Volkswagen subsidiary Elli and grid management firm Mitnetz Strom have launched a pilot project for smart grid integration of electric vehicles in Germany.

In the first step, around 20 drivers of Volkswagen models ID.3, ID.4 or ID.5 are helping make electric cars part of the energy system and increasingly using green electricity from the region for charging.

The two partners presented together with E-Bridge the centrepiece of this field testing at last week’s E-World event in Essen, Germany. There, they provided a first insight into what a practical implementation of smart charging could look like.

An algorithm uses price incentives to compare the cars’ charging plans with regional electricity output from renewable energies and the available capacities in the distribution grid. The resulting flexible grid use is intended to reduce the frequency of bottlenecks in the power grid and create financial benefits for participants.

“With this project, we are demonstrating for the first time how electric cars can be synchronised with the power grid in a user-friendly way,” said Niklas Schirmer, vice president at Elli. “The car becomes a rolling electricity storage unit for the grid operator. For drivers, financial added value is generated via price incentives. By making the electricity demand of EVs more flexible, more renewable, regionally generated electricity can be used.”

In 2020, about 6200GWh of green power had to be curtailed in Germany.

“Together, we are supporting the energy and transport transition locally and investing in the energy future,” said Michael Lehmann, process and system manager at Mitnetz Strom. “E-mobility and the energy industry are working hand in hand here. EVs can run on green electricity and relieve the strain on the power grid where it is particularly needed. We can prevent bottlenecks in the local grid by using newly developed software to allocate charging processes for electric vehicles to the available grid capacities. The concept now provides us with important insights into whether our approach is customer-friendly.”

The results of the pilot test are expected in autumn this year.

Elli is a brand of the Volkswagen Group and a provider of energy and charging technology. The company, which employs around 200 people, aims to make the benefits of the energy transition accessible to everyone. Elli was founded in 2018 and has locations in Berlin, Wolfsburg and Munich.

Mitnetz Strom, headquartered in Kabelsketal, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Envia Mitteldeutsche Energie. As the largest regional distribution system operator in eastern Germany, Mitnetz Strom is responsible for planning, operating and marketing the Envia electricity grid. The electricity distribution grid managed by Mitnetz Strom has a length of around 73,000km and covers parts of the federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

E-Bridge Consulting supports companies in the energy supply sector in implementing and realising their corporate goals. The tasks range from co-designing the regulatory and policy framework to the development and realisation of modern operational and planning strategies and processes to selection and implementation of the supporting IT systems.