How might we reward electric vehicle charging that serves the electricity grid and market?

Today, electric vehicle (EV) drivers lack incentives to charge their cars when renewable energy is available and the grid has capacity to transport it. Drivers are generally left in the dark about fluctuating power prices or grid capacity constraints, which results in missed opportunities. Instead, curtailment and costs of congestion management continue to rise.

To address this, we have partnered with key innovators across the energy and mobility value chain. Together, we are on a mission to pioneer market-driven and grid-friendly EV charging. By leveraging charging flexibility, we aim to decrease costs for drivers and the entire power system by capturing low wholesale prices, reducing redispatch and delaying grid expansion.

Our partners cover the entire value chain

UnternehmerTUM has done an outstanding job of bringing market participants together, gathering information, and conveying it in a way that is understandable to everyone.

Maraflor Brunner, Maingau Energie

Project scope: From problem to solution in 6 months

Problem

Limited grid capacity

Today, congestion management and grid expansion are becoming an increasing financial burden for the german power system. At the same time, high power prices and low utilization are slowing down the adoption of electric vehicles. In particular, the lack of load and price reflective signals and incentives hamper the leveraging of EV driver flexibility.

Approach

Incentives for grid- and market-friendly charging

Thats why we developed a novel, harmonized grid signal, representing both, transmission and distribution grid. This integrated load signal can be used by aggregators and EMSPs to optimize home charging and public charging according to fluctuating power prices and and grid load.

Potential

Individual and system-wide benefits

As a result, savings are generated by leveraging low power prices and avoiding grid congestion. These ought to be distributed along the value chain, making charging more affordable, strengthening flexibility service providers and decreasing system costs for everyone.

Grid capacity reaches its limit

Grid congestion can occur at both the transmission system operator (TSO) and distribution system operator (DSO) level. Currently, congestion is to a large degree the product of the following factors:

Transmission capacity limitation hinder the efficient transport of green energy (e.g. from the north to industrial hubs in the south), causing curtailment of renewables and activation of coal or gas power plants.
PV peaks caused by high synchronicity in solar generation, particularly during midday, causes congestion at the DSO level.
Load-dependent congestion caused by e.g. simultaneous EV charging during early evening hours is rare but will exert more pressure on the grid in the future.

Grid congestion management such as redispatch already imposes a significant financial burden, which is payed by all consumers via increasing grid fees. In 2023, redispatchcosts amounted to €3.1 billion and transmission grid expansion costs are projected to reach €50 billion by 2030.