Flexible Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

The work is on schedule. Since last reporting period, the project has received very positive results. Beyond the purely academic work the project also gained increased attention and support among industrial players. ChargeFlex, a startup company, which offers payment solutions for electric vehicle charging has followed the project for long time and has in recent months been actively involved in the development of parts of the project. In December, the project was approached by Troms County Council who wanted to look into the project, possibly to be able to use this in their electric bus initiative. Thre has now established an affiliated student project at the University of Tromsø in Narvik. This uses results from FlexChEV to analyze charging problems surrounding a future network of network with charging spots in Tromso based on electric buses. The multi-service concept that characterizes the FlexChEV concept here is central. The project has also shared results with Lloyds factories in Fredrikstad and contributed to entrepreneurship led by Per Dybesland. This relates to the development of new battery systems. University of Aalborg connected with with Norwegian industrial players through FlexChEV project.They brought part of the FlexChEV results into a new H2020 project with these Norwegian participants. This H2020 project began in January 2016. University of Zagreb has with the project impacted business development in Koncar Croatia. In January 25.01 the project organized and extended, joint workshop in Narvik with participation from the European Electric Vehicle union (EVU), Schneider, Mesh Craft, eSmart and other Norwegian industry participants. All parts and results of the project that far were presented and discussed with the participants. In addition to this, results have been documented in speific publications at Energycon 2016 and CIRED 2016. One of these publications provide a comprehensive representation of the overall concept which is developed and analyzed so far. During the summer 2016 a close relationship was established with Troms fylkeskommune's el-bus project. This has been an exploitation opportunity for the project and directions for further cooperation with them and with the consultant, Finish VTT, has been established.

The proposed project will support a smart grid strategy that could be termed CS2G. It will explore the possibility of using a dedicated energy storage system (ESS) within the charging station to alleviate grid and market conditions but not compromise the PHEV?s battery charging algorithms or place the daily routine of the PHEV owners in jeopardy. Management of this introduces additional non-technical considerations as traffic and recharging needs will vary according to day and season. Hence a dual set of needs need to be balanced, those of the grid and those of the road. This can be done per unit CS or as a portfolio oriented service including more than one ESS equipped CS. With the aim of achieving demand-response capability of PHEVs, a concept termed v ehicle to grid (V2G) has been proposed as part of a general smart grid strategy where the aim is to reduce peak loads in the energy system to curb price peaks and to alleviate unwanted states in the grid or in grid components. It refers to the task whereb y the system operator is free to use the energy stored in batteries of all grid connected PHEVs for maintaining the safe operation of the network . However, in its basic form, it implies disruption of prescribed battery charging patterns, hence causing th eir accelerated degradation. Furthermore, due to unpredictable nature of short-term load and renewable energy fluctuations for which V2G HEVs should provide reserve, their recharging time could not be strictly defined which is unacceptable to most vehicle owners. The proposed project will support a similar smart grid strategy that could be termed CS2G. It will explore the possibility of using a dedicated energy storage system (ESS) within the charging station to alleviate grid and market conditions but no t compromise the PHEV?s battery charging algorithms or place the daily routine of the PHEV owners in jeopardy. Management of this introduces additional non-technical considerations as traffic and recharging