Innovations in Demos & Testbeds
Local Flexibility Market & V1G Smart Charging in Menorca:
In the Balearic Island demo we have validated a local flexibility market using V1G smart charging to manage low-voltage grid congestion on an island with high seasonal demand.
Grid Impact: Smart charging successfully shifted load, achieving an average maximum secondary substation energy reduction of 7,922 Wh during flexibility events. The average maximum loading ratio decreased from 38.08% to 35.01%, yielding a peak loading reduction of 5.3%.
Cost vs. Emissions Trade-off: Economic outcomes were highly variable, ranging from cost reductions of 13.9% to cost increases of 8.3% depending on the specific event's load-shifting window. However, CO2 emissions strictly increased across all events (between +0.2% and +12.9%). The algorithm optimized for the cheapest electricity on the Spanish PVPC tariff, which consistently aligned with hours of higher grid emission intensity, proving that future algorithms require multi-objective (cost + carbon) optimization.
Rome: TSO Balancing & DSO Flexible Connection Agreements
TSO Balancing (UC1): Tested over 10 months with 40 residential users across 27 demand response events. A key technical finding was that residential EV flexibility is highly stochastic; a minimum aggregation of 200 assets is required to minimize forecasting errors and provide reliable baselines for TSO services.
DSO FCAs (UC2): Tested dynamic power reductions on public chargers ranging from -10% to -70%. Despite severe power curtailment, the control logic had zero negative impact on the EV drivers' charging rates due to the low simultaneous utilization factor of the infrastructure
Copenhagen: Smart Charging, CCAs, and V2G Interoperability
Parking Lot V1G (UC1): Achieved median cost savings of 5% (with peaks up to 20%) without active user intervention. Data indicates that to produce meaningful savings, a session delay must exceed 15% of the total duration, and the charging session itself must last a minimum of 4 hours.
Conditional Connection Agreements (UC2): Implemented 1-minute resolution charging control based on real-time measurements from a constrained 500 kVA transformer. While 64-70% of charging sessions occurred during grid restriction periods, only 21-38% were actually impacted by the power limitations, as many EVs were parked overnight and could absorb energy once restrictions lifted.
V2G Interoperability (UC3): Successfully tested a 22 kW DC bidirectional charger using the ISO 15118-20 protocol with a Kia EV9. Hardware efficiency reached ~97% in charge mode and >90% in discharge mode. Power tracking was rapid (<1s), though power flow reversals (charge to discharge) required an additional ~1s delay. End-to-end deployment remains blocked by industry-wide TLS 1.3 certificate management issues.
Residential V1G (UC4): Across 163 residential sessions, smart charging delivered an average cost savings of 13%. Delaying charging to off-peak hours generated a mean economic benefit of 2.91 DKK per hour of delay.
Prague: Commercial Building Energy Management Systems (EMS)
The Prague testbed validated that advanced EMS can integrate EV charging, Vehicle-to-Building (V2B) capabilities, and battery storage within a commercial facility. By utilizing real-time optimization and peak shaving, the system successfully managed dynamic loads, allowing for EV charging growth without requiring expensive hardware grid upgrades.
Dublin: Shared Infrastructure & Slot-Based Booking
To address charger hogging and grid congestion in shared campus parking, the Dublin demo implemented a slot-based booking system via the Flow App. Post-deployment data showed a 77% increase in overall system satisfaction and a 40% improvement in charging predictability, effectively maximizing existing infrastructure utilization