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Maintaining sustainability principles and tackling energy management challengesare crucial tasks for cities today. Flor inda Boschetti and Hugo Niesing wonderhow transport policies can contribute to solve the problem

Electr ic dreamsSEEV4-City: Towards a mobile, clean energy grid in the City

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In the coming years, Europe iscommitted to reducing its carbonfootprint in the energy and trans-

portation sector by cutting green-house gas (GHG) emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and by 40 per cent by2030 compared with 1990. While the

EU as a whole is on course tomeet its 2020 targets and seeksto have a 20 per cent share ofits gross final energy consump-tion from renewable sources by2020, some Member States areat the forefront in expanding

the numbers of electric vehicles.Enabling clean and green transporta-tion by increasing the number of elec-tric vehicles powered by renewableenergy sources is a top priority forEurope’s public authorities, compa-nies and concerned citizens.

However, an increase in the numberof electric vehicles and demand forrenewable energy production createsa challenge. The growing number ofEVs is causing a new energy demandin cities that needs careful planning.Also, most of the time a significantamount of renewable energy supplydoes not match EVs’ demand for elec-tricity. Due to this mismatch betweendemand and supply, EVs aren’t alwayscharged with renewable energy andthis impacts the existing large energydemand peak in acity, leading tounde-sirable effects on the electricitygrid.

CHARGINGSMARTLYA number of cities across Europe arepiloting solutions to tackle these chal-lengesbyoptimising theuseof electricvehicles and renewables (PV) throughInformation and CommunicationTechnologies (ICT). When imple-mented effectively, smart chargingmitigates CO2 emissions, increasesclean kilometres driven and resultsin less impact on the grid, which mayconsequently reduce grid investmentswhich would be otherwise needed,increases the matching of energydemand-supply and improves energyautonomy.

In European cities renewableenergy production is hamperedbecause large instal lations arel imited by their intermittency.

Energy production andconsumption do not fit seamlessly

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The implementation of SmartCharging (where the timing of EVcharging is controlled to benefit net-work operation), V2G (where EVs areused as energystores, enabling a bet-ter balance to be achieved betweenenergy supply and demand) and theother ‘ancillary’ services theycan pro-vide are collectivelyknown as “Vehicle4 Energy Services” or V4ES.

Smart charging is applied by coor-dinating EV charging demand withthe varying output of locally gener-ated renewable energy, with the aimof minimising grid impacts and bat-tery degradation, whilst maximisingenergy autonomy and economic ben-efits. Different operational environ-mentsandlevels for smart chargingorV2Gintegration exist, these are knownas Vehicle 2 Home (V2H), Vehicle 2Business (V2B), Vehicle 2 Street (V2S)and Vehicle 2 Neighbourhood (V2N).

As all cities are struggling withthe transition towards clean mobil-ity and more energy independencewhile reducing their carbon foot-print, what can Energy ManagementSystems (EMS) do for clean energyand mobility? EMS can determineenergy fluxes and optimise the useof energy generated locally, can helpstorage and integrate energy in anelectric vehicle battery.

Current initiatives in this field existon a small scale and address only aparticular theme, mobility manage-ment or energyconsumption systems.In European cities renewable energyproduction is hampered becauselarge installations are limited by theirintermittency. Energy production andconsumption do not fit seamlessly.Large scale renewable energy cre-ates peak production when demandis low, resulting in energy transport,conversion and related losses. Energydemand is more predictable and canpartly be adapted to production.

Here are some city case studyexamples.

Amsterdam is preparing for anincrease of electric cars and more

renewable energy generated locallyin the city. With its strategy the citywants to optimise the interaction atdistrict level between prosumers andEVs. Any excess in PVenergy produc-tion will be diverted to smart chargingstations and an increase in networkdemand will reduce the power supplyto the charge points. Households willnot experience any change in the waythey use electricity, but their excessof production will be diverted - whenpossible - to charge EVs parked in thedistrict.

In March 2017 the city started a“flexible charging” project with part-ners Nuon, Liander and ElaadNL. Bysteering the charge flow of electriccars’ peak, loads can be avoided andthe demand can be matched to theavailability of locally produced sus-tainable energy.

The design of the current electric-ity grid has not taken into account thearrival of electric cars. At this stage,there is no direct problem, but anuncontrolled increase of chargers onthe low voltagegrid might lead topeakdemands that exceed grid capacity.Therefore, it is necessary to start test-ing how smart charging helps to over-come this. Bymonitoring the chargingdata, Amsterdam wants to make surecars are always full enough for the

next trip. The pilot begins with 200public charge stations with two sock-ets each in the centre, the West, NewWest and South of Amsterdam. Thecharging speed is adjusted on thebasis of the use of the electricity grid.At the start of the test, charge speedfor electric cars is increased duringoutside peak hours. This means theywill be charged faster than normalat this time of the day. Only duringpeak hours (between 16.30 and 19.30),when other devices demand morepower, the cars are charged moreslowly and with less power. With thismethod, more e-drivers can use thesame charge point and less publiccharge points are needed.

