Electric vehicles in Europe – today, tomorrow and beyond

Industry leaders introduce a European infrastructure roadmap, enabling a mass introduction of electric vehicles. The results consist of a set of recommendations regarding necessary changes in the European electricity grids.

Experts from Vattenfall’s E-Mobility programme have participated in the work, supported by Vattenfall R&D Projects.

About the project

Supported by the European Commission within the 7th R&D Framework Program, the Grid-4-Vehicles (G4V), a consortium including European industry leaders in the electricity business (including Vattenfall) as well as prestigious scientific institutions, has set out a European roadmap evaluating the impact and possibilities of a mass introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) for the electricity network in Europe.

After completing the project within an ambitious timeframe of 18 months, the G4V consortium, composed of six major European Energy Companies (EDF, EDP, ENDESA, ENEL Distribuzione, RWE and VATTENFALL) and six prestigious scientific Institutions (Chalmers, ECN, Imperial College, RWTH Aachen, Technische Universität Dortmund and Universidad Politecnica de Valencia) all with an extensive background in electrical networks and market development of new technologies; presented their results during a dedicated conference in Brussels on 30 June. Vattenfall Research and Development AB has been the active project partner from the Vattenfall Group, assigned by Vattenfall R&D Projects.
Read more about the project

At the final conference the consortium partners gave an overview of the challenges and opportunities of integrating EVs and an indication of how the system can address the potential difficulties whilst making use of the technical opportunities to optimise the use of the systems’ components.

The project has investigated a number of areas such as:

• a fundamental technical analysis of the impact of EVs on electrical grids
• the effects of different EV charging strategies
• the required technological developments in the infrastructure of the grid
• policy requirements necessary to cope with a mass introduction of EVs
• socio-economical and environmental implications of electro-mobility

During the project, having the tools and analysis presented, and considering the core of the functional requirements of an ICT solution enabling the control of millions of EV as well as ensuring the grid stability, the increasing usage of renewable energy sources and the creation of an open and flexible market for E-mobility services which could be applied in any part of Europe.

Finally, customer expectations have also been considered in order to examine the social acceptability of various technical and economic options related to EV usage.

Based on project findings, a Roadmap for a large deployment of EVs has been developed along with a comprehensive set of relevant policy and regulatory recommendations. The results of G4V can be used to establish an appropriate framework to support the mass-market introduction of EVs in the future. They also suggest the future R&D topics in this area.

The key messages

The results of the project can be summarised in the following four key messages:

• Charging strategies should be flexible and adjustable to the market penetration of EVs. The charging of EVs should be controlled in such a way to include the needs and constraints relevant for the Distribution System Operators (DSOs). A DSO needs to have a detailed overview of the circumstances and the possibility to control the system (in emergency cases). Vattenfall’s networks were analysed during the project and could integrate considerable amounts of EVs without application of any control strategy.
• Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) does not seem to be a profitable business concept at this moment. Unidirectional charging strategies (“smart charging”) should be promoted first. Bi-directional charging strategies should be analysed further and reconsidered for a large penetration of EVs.
• A cost-effective deployment of EVs should be done by promoting home charging (up to 3.7 kW (16 A, 230V)), complemented with the network of faster public charging poles.
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) do not represent a barrier for the integration of EVs. Using ICTs to implement control strategies may help reducing the impact of EVs on the grid. Synergies with Smart Grids should be respected in the development of ICTs.

G4V roadmap: ‘the JUMP’

Why is the G4V roadmap called the JUMP? Coming from the conservative world, with an existing regulation that is not suitable for supporting the massive integration of EVs, only very simple charging strategies can be applied. These charging strategies do not allow taking advantage of potential benefits of EVs, such as flexible load, neither from the system perspective or as a new business concept.

-To take advantage of some of the opportunities that the EVs represent and to avoid some of the complications/problems that may occur, is necessary ‘to JUMP’ into the pragmatic scenario which includes liberalisation in regulation and possibility for implementation of simple control strategies. For this first step, only a slight JUMP is enough and it does not take too much effort, says Lennart Spante, Vattenfall Research and Development.

It is necessary to adapt the framework in the right direction to influence the EV charging process. This will avoid/reduce network reinforcements and additional costs for the customers, as well as enable EVs to participate in a reserve market for electricity, potentially resulting in environmental benefits as well. This step would be advisable to make even with low penetration of EVs, even from the very beginning. The need for grid enforcements varies between all the 200 grids analysed within the project. In all countries (GE, FR, IT, ES, PO, SE) there are both grids which today could handle a larger penetration of EVs, and those who need extensive enforcement.

Nevertheless it is necessary to make much larger changes, to provide the advanced framework where EVs could interact as an active partner in the energy systems, including for instance, V2G functionality.

-These two steps, or JUMPs, could be linked with a time line. If the Conservative scenario represents the present situation in most of the EU-27 countries, the next stage that could be successfully reached is the jump into the pragmatic scenario. This could be implemented within a time frame of 10-15 years from now. Due to the fact that only minor changes in the framework have to be achieved, there are no major showstoppers indicated or described. The challenging part about this approach is the fact that these changes have to be successfully implemented in all the EU-27 countries, says Johan Tollin, Vattenfall R&D Projects.

The recommendation of the G4V consortium is not to pursue advanced solutions in the nearest future, but to adopt the pragmatic scenario, where a large amount of EVs can be accommodated with reasonable modifications, taking advantage of most of the opportunities offered by the EVs and avoiding the barriers that could appear.