Kategori : ELECTRICITY ENERGY NEWS, ENERGY AGENDA NEWS - Tarih : 13 June 2019

As countries look to decarbonize transport, increasing the use of electric cars is proving key to that effort. And batteries are the key challenge to making those electric cars work. Now, a new study says that those batteries may also be the key to reducing the power sector’s emissions by increasing efficiency.

The study by Element Energy, commissioned by energy companies Enel and Iberdrola, carmaker Renault and the NGO Transport & Environment, said that a smart deployment of electric cars which charge at low-demand times and batteries that feed back into the grid at high-demand times would reduce the need to build additional grid storage and power plants.

The study looked at four countries – France, Italy, Spain and the UK – and found that between them they could save €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) each year by employing this smart vehicle charging.

Enrique Moreño, a storage innovation manager at Spanish utility Iberdrola, told an event unveiling the report in Brussels on Tuesday that the difference between a smart role-out of electric cars and a dumb one will mean a difference of billions of euros.

“The main issue is the simultaneous charging of electric vehicles at the same time, because it’s a power and grid issue,” he said. “We’ve studied the implication of full electrification. In a passive scenario [where smart charging plans aren’t implemented], €14 billion will be needed in grid reinforcement. With smart charging we could decrease that amount by 60%”.