TenneT and Sonnen use e-cars for grid stabilization

German transmission system operator TenneT TSO GmbH and electricity storage systems and energy services provider Sonnen GmbH have successfully used digitally networked electric cars for short-term cover of load changes and frequency fluctuations in the transmission grid. After a test phase, this application was »transferred to everyday households for the first time,« according to the two companies.
Within the »sonnenCommunity«, a digital network of storage systems and photovoltaic systems of its customers, Sonnen has already created a »virtual power plant« based on stationary battery storage for some time, into which the batteries of the cars have now also been integrated. TenneT can use these for primary control, with their storage capacity available within 30 seconds to compensate for load changes and the resulting frequency fluctuations. This is achieved »solely via an intelligent charging process« so that there is no additional load on the vehicle batteries through discharging.
In a next step, 5,000 households of the »sonnenCommunity« are to be integrated into the virtual power plant and provide a total of around 80 megawatts of primary control power in conjunction with the respective stationary storage facilities. TenneT’s total requirement for this is 170 megawatts.
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