In addition to stationary storage systems, vehicle batteries are ideal for balancing load and generation in the energy system in the short to medium term. Electric vehicles have batteries with high electrical power, large storage capacities, and usually long service lives. In company fleets, they can buffer locally generated photovoltaic electricity and actively reduce peak loads. The possibility of feeding energy back into the grid means that flexibility can also be made available to the higher-level power grid – as a so-called fleet power plant. Employees' vehicles can also be integrated into this concept.

In the project “BiFlex-Industrie – Bidirectional flexibility through fleet power plants in and around companies,” a consortium of researchers, industry representatives, and users is working on solving the remaining challenges. The aim of the project is to fully exploit the potential of vehicle fleets capable of feeding energy back into the grid. Concrete advantages and business models for companies and the energy industry are to be identified and demonstrated so that they can be integrated into existing systems on a large scale and become the nucleus for fleet power plants – for the operational optimization of both the company and the higher-level power system. 

The project will initially focus on company locations with company and employee vehicles. Demonstrators with 50 vehicles capable of feeding energy back into the grid are planned at seven company locations, where various relevant use cases for bidirectional charging will be implemented. To this end, the partners will first develop and commission charging stations capable of feeding energy back into the grid, including customized hardware and open communication interfaces to higher-level control systems and electric vehicles. They will develop concepts and procedures for determining and forecasting flexibility potential through energy recovery during operation. At the same time, the project partners will work on standardization and the formulation of success factors for the transferability of the project results.

At our chair, David Meyer and Luca Husemann are investigating the perceived benefits and willingness to accept bidirectional charging in the workplace. In addition, blueprints for economically viable partner networks (ecosystems) and the most profitable business models possible are to be developed. To this end, surveys, expert interviews, and focus group discussions will be conducted over the next three years.

Further information on the project can be found at the following link or on the project homepage. A video presenting the project can be found here.

Project partners:

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) (consortium leader), Ambibox GmbH, Chargebyte GmbH, German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies of DIN and VDE, ENIT Energy IT Systems GmbH, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB-AST), Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, LADE GmbH, MAHLE chargeBIG GmbH, Marquardt Group, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), SAP SE, SMART/LAB Innovationsgesellschaft mbH, Thüga Aktiengesellschaft, University of Duisburg-Essen

Funding code 01MV23020

Contact:

David Meyer, Tel. 0203/379-6019, david.meyer@uni-due.de

Luca Husemann, Tel. 0203/379-6020, luca.husemann@uni-due.de