With vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home, the battery of an electric vehicle is not only charged, but also discharged. The term changes depending on the objective being pursued. With vehicle-to-grid, energy is stored from the battery when the power grid needs it, e.g. to replace renewable generation, stabilise the local grid or provide balancing power. Vehicle-to-home (or vehicle-to-building) in turn means that the vehicle battery is used to either consume more energy locally from the vehicle’s own PV system, provide an emergency power supply or reduce the peak loads of electricity consumers. If you are also working on these concepts, we look forward to welcoming you.

Smart charging means that a vehicle is charged when this is particularly favorable. This can mean, for example, that a surplus of (locally generated) green electricity is available or that there is currently too much energy available in the power grid. Conversely, this also means that charging is reduced or interrupted when electricity is currently in short supply.

An exact estimate is difficult, as it depends on many different variables. Currently, about 56 gigawatt hours are installed in cars. In 2030, this value could grow to several 100 gigawatt hours, which would correspond to a multiple of today’s storage capacities. How much of this capacity can actually be used is difficult to estimate. However, since vehicles are usually stationary for 23 hours a day and virtually never more than 10% of the vehicles are in motion at any one time, very high values can be expected. If you have ideas and questions about how these capacities can be used, we look forward to your participation!

Currently, secure capacities must be available for grid services. This means that it must be guaranteed that a certain amount of energy and power must be available in case of doubt and that cars cannot move freely. However, regulatory changes are likely here. In addition, the necessary technical standards ISO 15118-20 and OCPP 2.0 are not yet widespread. As a result, current technical solutions are not always compatible. However, this should also change in the near future. Do you work in this area or have alternative suggestions? Then please come and take part in our discussion.

Compared to the current status quo (full charging of vehicles after arrival), the vehicle battery benefits from intelligent charging – with and without additional battery activity. The reason for this lies in a special feature of the lithium-ion batteries used, which age both chronologically (ageing due to existence) and cyclically (ageing due to work). The calendar service life is shortest when the battery is fully charged. Smart charging, vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid reduce the average state of charge and thus extend the service life. However, even additional cycles hardly lead to accelerated ageing if up to a maximum of 20 per cent of the battery’s energy is removed in one cycle (quote from Hecht and Figgener, PV Magazine).

All the important components are ready and will be transferred to the mass market in the near future. The best way to find out exactly when this will happen is to discuss it with our speakers at the conference.