations for fleet managers will be compiled in the GAMES Industry Whitepaper.
Social context
The main purpose of EVs of course still is mobility. Hence, concepts for exploiting the flexibility of EVs will be only successful if the users are carefully considered. Therefore, GAMES will conduct an in-depth study on the user’s needs and preferences with regards to shared mobility and publish the findings in a report on shared mobility user characteristics.
GET INVOLVED!
The team of the GAMES project strongly aims to get in touch with users, industry stakeholders and scientific peers to discuss and refine the GAMES approach.
Energy sharing with benefits
Idea competition: Nov. 2022 - Feb. 2023
E-vehicles require a lot of energy, but can also make a valuable contribution to balancing the power grid. In recent months, Salzburg Research has invited people to submit ideas for smart energy sharing and new business models in an open innovation ideas competition. The best ideas were awarded prizes.
Stakeholder forum
For industry stakeholders and scientific peers, a stakeholder forum is launchend in the frame of the GAMES project. If you are interested to participate in our stakeholder process, feel free to contact us anytime at:
GET INVOLVED!
The team of the GAMES project strongly aims to get in touch with users, industry stakeholders and scientific peers to discuss and refine the GAMES approach.
Energy sharing with benefits
Idea competition: Nov. 2022 - Feb. 2023
E-vehicles require a lot of energy, but can also make a valuable contribution to balancing the power grid. In recent months, Salzburg Research has invited people to submit ideas for smart energy sharing and new business models in an open innovation ideas competition. The best ideas were awarded prizes.
Stakeholder forum
For industry stakeholders and scientific peers, a stakeholder forum is launchend in the frame of the GAMES project. If you are interested to participate in our stakeholder process, feel free to contact us anytime!
Publications
The concept of using electric vehicles (EVs) as flexible storage seems simple and convincing: There are countless cars spread out throughout our cities, but most of the time they stand idle. With modern cars having battery capacities between 50 and 100 kWh, this sums up to vast amounts of battery storage being available for supporting electricity grids and shifting energy demand towards times of renewable surplus generation. But what sounds like a low hanging fruit in theory faces a lot of practical barriers: How to coordinate all those cars efficiently? Does it affect the lifespan of the batteries? And most important, is there actually a viable business model for both fleet owners and energy industry? Focussing on latter question, this whitepaper analyses different business opportunities in four case studies.
The concept of using electric vehicles (EVs) as flexible storage seems simple and convincing: There are countless cars spread out throughout our cities, but most of the time they stand idle. With modern cars having battery capacities between 50 and 100 kWh, this sums up to vast amounts of battery storage being available for supporting electricity grids and shifting energy demand towards times of renewable surplus generation. But what sounds like a low hanging fruit in theory faces a lot of practical barriers: How to coordinate all those cars efficiently? Does it affect the lifespan of the batteries? And most important, is there actually a viable business model for both fleet owners and energy industry? Focussing on latter question, this whitepaper analyses different business opportunities in four case studies.
The transport sector is one of the main consumers of fossil fuel and is the only sector that continues emitting increasing rates of GHG [1]. In 2022, passenger vehicles (including cars and vans) accounted for 48% of emissions within the transportation sector and 10% of global emissions.1 Nevertheless, the prevalence of privately-owned internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles as the primary means of passenger transportation is steadily growing [2], contributing to traffic congestion, air pollution, and increased CO2 emissions [3] while presenting a challenge to the transition toward sustainable mobility [4].
The transport sector is one of the main consumers of fossil fuel and is the only sector that continues emitting increasing rates of GHG [1]. In 2022, passenger vehicles (including cars and vans) accounted for 48% of emissions within the transportation sector and 10% of global emissions.1 Nevertheless, the prevalence of privately-owned internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles as the primary means of passenger transportation is steadily growing [2], contributing to traffic congestion, air pollution, and increased CO2 emissions [3] while presenting a challenge to the transition toward sustainable mobility [4].
This policy brief analyses the status quo on policy, market and technology framework conditions for smart and bidirectional charging of electric vehicles (EV). Also, key recommendations for all kinds of decision makers are formulated, aiming at overcoming existing barriers.