Another pilot in the city is located atthe Amsterdam Arena. This is a V2Bthat includes an Intelligent EnergyManagement system along with RESand Primary control reserve services.This pilot presents a different mag-nitude of the V2G experience with anenergy consumption comparable to270 households. Amsterdam Arenais carbon-neutral; currently, 10-15per cent of its annual consumptionis generated from its own 4200 solarpanels, with the other 85-90 per centcoming from wind energy supplied bythe Arena’s energy provider (greenelectricity). The renewable energy

Amsterdam prepares foran increase in electr ic cars

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FYIFlor inda Boschetti isSenior Manager at Polis

Hugo Niesing is SEEV4-City’s project coordinator

For more informationabout the project visitwww.nor thsearegion.eu/seev4-city or contact the SEE4-City project coordinator HugoNiesing: h.niesing@hva.nl

produced ensures a supplyof clean energy to chargeEVs, which translates intoreduced CO2 emissions,as well as an increase inclean kilometres. Moreover,Amsterdam Arena is inter-ested in energy storage andV2G applications; thus, theyhave installed stationary2nd life batteries (to phaseout diesel-fuelled backupgenerators in case of black-outs), and V2G bidirectionalchargers on the premises.Furthermore, the Arena haspotential to contribute to areduction of 1500 tonnes of CO2/yearthrough PCRservices.

Vulkan in Oslo is one of the mostadvanced charging garages in Norwayand indeed in the world. The Vulkanproject represents the future mobil-ity house for professional EV users;it exemplifies the fusion between thebuilding and transport sectors, mostneeded to boost the electrification oftransport. During the day, the Vulkansite operates as a ‘Centre for profes-sional users of EVs’ like taxis, electricfreight vehicles and EVs for crafts andservices. Vulkan allows for the pre-booking of charging timeslots, flex-ible charging, battery storage, smartgrid systems and quick charging. Atnight, Vulkan offers free residentialparking for dwellers in the neighbour-hood. This creates a flexible and cost-efficient site for the promotion of EVs.Currently, Vulkan is equipped with 100AC chargers, 2 DC quick chargers,battery storage, smart grid systems,flexible charging and V2G functional-ity. The next stage will include superquick chargers, battery storage withsecond-hand batteries, V2G solutionsfor both ACand DCcharging, and pos-sibly, inductive charging.

“Use our electric vehicles as energybuffers!” That is exactly what thecity of Kortrijk, Belgium wants to doin the future. Kortrijk, with 76,000inhabitants, strives to be the first city

in Flanders to become energy neu-tral. The local pilot site consists ofmunicipal sport facilities, a depot forcity services, a PV-installation roughlythree-quarters of the size of a foot-ball pitch (yearly producing enoughgreen energy to cater for 22 fami-lies all year round), a smart charg-ing station and currently one NissanE-NV200, an electric delivery van: thepilot aspires to become a small powerplant. The energy produced by thePV-installation is used by the depotand sport facilities, but any excessenergywill be injected into theEV, sta-tionary battery or e-bikes on site to beused when necessary.

By means of a smart charging sta-tion, the electric delivery van will notonly be charged, but also discharged.The regular driving hours of the mail-man and his daily predeterminedtrajectory provide clear boundariesto implement smart charging algo-rithms. A rise in energy autonomyis expected to save 33.4 tons of CO2

emissions. These numbers will onlyincrease when more EVs will be pur-chased bythe cityof Kortrijk. Plans forexpansion to other city service build-ings are already being considered andfit in the ambitious plan of being thefirst Flemish energy neutral city.

Moving north to Loughborough,UK where a small pilot is runningwith a single household, with a single

EV, equipped with PV panels,which regularly produces moreenergy than it consumes dueto a demand/generation mis-alignment. Through ICT inte-gration, when the EV is parkedat the house, it will charge ordischarge in response to thehousehold’s electricity demandand solar energy produc-tion forecast. As a result, it isexpected that the distance trav-elled bytheEVusing zeroemis-sion PV generation is expectedto increase dramatically.

Finally, Leicester, UK is pilot-ing Vehicle to Business. This

pilot studies the pros and cons ofcontrolled and bi-directional charg-ing at an office location. BetweenJune 2016 and June 2017, the EVsused 2,996kWh; around 15 per centof annual PV production. The EVstravelled 10,587 miles. EV utilisa-tion is expected to increase; leadingto an increase in ultra-low emissionkilometres.

These six pilots are receiving finan-cial support by the Interreg North-Sea Region SEEV4-City project. Themain aim of SEEV4-City is to developthis concept into sustainable (com-mercially and socially viable) busi-ness models and well-establishedcity planning. Energy and mobility areseparate domains, but SEEV4-Cityaims to integrate these field into city-oriented Sustainable Urban Mobilityand Energy Plan (SUMEP).

Amsterdam Arena stores energy to sustain powerdur ing outages, replacing diesel generators