Research project InterBDL

Interoperable management of bidirectional charging for optimised and resilient power grid operations with innovative business models

Credit:

BMWE

Increasing shares of renewable energies from partially volatile energy sources require more local storage. Such additional storage is needed to keep the energy network stable in the case of both varying generation and demand. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) can provide this storage function in the future. However, this can only be realised by connecting batteries and the power grid in a continuous active chain, organising data flows quickly and efficiently and creating joint business models along the active chain and across all actors involved. The InterBDL research project (funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy) links actors along this chain. It brings together charging infrastructure and automotive industries, ICT service providers, energy suppliers, grid operators, energy meteorology experts, and BEV vehicle users. It evaluates how to integrate the storage potential of BEV vehicles bidirectionally into the energy system.

Research project InterBDL

 

Duration

July 2023 to June 2026

Funded by

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

Project participants

  • DLR Institute of Networked Energy Systems
  • DLR Institute for Transport Research
  • Ulm University of Applied Sciences
  • be.storaged GmbH
  • EEBus Initiative e.V.
  • Intelligent Energy System Services GmbH (IE2S)
  • Pionix GmbH
  • Stadtwerke Ulm/Neu-Ulm Netze GmbH
  • Stadtwerke Ulm/Neu-Ulm Energie GmbH
  • Streamergy GmbH

From a technical perspective, bidirectional charging creates a non-conduction-bound energy flow in a virtual power plant with stationary and mobile resources. In order to establish this process in the energy system, new business models are needed. Overall, an innovative electricity grid modelling is required, which forms the basis of a potential congestion management and an adapted electricity trading. Subsequently, a dedicated expansion planning of the electricity grid infrastructure is expected, which is also subject to new requirements due to climate change and additional electricity end consumers as e.g. heat pumps.

In the InterBDL project, the Institute of Networked Energy Systems is working on information from climate models on the expected changes in the meteorological framework conditions for grid expansion. In addition, we use improved short-term forecasts of renewable energy generation to improve electricity trading in a system with bidirectional charging options. We derive the data for these forecasts essentially from satellite observations, which complement today's day-ahead and intraday forecasts.

The Institute for Transport Research, which is also based at DLR, is responsible for forecasting future charging requirements and the transport of energy in vehicles within the project. For this purpose, the city of Ulm/Neu-Ulm is mapped within the agent-based transport demand model TAPAS in order to be able to predict passenger movements. The development of the vehicle fleet is modeled and the resulting charging requirements and possibilities for feeding back into the energy grid are determined. For the expected electrification of commercial transport, the demand for charging power is evaluated on the basis of traffic and economic structural data. In this project, DLR's energy and transport research are thus jointly contributing to the testing and improvement of the complex chain of bidirectional charging.

Research groups and challenges related to the InterBDL project:

Research Group

Energy Meteorology

In the Energy Meteorology research group, we analyse how various observation systems and numerical models can be methodically optimised. We operate our own measurement networks for ground- and satellite-based collection of energy meteorological data to provide optimal information for the energy supply.

Challenge

Balancing energy supply and demand

The simultaneity of electricity generation and consumption is the basis for a stable energy system. While fossil and nuclear power plants have so far been deployed according to demand, the dominant renewable energies in the electricity system are heavily dependent on weather - and therefore not available at any given time.