Power2Drive Europe: Contributing to the Energy Transition with Bidirectional Charging

MUNICH & PFORZHEIM, Germany – Electromobility is about much more than driving with climate-neutral electricity from renewable sources. The batteries of electric vehicles can be used as temporary storage. It’s not just vehicle owners who benefit from this: in the medium term, bidirectional charging can relieve the burden on distribution networks and at the same time make them more flexible. Power2Drive Europe, the international trade fair for charging infrastructure and e-mobility, shows the latest state of the art. As part of The smarter E Europe, the continent’s largest trade fair group for the energy industry, it will take place from June 19 to 21, 2024 at the Munich Trade Fair. The Power2Drive Europe Conference, an industry meeting point and forum for exchange and discourse between experts, stakeholders and thought leaders in the field of new mobility, starts one day earlier.

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There are three types of applications for which bidirectional charging of EV drive batteries can be used: In Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) and Vehicle-to-Building (V2B) solutions, the electricity is stored and consumed completely in the user’s system, i.e. in a private household or a company, behind the meter. In vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions, the electric car is part of the electricity grid and can provide flexibility services to the distribution network by storing electricity and feeding it back into the grid.

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Potentials of bidirectional charging

A study by NRW.Energie4Klima and e-mobil BW predicts that around 33 million battery-electric vehicles could be on the roads in Germany by 2035. Of these vehicles, around 65 percent should support bi-directional charging. This corresponds to a potential of around 7.6 million vehicles as mobile energy storage devices. It is noteworthy that this capacity of up to 380 gigawatt hours exceeds the need for stationary battery storage three times. These results underline the great potential of electromobility in integrating renewable energies.

V2G and regulatory requirements

The basic regulatory legal framework is still missing for the V2G solutions that can be used directly for the functioning of the network. Markus Elsässer explains: “Bidirectional charging will be a crucial component of the energy transition.” The technology has the potential to effectively relieve the load on distribution networks and make them more flexible.”

Markus Fendt, Managing Director of The Mobility House, emphasizes the social and economic importance of this application: “Bidirectional charging of V2G drastically reduces redispatch. Based on the price of electricity alone, every electric car could have covered 40,000 kilometers in 2022 without additional costs. This also reduces the need for network expansion. And last but not least, we would implement innovations in our leading industry, the automotive industry, in Germany.

Power2Drive Europe is experiencing enormous growth

In the range of topics covered by The smarter E Europe, e-mobility is becoming increasingly important and recognized: in a survey, a third of trade visitors to all The smarter E Europe trade fairs expressed interest in the topic of e-mobility. This means that the exhibition space at Power2Drive Europe has been increased by 80 percent compared to the previous year.

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Power2Drive Europe

Power2Drive Europe is the international trade fair for charging infrastructure and e-mobility. Under the motto “Charging the Future of Mobility”, it is the ideal industry meeting place for players from the world of sustainable mobility. The focus is on charging infrastructure, electromobility, mobility services and sector coupling. Power2Drive Europe will take place from June 19th to 21st, 2024 as part of The smarter E Europe at the Munich Trade Fair.

Further information: www.powertodrive.de