Vehicle to Grid (V2G) vehicles have arrived in Italy as part of an agreement between Enel Energia, Nissan Italia, and the Italian Institute of Technology. The pilot project will kick off with a set of V2G chargers at the Italian Institute of Technology campus in Genoa, Italy.
The two chargers installed by Enel Energia will initially only provide charging capability for electric vehicles but will be the focus of the V2G pilot after a preliminary regulatory framework has been defined. Nissan has provided two Leaf vehicles for use in the pilot, electric cars that are presumably capable of V2G functionality at some level.
The concept behind V2G is that the grid will have sufficient storage capacity in the event of a high-demand event or reliability incident at a power generating unit, thanks to the bonus storage capacity that comes in the form of a massive, distributed network of electric vehicles, each with its own battery. If capability existed to pool the storage capacity of a network of distributed electric vehicles into what would effectively represent a grid-scale battery installation (or several of them), less storage at the grid level would be needed while still maintaining required grid backup and stability. Drivers would be compensated for the wear and tear on their vehicles’ batteries as a means of sharing the value created by the aggregate solution.
Ernesto Ciorra, Enel’s Head of Innovation and Sustainability, said that “Enel has also signed an agreement with IIT for the development of innovative technologies and solutions in the field of energy efficiency, renewable sources and distributed generation, an important part of the search for new sustainable energy alternatives.”
Enel has also launched a V2G effort in Denmark, which is now considered the first commercial V2G hub in the world. That project was launched in partnership with Nissan and the Danish utility Frederiksberg Forsyning. The Danish installation utilizes 10 V2G chargers and 10 Nissan e-NV200 electric vans. The vans have the capability of feeding power back to the grid for stabilization and grid balancing services for the TSO (Transmission System Operator) Energinet.dk, for which the owners are compensated.
Nissan is also pursuing V2G projects in the UK, where it has installed 9 V2G chargers at its Nissan Technical Center Europe in Cranfield and another at Newcastle University.
Source: Enel
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