Electric vehicles already solve a lot of problems: they reduce our dependence on gas and help reduce emissions. At the same time, EVs are a major source of electricity consumption, and most existing electricity grids were simply not designed for this level of demand. That creates new challenges, but what if EVs could also become part of the solution to this same problem?
Electric cars are basically batteries on wheels, but they spend countless hours just sitting in parking lots. So why should they only consume electricity? Why couldn’t they also work as giant power banks and supply some of that stored energy back to the grid?
Well, they actually can, and this is exactly the idea behind a project called DriVe2X, developed by European energy companies and researchers.
Even though it sounds almost futuristic, the concept has already been tested in real-world settings – in the airport in the Portuguese city of Porto, and in a couple of hotels on the Isle of Wight in England. There are a few nuances to it, though, and we’ll get to those in a moment.
So, what exactly would that look like? Let’s take a hotel as an example. Hotels, as well as airports, are perfect places to test this technology because their electricity usage follows quite predictable patterns.
Let’s say you drive your EV around all day and return to the hotel in the evening. You plug it in overnight, as you’re not going to use it until the next morning. Around dinnertime, most guests are back at the hotel. They are turning on lights and TVs and taking showers, while the kitchen is busy preparing food. Electricity demand is at its peak.
Now imagine that instead of getting all that electricity from the grid and putting pressure on the electricity system, the hotel could use some of the energy stored in the electric vehicles parked outside. The EVs basically become temporary batteries for the hotel. Later at night, energy demand is much lower and electricity may be cheaper, so the cars can be recharged in time for the morning.
What’s still limiting this idea is the need for bidirectional charging technology. The EVs need to support bidirectional charging, and compatible chargers simply need to be available on-site to provide this option.
“In theory, every electric vehicle is bidirectional. In practice, however, the number of vehicles that are actually compatible is still very limited. While there is already an open communication standard for bidirectional charging (ISO 15118-20), many manufacturers do not yet follow it strictly or implement it consistently, which creates interoperability challenges,” explains Samuel Matias, an R&D Project Manager at Portuguese energy company EDP.
In the future, if these technical and regulatory limitations can be overcome, the technology could extend far beyond hotels and airports. DriVe2X sees potential applications in mobility hubs, apartment buildings, and single-family houses.
Source: DriVe2X
