Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck hosted a European summit on bidirectional charging in Berlin today. He discussed the opportunities and prospects of bidirectional charging with decision-makers from business and government from several European Member States. The aim is to bring the relevant technology to market by 2025.

Bidirectional charging means that electricity temporarily stored in electric vehicles is fed back into the grid, so that the high-performance batteries in electric cars can also be used for other purposes. This can contribute to keepng our electricity grids stable in times of an increasing share of renewable energy. In addition, it paves the way for new business models. As mobile storehouses for electricity, electric cars can serve to provide electricity for homeowners and businesses when it is particularly expensive or to make profits on the electricity market. In combination with PV installations, they can also provide cheap solar power when the sun is not shining.

Senior representatives from seven neighbouring European countries, regulatory authorities, the European Commission and the automotive, charging infrastructure and energy industries attended today’s European summit.

There was a consensus among the three dozen or so participants that bidirectional charging which fosters the electricity market, power grids and electricity systems should be advanced in Europe as quickly as possible. For this purpose, technical, legal and organisational barriers which still impede the market launch need to be removed. The participants agreed to create a common legal and regulatory framework which ensures that taxes, fees and surcharges are no longer an impediment to the development of this business model. Furthermore, industry will press ahead with the development of standards for bidirectional charging. The next high-level meeting is scheduled to take place in around one year’s time.

Specific projects to advance bidirectional charging

Bidirectional charging requires the use of relevant energy and vehicle data, including data on the grid status and the amount of kilowatt-hours in vehicle batteries available for feed-back of electricity into the grid. The harmonised sharing of such data is already being promoted in the context of a number of work processes at European level, including the new EU Regulation on batteries. More progress, however, needs to be made in terms of the harmonisation and security of data, including access to data and grids, and data protection requirements.

In addition, a legal framework needs to be created at national and European level which is favourable for bidirectional charging. At present, grid connection requirements still differ, especially for feeding electricity back into the grid. The aim is to harmonise these requirements at the European level. At today’s summit, the participants agreed that harmonised European instruments will be needed to facilitate bidirectional charging and to prevent a grid and system overload.

Industrial consortia should develop interoperable standards as quickly as possible. Important aspects include the consistency of the communication signal, the prioritisation of control signals, harmonised Europe-wide connection and intervention rules, e.g. for balancing energy services, also by means of fleet power plants, and their measurement and billing.

In the context of the electric mobility research programme, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has already provided funding for research and development projects which have tested and successfully demonstrated the feasibility of bidirectional charging.