Recently a pilot got started in which an electric car acts as storage battery for Engie's office building in Zaandam (Netherlands). The technology has now been successfully demonstrated. Engie connected an innovative charging station, or a Smart Grid Charger, to the office building in Zaandam. This charging station allows an electric car to discharge to the office building or to get charged itself.
In this way, the electric car can supply power when the demand in the office building is high. The technology is also called Vehicle-to-Building (V2B). The car also serves as an external storage battery of generated solar energy, making it much more efficient to use. When the office building generates more solar energy than it needs, it is stored in the electric car. If there is a shortage, the car will return this energy to the building.
Sustainability plays a crucial role
Furthermore, the battery of the car can be used as an emergency power supply. Renewable energy Corporate housing and mobility are jointly responsible for about 75 percent of the total CO2 emissions of a service company. Sustainability in this area therefore plays a crucial role in the total sustainability of companies, says Engie. The company expects that the combination of electric cars, smart charging stations and building energy management systems will lead to intelligent and efficient microgrids, which enable companies to use energy more efficiently, reduce emissions and save costs.
An SME can use a number of smart charging stations to let the lights, ventilation and air conditioning run on the batteries of electric cars. One charger can already supply around 2,000 regular LED lights, according to Engie. Jacco van der Burg, general manager of smart mobility and e-mobility at Engie: "Now that this demonstration shows that this technology works excellently, we would like to offer this system to all companies that want to make the next step towards energy neutrality." Collaboration Engie worked in this project together with Hitachi and Mitsubishi, who delivered the Smart Grid Charger and the electric car respectively.