Potential of smart charging at the Living Lab Bunnik

Six students from the third year of the Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering study at the Hogeschool Utrecht worked together over the past 20 weeks to write an advice about the potential of smart charging and V2G. This advice is supported by a simulation that provides insight into the potential of smart charging.

What is the potential of smart charging for the Living Lab Bunnik now and in 2027 to contribute to the TROEF objectives?

TROEF is a consortium of companies and institutions engaged in developing a layered energy ecosystem. Electric vehicles (EV) play an important role in this new sustainable efficient energy system. By charging EVs in a smart way, EVs can contribute to balancing supply and demand on the electricity grid. However, it is uncertain what the potential of smart charging is on CO2 emissions and energy and investment costs. Research is being done on this at the Living Lab Bunnik.

The charging strategy “Smart solar charging with hourly energy prices” has the most potential at Living Lab Bunnik. The CO2 emissions and the costs of the charging plaza are reduced. The potential of smart charging may be adversely affected in the future by too few charging stations and comparatively less local generation. This adversely affects the potential because less value can be obtained from the control options offered by smart charging.

The recommendation is to conduct further research into the user profile of the charging plaza. The user profile has a major influence on the potential of smart charging and V2G. The more energy a user needs to cover the desired distance and the shorter the time the user has for this, the lower the potential, because there is less room to control the charging capacity.