Looking for ideas for stable power grids

Looking for ideas for stable power grids

The share of renewable energy is increasing and leads to fluctuations in electricity generation depending on sun and wind. The number of electric vehicles has also increased significantly worldwide in recent years and is leading to increasing energy requirements. However, electric vehicles could also be part of the solution to bridge power grid fluctuations and energy bottlenecks in the long term. The batteries of electric vehicles can make an important contribution here: through intelligent, flexible charging, the charging process can be controlled so that the vehicle is charged when network or market conditions are favorable. If conditions are unfavorable, the charging process will stop. In addition, bidirectional charging also enables energy from the battery to be fed back into the power grid if necessary. This helps to keep the entire power grid stable and to store excess electricity for times when consumers need it.

“The combination of bidirectional charging and car sharing could create synergies that promote the decarbonization of the energy and mobility sector,” says innovation researcher Diana Wieden-Bischof from Salzburg Research. “That’s why we’re now using open innovation to look for ideas on how this can be achieved and what incentives and synergies would be conceivable.” Specifically, we are looking for ideas, solutions and examples on the following questions, among others:

• Was motiviert Besitzer:innen von E-Fahrzeugen, Firmen-/Carsharing-Flotten, E-Ladestationen oder Mobilitäts-Hubs, ihre Akkus für smartes/intelligentes Laden zur Verfügung zu stellen?
• Wie können Verbraucher:innen unterstützt werden, damit sie ihr flexibles, smartes Ladeverhalten stärker an den Bedürfnissen des Stromnetzes ausrichten?
• Welche (neuen) Services und Dienstleistungen sowie Kooperationsmöglichkeiten oder Geschäftsmodelle entstehen durch smartes Laden?

The ideas competition runs from November 15, 2022 to January 15, 2023 on the online platform www.openinnovation-salzburg.atThe submission phase is followed by evaluation by the online community. In the so-called arena, two submitted ideas are always compared and compared and evaluated by the registered users. After the community evaluation, the ideas are presented to the expert jury. The jury is made up of representatives from organizations, science and business from the areas of mobility and energy. The ideas are evaluated and awarded according to predefined criteria. The ideas flow into research and business model development on this topic.

The prizes will be presented to the winners at a final event in February at Mooncity Salzburg. The ideas competition takes place as part of the research project “Games – Grid aware mobility and energy sharing”. Games focuses on how digitalization of electric shared vehicle fleets can meet mobility needs while creating new revenue streams by providing services to power grid operators and energy communities. This project is funded as part of the ERA-Net SES Joint Call 2020 for transnational research, development and demonstration projects.