Porsche has been experimenting with its vehicle-to-grid technologies. It has interestingly opted to use Taycan “swarm” after conducting tests with grid operator TransnetBW and also getting a consulting firm Intelligent Energy Service (IE2S). The Swarm will be connected to the power grid as a buffer from the Porsche Taycans and Porsche’s Home Energy Manager (HEM).
According to a press release, Porsche’s test ultimately demonstrated that electrical balancing power could be stored in the high-voltage batteries of numerous electric vehicles. This was made possible in no small part due to the efforts of IE2S, which developed a cloud-based pooling system. The system controlled the charging process based on the needs of the power grid. Lutz Meschke, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG, issued a statement about the Taycan’s’ V2G tests. According to the executive, vehicle-to-grid solutions have a lot of potentials, and it was something that became very evident with the Taycan’s pilot tests.
“The charging technology of the Porsche Taycan and our Home Energy Manager and Mobile Charger products have a lot of potential for the future: the pilot test proved that. And the balancing power market isn’t the only thing a pooling system of this kind can be used for.
Green charging solutions
“Advanced solutions for green charging and other vehicle-to-grid applications are also conceivable. And that’s not all: if electric vehicles feed electrical energy back into the grid in the future for example with a private photovoltaic system, contributing to the expansion of regenerative energy, it will further increase the acceptance of e-mobility,” Meschke said.
With the expansion of renewable energies, balancing power will become even more important in the future for secure grid operation. This is because the power grid must always be stable, even though the wind and sun are not always producing consistent amounts of energy. If power grids are not stabilized at a constant 50 Hertz power frequency, there is a risk of power cuts. Until now, conventional power plants in particular have been responsible for cushioning these fluctuations. Using high-voltage batteries as a buffer would be a win-win situation: drivers of electric cars could be financially compensated for their contribution to balancing power.
The key element of the data communication used in the pilot test is a cloud-based pooling system developed by IE2S. This coordinates and controls the charging processes of the electric vehicles in real-time, by translating the grid operator’s balancing power setpoints into vehicle-specific signals.
Credits- Porsche Newsroom
