The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has called for the regulation of all manageable EV charging modes, based on their recent case study. This study is part of a global project alongside the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) on the benefits of deploying smart EV charging in select regions.
The steadily growing EV market presses the need for increasingly efficient grid capacity management, with EVs making up 23% of new passenger vehicle registrations in Europe in 2023, a percentage 19% higher than in 2019. The e-heavy duty vehicle (e-HDV) market has also seen significant growth, with a 54% increase in sales in 2023 compared to the previous year.
According to the report, price-based incentives in smart EV charging (both uni-directional and bi-directional) proved to reduce peak loads in Essonne’s power grid by up to 9% by 2040, a significant offset to the predicted 33% peak load increase with unmanaged charging. Similar network pricing reforms have already been implemented in certain EU Member States like Denmark, with France and the Netherlands following suit.
Whilst steady expansions to EV networks are underway across the EU, questions remain about the efficiency of their implementation in the various regions. The European Alternative Fuels Observatory (EAFO) has spotlighted a divergence in this area, namely Eastern Europe’s fewer yet higher powered charging points, compared to Western Europe’s focus on creating a widespread network.
This poses challenges in solving the issue of electrical grid load, as the large variation in charging point infrastructure between countries will have significant impacts on the energy regulation strategies required to maximise cost-efficiency. Nearly two-thirds of all EU charging points are hosted in France, Germany, and the Netherlands, highlighting a need for additional insights to manage peak loads in the power grids of other regions.
Critically, the ICCT study also noted that flattening distribution system peaks could enable smart charging to save up to 25% annually on network reinforcement costs by the year 2040. This may be crucial to minimising the projected €240 billion cost requirement to fund the hardware and installation of a robust EV network across the EU, with 75% of the total to support charging point installation and power grid upgrades.
The European Commission’s recent Action Plan was lauded for its “recognition of the need to streamline regulation, and work on regulatory simplification” by Sigrid de Vries, Director General of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). Correspondingly, energy market regulations will surely play a pivotal role in progressing EV infrastructure and enable its cost-efficient integration with power grids.
