Source: Energy & Management Powernews, September 26, 2022
Hyundai and Next Kraftwerke could provide control power from e-car batteries in Amprion's grid area. The VW Group is planning something similar in Belgium.
Eight charging columns and eight Ioniq-5 electric cars from Hyundai have fed secondary regulating power (SRL, see also box below) into the Amprion grid. The project - initiated by Hyundai Motor Group and direct marketer Next Kraftwerke - illustrates that small units and vehicle-to-grid can also make an important contribution to control power and thus to stabilizing the power grid in Germany, according to a statement from the partners.
"The necessary and rapid expansion of renewable energies is accompanied by an increased need for flexibility potential. As a transmission system operator, we are very interested in new ways and technologies to be able to exploit this potential," explained Markus Stobrawe, head of energy market and system balance at Amprion. He called the project a successful example of smart sector coupling.
"Cars remain fully usable"
"It has been proven that control energy generation from e-vehicles is possible without restricting the usability of the vehicle," said Alexander Krautz, Head of Business Development at Next Kraftwerke.
The sub-pool consisting of the vehicles and charging stations at the Hyundai site in Offenbach is integrated into Next Kraftwerke's virtual power plant. In this process, LG Electronics and Hyundai communicate the available amount of balancing power to Next. Next then provides this to the transmission system operator and controls the sub-pool in the event of an SRL call from Amprion.
In order to be able to forecast exactly when the vehicles will be at the charging station and thus available for balancing power, LG has developed an app. In which Hyundai employees can enter the charging times of the e-cars. The charging or discharging of the vehicle battery in the event of a control energy call takes place via a bidirectional charging pole connected to a gateway. In the future, wallboxes and home storage units are to supplement the sub-pool at the household level.
After the successful trial, the companies involved are convinced that further locations and larger vehicle fleets can be easily and cost-effectively integrated into the pool on the basis of the tested concept. They also said the initiative could benefit vehicle owners and reduce the total cost of ownership of e-cars by paying for the SRL provided.
Cooperation between Elli and Elia
Meanwhile, VW energy service provider Elli and Belgian TSO Elia entered into an agreement on September 23 that aims to establish e-vehicles as a permanent part of the energy grid in the medium term. Elia is also bringing in the start-up Realto for this purpose, VW announced.
When the cars are not on the road and are parked at the charging station overnight, for example, they could - according to the idea - release certain amounts of unused electricity into the grid as needed. This bidirectional charging in two directions would also allow e-car owners to sell their own electricity. Conversely, charging one's own vehicle could be cheaper in certain situations. The partners now want to first develop a suitable market model.
Secondary control energy
Secondary control power (SRL/aFRR) and secondary control work are put out to tender nationwide on a daily basis. The call by a single TSO occurs when the called primary control work is no longer sufficient to maintain the power frequency in a narrow band around 50 Hz. Surcharged SRL providers must respond within 30 seconds, have all of the surcharged electrical power up or down within another 5 minutes, and then hold it for 15 minutes, Next Kraftwerke said on its website.
Author: Günter Drewnitzky