Modelling flexible electric vehicle charging in local energy communities Pieter Valkering, VITO – EnergyVille, Belgium

2. Question
• What are the implications of LEC
roll-out from a national scale energy
systems perspective?
• Flexible charging in LECs
Focus

3. Model structure

4. Electric Vehicle charging
→ instant and flexible
→ at home and the office
Demand Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4 Category 5
Yearly distance
driven [km]
7561 14674 19793 24853 41915
0
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0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
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1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 100 103 106 109 112 115 118 121 124 127 130 133 136 139 142 145 148 151 154 157 160 163 166
Demand
[-]
Normalized Transport demand profiles over 1 representative week
Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4 Category 5
Sunday

5. Prosumer Potentials
• Proxy for consumer
acceptance and LEC roll-out
• Share of local demand that
can be maximally met with
local PV and battery storage
• Uncertain factor used in
scenario definition

6. Scenarios
Qualitative storylines
• Consumer acceptance and LEC roll-out
Scenario specifications
• EV charging modes, Prosumer
Potentials, storage grid interaction
Other assumptions
• Energy demands, energy prices,
technology costs, …

7. Key findings
Flexible charging is a no-regret option
to mitigate peak charging loads,
minimizing local battery storage and
distribution grid investments
→ decreasing peak loads (-1.5 GW)
and battery storage investment
(-0.7 GW) from Consumer to LEC
scenarios

8. Key findings
Flexible charging and high Prosumer
Potentials enabler of PV uptake and
higher shares of local use of
renewables
→ Commercial PV capacity doubles
(+8 GW) under LEC-hard
→ Share of RE direct use increases
from 16.0 to 40.5%

9. Key findings
Uptake of battery storage and flexible
charging leads to prolonged use of the
distribution grid at peak capacity
→ ‘flat’ load duration curves at peak
capacity in all decentralized scenarios
Some level of curtailment is cost
effective to avoid investment in grid
peak capacity,
→ ~ 5-7% of PV production under the
LEC scenarios

10. What’s still on our wishlist?
• Broader energy system perspective
➢ integrate model features in TIMES
Belgium
• More extensive electrification scenarios
➢ transport, heat
• Further flexibility options
➢ V2G, heat flex
• Elaboration on grid constraints & costs
➢ link to specialist models
• Consideration of mobility behaviors
➢ EV charging, car sharing, home
office, MaaS
Visual wish list