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The journey to the commercialisation of vehicle-to-grid technology.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is the technology that enables bidirectional charging – where an electric vehicle (EV) can both charge from and discharge onto the grid.
With the forecasts for rapid adoption of EVs, the technology could become a powerful disruptor in European markets. However, apart from one instance in Denmark, V2G has only been deployed in the form of pilots across Europe in the past five years.
Three countries in particular are making headway on V2G.
Denmark
In 2013, Denmark hosted with Nuvve the first commercial V2G project in Europe to deliver a business fleet, for Frederiksberg Forsyning. The predictability of fleet vehicle use can make the opportunities for V2G services more reliable for the market.
The Netherlands
Several pilots have been carried out in the Netherlands. Many Dutch cities have smart and innovation-focused programmes influenced by research institutions, such as TU Delft and Hogeschool van Amsterdam, with European innovation backing. Local distribution system operators have considerable interest in the control of EV charging because it pairs with the growth of intermittent renewables.
The UK
The UK government has been a major driver for the development and deployment of V2G globally. V2G is seen not only as a technology that provides grid benefits, but also as a part of the industrial strategy for the automotive and electrical manufacturing sector. For this reason, Innovate UK launched a £30 million competition where 21 V2G projects shared the funding, with eight “real world” projects taking most of the money. The results will be announced by 2021.
Who are the leading players?
Currently Nissan is an unquestionable leader in V2G research. In 2018, the company cemented its position by setting up partnerships with Eon to develop commercial propositions. Nissan has significant market influence, taking into account that its vehicles, the Leaf and the eNV200, are already commercially available and V2G-enabled.
In addition to Nissan, Italian electricity giant Enel is one of the most innovative in Europe when it comes to V2G. Enel spreads its assets into many parts of the energy supply chain, including manufacturing. In 2017, it acquired US-based eMotorWerks and has gone on to explore V2G under the new brand EnelX.
Nuvve is a California-based technology developer with more than ten years of V2G experience, including in Europe with the 2013 Nikola project. Through these projects, Nuvve offers both software and aggregator roles. The company is considered to have developed the most advanced V2G sustainable business models, as it already has a client in Denmark. Its compelling proposition is designed to lower infrastructure costs, overcoming a potential barrier to V2G.
Currently, Nissan is the car manufacturer of choice for V2G projects. However other vehicle manufacturers, such as Renault, Volkswagen, Elli and Honda, have started to take note of V2G opportunities. There is still some work to be done before these manufacturers establish a V2G charging standard that can challenge Nissan’s ChaDeMo. And although Volkswagen is behind the pack on V2G deployment, its high level of EV investment and ambition to lead the sector could see it leapfrog competitors and establish a leading position in the future.
The big question is, what needs to happen for V2G to become fully commercial across Europe? V2G will exist within a host of technology solutions to support energy management and flexibility. In each value stream, there is likely a unidirectional solution to compete against. For it to succeed, four factors need to be considered.
- The duty cycle of the EV – when is the EV available for V2G and how predictable is this?
- The volumes available – what is the potential when the EV batteries are stacked up? How many will be available simultaneously?
- The customer – how many customers are there and how willing are they to contribute?
- The value streams of V2G – will V2G find its feet best providing grid level flexibility services, or at a city or home level?
On this basis, buses and large vehicle fleets operated by individual clients are likely to offer the earliest market opportunities. Pools of privately-owned cars and vans plugged into distributed networks of domestic chargers could ultimately offer greater stacked value but the stack will take longer to develop. By this point, static solutions may be too powerful to compete against.
With Innovate UK’s 2018 demonstrators due to complete in 2021/22, the next few years are critical for the future of V2G technology in Europe.
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