Electromobility as an opportunity for grids
Electromobility offers an opportunity for electricity grids: Which incentives make switching to electric more attractive. Emmanuel Lagrandeur-Bouressy and Friederike Wenderoth provide an all-round insight.
The ramp-up of electromobility poses a challenge for Germany’s electricity grids, but could also have a positive impact on their flexibility. Emmanuel Lagrandeur-Bouressy, Head of Mobility at dena, and Friederike Wenderoth, Energy Infrastructure Team Leader at dena, explain how the right incentives can be set for grid operators and electric car users to contribute to the climate-neutral electricity system of the future.
Both grid operators and vehicle manufacturers are faced with the question of the extent to which electric cars could grow beyond their function as a pure means of transport in future and play a role in the flexibility of distribution grids. This topic was also addressed in a panel discussion at the dena Energy Transition Congress in Berlin in 2023.
The purchase of an electric car could become much more attractive from the consumer’s point of view if it could also be used as an energy storage device and if there was the possibility of receiving remuneration for feeding energy into the grid. However, this can only be guaranteed if a nationwide charging infrastructure with different charging capacities is set up, especially in non-public areas, and if appropriate regulatory frameworks are created for the distribution grid operators.
Dynamic electricity pricing as an incentive to buy
The prices of electricity on the exchange vary greatly depending on the time of day and availability on the market. Prices are much lower at night and in the afternoon than at peak times in the morning and evening. Purchasing electricity when prices are particularly low can enable consumers to make tangible savings. In addition, the price of electricity is generally lower during periods of high availability of renewable energies, which incentivises the consumption of green electricity. A much-discussed component of an efficient infrastructure is therefore the introduction of flexible (or dynamic) pricing for electricity. These do not have fixed energy prices per kilowatt hour, but vary depending on the current prices on the electricity exchange.
Dynamic pricing for electricity is already standard in other countries and, in the context of electromobility, only allows large quantities of electricity to be fed into the battery when market prices are low. For example, around 40 per cent of private customers in Spain are supplied with dynamic pricing for electricity, making it a pioneer in Europe.
Anticyclical shift in charging times
Charging facilities and grid connections must be fully available in order to actively integrate consumers into the electricity grid. A key challenge here is the amount of charging capacity that grid operators have to provide across different voltage levels of their distribution grid.
If vehicles are to be charged within a few minutes when parked, for example, charging capacities of well over 50 kW may be necessary. For heavy electric commercial vehicles, new charging standards such as the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) pose particularly big challenges for the power grid.
You can find further information on dena’s ‘Plattform Nachhaltiger Schwerlastverkehr’ (the sustainable transport of heavy goods platform).
Any grid expansion required to provide such high connected loads is costly for grid operators. Lower outputs of 7 kW are perfectly adequate if vehicles can be charged over a longer period of time – overnight, for example. This would save costs for both grid operators and grid connectees.
The previously mentioned flexible pricing for electricity would therefore also provide financial added value for the grid operators, as the demand for electricity shifts to longer charging times overnight and therefore lower outputs are required. The relevant data must of course be available in order to record and analyse local variations in demand and to manage grid expansion accordingly. The digitalisation of the grid infrastructure with the help of smart meters and corresponding planning software also plays a central role in grid expansion.
Bidirectional charging as a contribution to grid efficiency
The demand-oriented provision of electricity poses challenges for grid operators and energy service providers in a decentralised grid based on renewable energies. Electric cars could also play a supporting role here.
Bidirectional charging not only makes it possible to store electricity from the grid, but also to feed it from the vehicle into the grid and receive payment for it. Vehicles would thus act as temporary storage during the 23 hours of daily downtime and at the same time provide financial added value for the owners. This makes owning an electric car more attractive on the one hand, but on the other, it also means that the battery reaches the end of its life more quickly due to the additional charging and discharging cycles.
The technology for bidirectional charging does exist, but the market incentives are low. And there is currently no legal framework in place that recognises electric vehicles as battery storage systems and enables corresponding feed-in remuneration.
However, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, under the leadership of Dr Robert Habeck, has already organised a European summit on the topic of bidirectional charging. It can be assumed that bidirectional charging would tend to support self-consumption rather than the grids.
Overall, the 2023 dena Energy Transition Congress also showed that switching road transport to electric is far more than just an advance in vehicle and battery technology. It requires a comprehensive upgrade of the electricity grid infrastructure. The enormous need for investment represents a major challenge in view of the currently very tight financing situation.
The central message is clear: Adapting the electricity grids is crucial to the success of electromobility and the creation of a sustainable energy future. Legal security, flexible market mechanisms and consistent cooperation between all stakeholders are required, in addition to digitalisation.
Mobility and energy infrastructure: dena project work
The ‘Mobility’ and ‘Energy Infrastructure’ teams at dena gather together stakeholders to jointly develop technical analyses and policy recommendations for the future of electromobility and the grid infrastructure.
You can also find out more about these topics in two dena publications:
