The tide of "new infrastructure" is surging, and the challenge of charging electric vehicles is accelerating.

China is the world's largest electric vehicle market. In April this year, the National Development and Reform Commission announced that it will complete an investment of about 10 billion yuan in 2020, adding about 200000 public piles, over 400000 private piles, and 48000 public charging stations. The power demand brought about by the charging load of electric vehicles is likely to impose a greater burden on the power system, which requires a more convenient and intelligent new generation of charging technology to protect the convoy. V2G vehicle pile bidirectional charging technology is one of the technological innovations promoting energy transformation.

Whether it is Nissan, Renault, or other leading electric vehicle companies, or innovative companies such as Tesla and Weimar, have achieved the implementation and application of V2G technology. This year, the State Grid of China has also included the V2G project in the electricity peak shaving auxiliary service market for the first time. Obviously, the development of V2G technology has become a new business opportunity to reduce charging costs.



What is V2G?



V2G is an abbreviation for Vehicle to Grid, meaning Vehicle to Grid. Both pure electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) can achieve V2G.



As more and more people purchase electric vehicles and the number of electric vehicles continues to increase, the power grid will also bear greater peak shaving pressure. V2G technology can enable electric vehicles to evolve into a small "flash peak shaving power plant". When electric vehicles are not in use, the power from on-board batteries is sold to the power grid system. When an electric vehicle needs to be charged, the current flows from the grid to the vehicle, which is an orderly vehicle network interaction. As a highly flexible mobile energy storage unit, electric vehicles play a role in adjusting power load, improving power quality, and consuming renewable energy.



The electricity price is low during night and trough periods, during which electric vehicle owners can fully charge, and sell the electric energy stored by on-board batteries to the power grid at a high price during daytime or peak hours, thereby obtaining a cost differential profit.



China accounts for the largest share of the global electric vehicle market. As of 2019, the number of new energy vehicles in China reached 3.81 million, with pure electricity accounting for over 80%, about 3.1 million. Assuming that the average battery capacity of each new energy vehicle is 50 kilowatt hours, and that 3.1 million pure electric vehicles require 155 million kilowatt hours to fully charge, calculated based on 70% of the electricity transmitted by each vehicle to the power grid, it can contribute 108.5 million kilowatt hours per day and approximately 39.6 billion kilowatt hours per year, which is equivalent to the total amount of urban electricity available for one month in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. (Based on the average monthly electricity consumption of the entire society in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou in 2019, about 13 billion kWh is taken as a reference)



Once upon a time, the low hedge ratio was a common impression among consumers of electric vehicles, although with the assistance of battery technology and intelligent technology, the label of low hedge ratio has been torn off. But if a car is no longer reduced to consumables, it can still earn money lying down, which will become a "unique skill" in the positive competition between electric vehicles and fuel vehicles.



V2G technology based on electric vehicles can not only alleviate the pressure on the distribution network through interaction with the power grid, but also open a new "selling electricity" experience for electric vehicle users, stimulate a new green electricity trading business model, achieve integration between the vehicle and the grid, and become one of the fulcrums of China's energy transformation.



New infrastructure assistance



V2G technology has a wide application space and is the development trend of the charging pile industry under the "new infrastructure".



In 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Opinions on Innovating and Improving the Price Mechanism for Promoting Green Development", which proposed to encourage electric vehicles to provide energy storage services and obtain benefits through peak valley price differences.



In 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" for comments, which stated that while strengthening V2G interaction, measures should be taken to promote efficient collaboration between new energy vehicles and renewable energy, and encourage local V2G demonstration applications.



Nowadays, more and more regions are starting to accelerate the implementation of V2G technology.



The first batch of integrated intelligent charging stations for storage, charging, and inspection in Fuzhou have been built and put into operation, using AC/DC hybrid network technology to achieve V2G functions; The Smart Charging Station Project in Tianjin Beichen Industrial City Integration Demonstration Zone will construct a V2G capable charging and discharging system to achieve two-way interaction between the power grid and new energy vehicles; State Grid Beijing Electric Power Company will construct 288 smart and orderly charging piles in residential areas such as Liumengjiayuan, Fengtai District.



Taking advantage of the "new infrastructure", the North China Branch of the State Grid of China officially incorporated V2G charging pile resources into the North China power peak shaving auxiliary service market and officially settled them in April, which is the first time in China.



According to statistics and calculations, there are about 400000 electric vehicles in the power supply area of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Power Grid. If orderly vehicle network interaction is achieved through V2G, it can provide 1.8 million kilowatts of high-quality movable regulation resources. After participating in real-time power grid regulation and peak shaving assistance services, the average daily peak shaving revenue of electric vehicles accounts for about 60% of their charging costs, which can significantly reduce charging costs. V2G can improve the utilization rate of charging piles by 50%. This platform uses electric vehicles as energy storage platforms, which not only balances the power load of the grid, but also improves the profitability of charging enterprises.



The application of V2G is still in its early stages, and some projects have achieved good results in commercialization. There are still some challenges for future development, including large-scale transformation of the power grid, investment in the grid cloud control platform, smart city construction, and the development of smart cars, the improvement of relevant regulations and standards, a clear profit model, and capital driven. V2G still has a long way to go to achieve industrial scale development.



forerunner



Now, some automotive companies have successfully configured or tested bidirectional inverter charging and discharging technology on their entire vehicles, and mainstream automotive companies are beginning to take V2G seriously.



Weima Motors has taken the lead in entering the first echelon of V2G technology landing applications, becoming the first new force in car building to land this technology. Weima and State Grid have jointly promoted the implementation and application of V2G technology, and have successfully passed the vehicle and pile measurement and road testing of all V2G technologies. Taking Weima EX5-Z Nex Exploration Edition (NEDC has a range of 520 kilometers and a battery capacity of about 69 kilowatt hours) as an example, Beijing users use V2G technology to generate electricity to the grid. Users charge at night during the peak hours, and use V2G charging piles to sell 70% of their electricity during the daytime peak hours. Subtracting the charging cost during the peak hours, they can earn about 37.4 yuan per day, with a cumulative income of 13651 yuan per year (assuming that during the same period of time, the discharge income is the same as the charging fee).



Even Tesla CEO Jack Musk once told the media: "V2G technology that can feed back the power grid is returning to the vision of various automotive companies, so Tesla is considering relaunching it." It is understood that Tesla is preparing for V2G bidirectional charging for Model 3 and Model Y.



Since the "311 Earthquake" in Japan, Japanese energy suppliers and car companies have been trying to find solutions to reduce energy risks in Japan. Nissan has been relying on Leaf electric vehicles to test the "Leaf-to-Home" V2G bidirectional charging system. In 2019, Nissan Leaf became the first electric vehicle approved by regulatory authorities as an energy guarantee for the German power grid, providing technical services, and reached a cooperation agreement with EDF, the French electric power company, to accelerate the application of electric vehicles and intelligent charging technology in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and Italy.



Renault Automotive Group, which is also part of the Nissan alliance, launched a large-scale test of V2G technology last year. Launch a fleet of 15 ZOE vehicles in Europe to charge the power grid, and conduct basic research with partners on future reversible charging businesses and standards. The pilot program will begin in the Netherlands and Portugal, followed by more pilot programs in France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark.



Fiat Chrysler Automotive Company (FCA) is the latest automaker to dabble in V2G. FCA collaborates with ENGINE to develop a V2G infrastructure that can connect 64 electric vehicles to the grid, and this number will increase to 700 by the end of 2021.



Volkswagen Group also believes that V2G can provide it with new growth points and is exploring new business opportunities related to electric vehicle energy storage.



In the future, BMW and State Grid Electric Vehicle Company will also strengthen cooperation in green power trading and other aspects, promoting the common goal of "vehicle stake grid user society" win-win and mutual benefit.



From the perspective of EV, it seems that V2G technology can bring potential triple win effects for car companies, consumers, and energy service providers. Consumers gain revenue, and vehicle companies can use this to promote the sales of electric vehicles, while becoming a "power company". Energy service providers can use these mobile "energy storage stations" to solve the peak and valley problems of electricity consumption and maintain stable power supply.在EV视界看来，对于车企、消费者、能源服务商而言，V2G技术似乎可以带来潜在的三赢效果。消费者获得收益，车企可以借此推动电动汽车销售，同时成为一家“电力公司”，而能源服务商可以通过这些移动的“储能电站”，解决用电峰谷问题，维稳电力供应。