An overview of the Eurelectric-EY E-Mobility Report
On March 6th, Eurelectric kickstarted its EVision conference in the Autoworld car museum in Brussels. This annual conference is an opportunity for the power and automotive industries to come together and chart what the future of e-mobility will look like going into the future.
The pièce de resistance of the day was the launch of a collaborative report between EY and Eurelectric. This report focuses on the topic of data interoperability in e-mobility reflecting on its potential and challenges. In this article we explore what this report contains and what relevance it holds for an Irish context.
The overarching theme to this report is the idea that data (in many different forms and communicating many different messages) is a key enabling technology to improve EV useability and deliver wider grid reinforcement.
This can range from using charging point data (location, connection type etc.) to optimise the route a user takes, applying demand flexibility signals to prompt fleet chargers to perform demand management during grid constraints, and incentivising bidirectional charging in similar scenarios.
While the ambition is inspiring, the report is cognisant that there are many roadblocks to such an e-mobility sector. Chief among them is the current immaturity of technology to deliver such a holistic view of the charging point network. The report highlights the existing variances between charging point networks operated by different entities, the existence of non data-ready (or “dumb”) charging points and that many jurisdictions are not ready for vehicle to grid or bidirectional charging.
In terms of Ireland, the National Energy Demand Strategy (NEDS) consultation acknowledged the significant role that EVs could play as part of Ireland’s demand management strategy. Yet, mirroring this report, it stated that bidirectional charging is in its infancy in Ireland and that there are only a limited number of vehicles with such capabilities.
Data holds an integral role in improving the uptake and operability of EVs by improving customer experience, reinforcing grid infrastructure and reducing traffic. However, there remains significant challenges in accessing this data and the technology to facilitate it. E-mobility will form a major part of each EU Member State’s RES-T ambitions so it’s time to hit the accelerator to deliver such a system-wide data-ready network.