Electrification of the transport sector in Stockholm puts currently high pressure on the electricity distribution grid for the years to come. Overcoming capacity shortages and keeping up with the delivery of charging infrastructure requires innovative solutions and collaboration between the city and key stakeholders in electrification, such as the distribution system operators and the charging point operators.
One such solution is power steering – essentially meaning power reduction at charging stations whenever a capacity shortage in the electrical grid is forecasted. In Stockholm, this is estimated to occur a few times per year on cold winter days. Ellevio (DSO) has a flexible charging tariff with the remuneration of active steering. Activation of flexible chargers has so far been done by personal interaction. Power steering utilizing processes all the way from the DSO operation center to the charging station has not been tested before and a system that enables the communication between the Distribution system operators (DSO) and Charging Point Owners (CPO) is still not commercially available.
The City of Stockholm together with Ellevio (DSO) and Vattenfall (CPO) tested and validated power steering business case enabled by the Smart Charging and Storage platform, developed by CERTH in the context of the MEISTER project. The pilot was completed in November 2021 and demonstrated on three streets (Kungsgatan, Lindhagensgatan, Västmannagatan) in Stockholm inner city, where public Electric Vehicles charging points are operated by Vattenfall.
Pilot results demonstrated that the Smart Charging and Storage Platform successfully managed the steering requests received from Ellevio and calculated the optimal charging schedules that were then forwarded to Vattenfall, which in turn reduced power at their charging stations on-street. The Smart Charging and Storage Platform was an important tool to migrate DSO and CPO IT structures due to tight time schedules. Organisational issues such as ownership of the platform in the future are also necessary to clarify before the platform can be commercialised. Going forward usage of direct communication between DSO and the CPOs is identified as a solution with standard protocols such as OpenADR.
The pilot has highlighted a clear potential of power steering as a tool for DSOs, CPOs, and cities across Europe in overcoming capacity shortage and keeping up with their electrification targets. All pilot partners see a value in further collaboration.
Results will be available in the upcoming demonstration and evaluation deliverables. Stay tuned!
