Completed project

Frequency Containment Reserve Pilot

Combining flexibility from charging sessions with other assets in different industries

The objective for the project Frequency Containment Reserve Pilot is to open up flexibility by connecting to the primary reserve market with EV Charging, where Senfal is acting as Aggregator and is contract holder with Tennet.

Frequency Controlled Reserve (FCR) uses the centrally measured frequency to be able to have direct influence on running charge sessions and be able to control the charging session by adjusting the power or delaying the charge session in time. For example: charging in the evening hours after peak usage between 17:00 and 19:00 Hour. EV drivers who are participating in the pilot will receive an financial incentive. Part of EVnetNL’s charge points are used. EV box is the second CPO that also wants to implement this service via (a part) of their charging stations.

The project members want to work towards a situation where the flexibility from the charging sessions can be combined with other assets in different industries: battery storage, wind mills, cooling installations, etc. Different assets have different characteristics (risks, availability, accuracy of the response, etc.). Therefore they want to work towards communicating the value of flexibility into a market mechanism that varies the value of the offered flexibility per hour. For example: the value of flexibility may drop in hours when there is a lot of wind energy available for primary reserve. Or the opposite can happen in the hours that wind is not available. This concept will be further developed during this project. The focus of this project, however, is on the development of technology necessary for delivering primary reserve from charging points.

Objectives ElaadNL

In the first phase of this research, charging control for TSO is made possible in ‘splendid isolation’. In a follow-up phase this will be combined with the DSO congestion management. In other words: In these technical developments, two different interests (TSOs and DSOs) will be combined by integrating the Capacity Profile (DSO) with the Smart Charging Schedules of the Aggregator (Senfal) acting on behalf of Tennet. The importance of Elaad and DSO’s is to gain early experience and gain knowledge of further developments and future projects with Flexibility solutions. This is a continuous process in which ElaadNL has an important role to play and to identify which adjustments in systems, components and protocols are required to enable these flexibility services. Ultimately, we intend to gain experience with load control from the perspective of the three different flex-vendors TSO, DSO and BRP (Multi-actor optimization). Finally, we test the hypothesis that there is enough flex (or available) for the objectives of these three types of organization.

Specific objectives within the framework of this project are:

  1. Developing the technique to be able to respond to frequency variations (FCR) with cFreharging stations.
  2. Developing and standardization of the communication protocols within this field.
  3. Bundling of charging stations into a pool with other assets for providing primary reserve.