Workshop
Smart Charging of Electric Vehicles:
Unlocking the full Potential of Electrified Transport
05 May 2011, Brussels
With participants from the European institutions, the electricity sector, the automotive industry and electric equipment manufacturers, the EURELECTRIC workshop on ‘Smart charging of electric vehicles: Unlocking the full potential of the electrified transport’ took place yesterday, 5 May 2011, in Brussels. Among the highlights was a keynote speech by MEP Britta Thomsen (S&D, Denmark). Discussing the future role of electric mobility, the mood amongst participants was rather upbeat.
“Electric vehicles high on the agenda”
A strong supporter of electric vehicles (EVs), Ms Thomsen welcomed EURELECTRIC’s initiative and acknowledged the industry’s hard work. The Danish MEP outlined three main challenges of EV deployment: the need for a safe and easy access to charging infrastructure, for harmonised standards and for developing smart grids. In addition, she called upon EU member states to provide complementary measures – such as free parking and usage of bus lanes in city centres - to support market deployment and penetration of EVs.
“EVs will play an important role in tomorrow’s smart energy system if vehicle and infrastructure are intelligently connected”
Given the changing electricity mix, with more decentralised generation and intermittent renewables, Thomas Theisen said that the charging process of electric vehicles – under mass market conditions – needed to be smart. An intelligent coordination of charging through communication between the vehicle and the infrastructure would reduce peaks in the grid and allow constant utilisation of electricity generation capacity. An AC connection, an infrastructure that is already widely available, would enable such a smart charging process.
Download presentation“Think beyond the vehicle”
Cristoph Saalfeld, manager at Daimler AG, pointed out that smart charging through bi-directional communication between vehicle and grid has several uses cases: simple payment and billing, optimised load management, additional customer services like remote control of charging and access to internet based services. With regard to the charging process, he considered ubiquitous charging as most effective in minimizing time loss for the EV customer, and therefore as the first priority. The EV users would mainly charge their cars while not using their cars. A dedicated charge stop involving, waiting for the car to be recharged, through a DC connection, was only a second priority, he concluded.
Download presentation“Charge your car every time to stop, do not stop to charge”
Affirming that energy management was essential to integrate EVs in the system, Claude Ricaud, Chairman of Orgalime, outlined that there was a need for peak shaving and optimising the use of RES, to prevent the need for additional generation capacity. With regard to infrastructure, he identified safety as a crucial issue and electrical installation of the charging infrastructure a major innovation which would create a lot of jobs for the European industry. Commenting on the take-up of the market for EVs, he noted that after a slow start, a fast lane to the adoption of electric cars would follow in the coming years.
Download presentation“Smart charging and smart grid are important for the overall policy picture”
In his speech, Philip Owen of DG Climate Action, said that the electrification of society and transport was key in the challenge of decarbonisation. Referring to the Transport White Paper setting a 20% overall reduction target for the transport sector by 2020, he pointed to the challenge of the electricity sector in becoming a major fuel for transport. In addition, he emphasised the major need to improve the balancing of the system, optimising the available use of night-time generation capacity and storage possibility which could also partly be done with EVs. The three major industries gathered in the workshop shared EURELECTRIC's opinion on the need for an intelligent connection between electric vehicle and infrastructure, one which takes electricity generation and grid capacity into account. Identifying no major hurdles on the technical side, the industries called for an appropriate regulatory framework to make EVs commercially viable and attractive to customers.
Download presentationThe three major industries gathered in the workshop shared EURELECTRIC's opinion on the need for an intelligent connection between electric vehicle and infrastructure, one which takes electricity generation and grid capacity into account. Identifying no major hurdles on the technical side, the industries called for an appropriate regulatory framework to make EVs commercially viable and attractive to customers.
Download the event programme here