Joint Declaration POWER DRIVE - How DSOs can integrate the E-Mobility Boom
The rapid uptake of Electric Vehicles throughout Europe is now very much underway. A recent Eurelectric and EY study on E-mobility estimates that the number of EVs is expected to grow to 65 million vehicles by 2030 and then double to 130 million vehicles by 2035. Just this week, the European Parliament gave its final approval for legislation on car fleet CO2 standards for 2035: it requires a 100% reduction of emissions for all new vehicles put on the market – which effectively rules out new petrol and diesel cars from that date. This will inevitably fast track the deployment of EVs. Likewise, the estimated number of chargers to sustain this ramp up would grow to 65 million by 2035 in order to bear the additional 200 TWh demand caused by wider EV penetration. The grid must be prepared to become one of the key enablers of E-Mobility.
In addition, the recent Eurelectric Study “Connecting the Dots”, highlighted a compilation of trends that will substantially impact the European grid and make its upgrade urgent: a general increase of the total power demand (+ 1.8% by 2030), a fundamental change of the generation mix (+70% of the incoming 510 GW of RES capacity will be connected at distribution level). RePowerEU has now added 41 GW of wind power, 62 GW of solar PV to the Fit-for-55 targets, bringing cumulative renewables capacity to 753 GW by 2030. We also observe a very fast and important shift towards a much more electrified society with the use of heat pumps or electric vehicles that will be connected at distribution level. The study estimates that €375-425 billion of investments are needed by 2030 to make them fit-for-purpose in an increasingly decarbonised, decentralised, and digitalised power system. While this may seem challenging, the overall societal benefit massively outweigh the economic impact.
On the other hand, grids and Distribution System Operators (DSOs) will benefit from EV uptake thanks to the flexibility that solutions such as smart and bidirectional charging could offer. Meanwhile, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) clients are concerned about the infrastructure’s capacity to sustain their needs to charge up their vehicles. In the middle of the value chain, Charging Point Operators (CPOs) and Mobility Service Providers (MSPs) are linked to both the evolution of grids and OEMs’ capacity to transition to EVs. CPOs are especially concerned that grid constraints might represent a roadblock for infrastructure deployment. Finally, institutional bodies and cities planners are directly involved in the ramp up of EVs.
In light of these strong dependencies, it is of mutual benefit that the actors of the whole value chain - DSOs, CPOs, MSPs, OEMs, retailers, consumers and public actors - have a say in E-Mobility discussions to help build a common understanding.
Consequently, Eurelectric has launched a series of Roundtables dedicated to increasing the visibility of DSOs on e-mobility issues, reuniting all members of the ecosystem, identifying bottlenecks in relation to distribution grids, and producing policy recommendations that could alleviate them. Comprehensive conclusions are available in the annex.