Completed project

Invade

How to control the flexibility of the European energy system by integrating electric cars

The Horizon 2020 EU project Invade is one of the largest European research and innovation projects ever in the field of Smart Grid, Charging & Storage. This European project explores in large-scale pilots and, according to new business models, how to control the flexibility of the European energy system by integrating electric cars.

What

The purpose of the project is to change the way in which energy is used, stored and generated by:

  • using renewable energy more efficiently;
  • optimizing power supply;
  • taking into account the available capacity;
  • making the end user more central.

Within the project ElaadNL is responsible for charging points in the public domain, but also conducts experiments in a semi-public or office environment. ElaadNL investigates the role that electric cars can play by using Smart Charging in managing flexibility in the European Smart Grid and how existing smart energy solutions can be made interoperable with the integrated Invade platform. The results can again benefit from further expanding and standardizing the open protocols that have been launched.

In addition to the Dutch pilot, ElaadNL is responsible for the standards, communication protocols and the implications that policy / regulation has on the investigated possibilities of Smart Charging.

The Dutch pilot will be the first comparison between Grid-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Grid. It will provide the first professional and, more importantly, the first scalable solutions for driving on renewable energy and it will be the first European realisation of Smart Charging using only open and standardised communication protocols.

Why

Our current electrical infrastructure is facing a number of challenges in the coming years, with renewable energy, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, an aging infrastructure.

Invade uses an infrastructure that enables Smart Charging on a large scale. That’s also one of the reasons ElaadNL is part of the consortium. In the Dutch pilot, ElaadNL investigates the possibilities for better matching supply and demand of renewable energy and keeping the network stable and reliable. This takes into account network capacity and power quality.

How

The project uses a Cloud based flexibility management system integrated with electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries empowering energy storage at mobile, distributed and centralized levels. The project will integrate the platform with existing infrastructure and systems at pilot sites in Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Norway and the Netherlands. Multiple solutions are investigated, demonstrated and compared. This is done technically and at business model level. The project also focuses on current regulations in different countries and how they stimulate or just inhibit the necessary innovations.

Intended Result

The intended result is that new marketplaces will emerge to trade energy and energy services leading to better end-user service. The network administrator is better able to manage the network and discover data usage patterns in power consumption.

When

The duration of the project is three years (2017 – 2020).

Who

Twelve partners from six different countries (Norway, Finland, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria and the Netherlands) are involved in the project. Together with Greenflux, ElaadNL is responsible for the pilot in the Netherlands.

Results

More information about the project can be found on http://h2020invade.eu/the-project/.

Download whitepaper