Introduction
In Amsterdam and Lochem a Vehicle2Grid pilot program will get started. Residents will be able to use the battery in their electric car to store their locally produced energy. Residents will be able to decide how to put their locally produced energy (i.e. from solar panels) to use. The energy can be transferred to the energy grid, used immediately or stored in the battery of an electric car, to be used at some later time to drive the car or run household appliances.
Reason to Be Selected
Several partners are cooperating in the pilot: ENGIE, Alliander, ABB, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Amsterdam Smart City, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the borough of Nieuw-West. TKI Switch 2 Smart Grids provided a subsidy for the project, so that an investment of 1, 6 million euro will be available. The cooperating partners will provide support for three years, to tackle the various technical, economic and social impediments. This pilot will help move forward the large scale implementation of electric vehicles, the use of solar energy and the energetic independence of households.
Highlights:
After two years of running, our calculations with Amsterdam V2G yield the following results:The household increased the energy independence or, zero Emission energy autonomy (from 34 to 65% with V2G); Solid decline in energy exchange with the electricity network 45% less compared to situation without V2G;Storage size efficiency reaches 93% with 10 kWh storage capacity, this is close to a maximum storage level, more storage capacity contributes little extra;Operational energy losses in storage in DC batteries, and re-conversion when consuming the energy about 80%.Capacity of the battery and the degradation of this after in 2 year time is quite limited (ca. 6-7%).
Details
City example integrating local Renewable Energy & MobilityThe Amsterdam Energy City Lab works on different projects and technologies to optimise local clean energy generation and use. The combination of renwables and electric vehicles is an important challenge. The Amsterdam Vehicle 2 Grid project is running since March 2013 and has yielded significant results, promising for further city outroll and replication.
The energy and mobility revolution is hereSolar installations generate renewable electricity during daytime, when demand is low. This mitmatch between production and consumption of energy causes inefficiencies in grid utilization.This situation is worsened by the presence of Electric Vehicles, that risk to overload the grid if are charged at the same time (for instance, during the evening, when users come back from work). The consequence is an unestable grid, that may have to undergo expensive refurbishment in order to accomodate this energy and mobility revolution.
Vehicle to Grid as solutionResourcefully supports the Vehicle to Grid scheme in order to obtain one solution from this couple of grid problems. The transition to an smart energy future begins rethinking entire systems, making use of Demand Supply Management and Energy Storage. Electromobility plays an important role here, allowing to store solar energy to later use it in the hours of low production.Amsterdam V2G demonstrates how e-mobility, renewable energy, domestic electricity usage and the grid can enforce each other in the smart energy future.
Open Platform and residents' research
In the pilot program, a system is tested to give residents control of their own energy supply. In the future, this can help to better balance the energy net. Residents could be given incentives to put up their cars as a storage unit of energy, or the opposite: to unload the stored energy in their batteries back to the grid. Students of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences will study the behaviour of residents and chart their energy use. Another important part of the pilot is the development of an open online platform for data communication. This open platform connects several entities that normally would not automatically cooperate because of differences in communication protocols. Data from a household can be connected to data in a car battery, or a charge station. The data can be of use in creating new products and services for the end user, for instance by developing apps that arrange sustainable energy, electric vehicles or trading of energy between households.