The trend towards energy decentralization and innovations in data-driven e-mobility have given way to a new type of electric vehicle charging; namely, smart charging and vehicle-to-grid technologies. In order to unlock the full potential of electric mobility’s flexibility, an exploratory ecosystem approach is first warranted in order to uncover stakeholder requirements, activities and (inter-)dependencies. The purpose of this research is to lay the foundation for future resilient business models in the grid-aware mobility ecosystem, which require novel multi-stakeholder collaborations. Through rigorous exploratory ecosystem modeling, flexibility recipient taxonomies, and a co-creation workshop, we have sought to uncover stakeholder intricacies in order to improve the overall innovation ecosystem value proposition. The results suggest many novel perspectives which were not considered (such as the issue of double taxation) and several prospective cross-sector business opportunities for fleet operators, vehicle OEMs, aggregators, and even public parking spaces. Additionally, stakeholders vary considerably in terms of needs, value-adding activities, (inter-)dependencies, risk, and flexibility services provided/requested, which need to be weighed and overcome on an (inter-)sectoral level.
Globally, electric vehicle (EV) penetration is steadily on the rise. In order to overcome electricity bottlenecks caused by EVs’ heightened electricity demand, new charging innovations are necessary to properly coordinate electricity procurement. Vehicle-to-grid charging innovations as an enabling technology have been introduced as a solution to fill this void; however, their specific corresponding business models remain uncertain due to its corresponding ecosystem complexities. This paper aims answer the question of how the use of business model patterns can be extended to vehicle-to-grid use cases to enable digital business model innovation in vehicle-grid integration. By identifying business model patterns from conceptional use cases of vehicle-to-grid services, the mechanisms behind such interactions can be uncovered. Our study results suggest that by leveraging digital business model patterns to the context of the vehicle-to-grid market, novel business model innovations have the potential to be deliberated upon and developed. Ultimately, this method can serve an exploratory purpose when investigating digitally enabled market models to overcome vehicle-to-grid ecosystem complexities, and thereby ensure its successful implementation.
With electric vehicle penetration steadily increasing and therefore their respective energy requirements, coupled with more intermittent renewable energy comprising the energy mix, new charging innovations are warranted to better facilitate the energy sector’s matching of supply and demand. To carry this out, this requires the cooperation of both sectors – the mobility and the energy sector. Within this study, we extrapolate an innovation ecosystem perspective to the e-mobility and energy space to better understand stakeholder needs and requirements for such mutually-beneficial exchanges. Here, we conducted a stakeholder ecosystem analysis and an expert co-creation workshop. Thus far, our method has provided a comprehensive view of this integrated system and its contributors. Such an analysis can be useful to better guide its implementation.
Deploying real-time control on large-scale fleets of electric vehicles (EVs) is becoming pivotal as the share of EVs over internal combustion engine vehicles increases. In this paper, we present a Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) algorithm to simultaneously schedule thousands of EVs charging and discharging operations, that can be used to provide ancillary services. To achieve scalability, the monolithic problem is decomposed using the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Furthermore, we propose a method to handle bilinear constraints of the original problem inside the ADMM iterations, which changes the problem class from Mixed-Integer Quadratic Program (MIQP) to Quadratic Program (QP), allowing for a substantial computational speed up. We test the algorithm using real data from the largest carsharing company in Switzerland and show how our formulation can be used to retrieve flexibility boundaries for the EV fleet. Our work thus enables fleet operators to make informed bids on ancillary services provision, thereby facilitating the integration of electric vehicles.
Due to the future number of e-vehicles on the roads, the theoretical
potential for flexibility through intelligent charging appears to be great, but there is
uncertainty about the economic viability of such applications. This paper provides
first insights into a case study of the GAMES project and provides information on the
monetary benefits of unidirectional smart charging and bidirectional V2G in the context of a
of a company site. Using an optimisation model, real mobility data is used to
modelling different fleet scenarios and use cases. The results suggest
that smart charging offers greater added value for pure self-consumption optimisation than V2G.
added value. In combination with dynamic electricity prices, however, the benefits of V2G
can outweigh this. The paper is only available in German.
Reducing private car ownership, shifting mobility patterns, and encouraging the use of electric vehicles can help alleviate congestion, repurpose parking spaces for other urban uses and reduce emissions. This study explores the public perception and acceptance of a new concept: shared car services in multi-unit residential buildings, offering residents tailored solutions while retaining the convenience of private car ownership. The study provides insights about the motivations and barriers to adoption among urban dwellers in Israel, using the methodology of focus groups to collect data and the Product Service System approach for analysis. This concept remains unexplored in current literature.
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Contact
Project coordination
Jalomi Maayan Tardif
Guntram Preßmair
The team behind GAMES
Contact
Project coordination
Jalomi Maayan Tardif
Guntram Preßmair
The team behind GAMES
The team behind GAMES
This project has been funded by partners of the ERA-Net Smart Energy Systems and Mission Innovation through the Joint Call 2020. As such, this project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 883973.