VIETPULSE - Vietnam Intelligent Energy Trading Platform for Upscaling Local energy Storage and EV

With the target to phase out coal by the 2040s and the commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, renewable energy is key to Vietnam's energy transformation. But the electricity grid transmission lacks capacity to export energy from wind farms and solar fields to consumption hotspots. As a result, the power industry has temporarily suspended the connection of new projects and reduced the capacity of existing projects. Households and industrial zone developers are now more and more interested in setting up rooftop solar systems for self-consumption. This VIETPULSE project will contribute to enabling the next frontier of electrification in Vietnam, guaranteeing uninterrupted and quality power to all households, enterprises and livelihoods with a smarter electricity grid utilising data and digital technologies.

Led by UK based Qbots Energy, VIETPULSE project combines distributed smart control along with renewable energy through innovative localised smart energy marketplace platform to make it affordable & sustainable; overcomes barriers with innovative energy service models utilising low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. For this Industrial research project, Qbots will be collaborating with Eastern International University (EIU) (research lead & pilot-site) and HTENATECH (deployment and commercialisation support).

Qbots' addressable & serviceable markets comprise of business/industrial parks in Vietnam with electricity meters and owner-occupiers (like Becamex-EIU) with net-zero targets. After addressing this initial market we could then offer it to the tenant businesses within these business parks by working with management companies responsible for their utilities.

The innovative aspect of VIETPULSE project is the Federated Power Plant (FPP) technology developed by Qbots combining the value of Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading system with efficiencies of aggregation of energy assets including battery storage. In the FPP, an optimisation algorithm with predictive control will be developed and implemented to coordinate the energy usage, generation and battery storage to balance the demand and supply at a local network level, while grouping assets for grid level services for improving reliability.

The outputs include successful trials of the VIETPULSE platform, delivering a validated smart energy trading & optimisation platform with at-least 9 sites, 3 generators (75 kWp on block 4, 10kWp each on Block-5 and Garage EV-hubs), 60kWh of energy storage, 5 EV chargers and 21kWh bi-directional battery swapping station for Electric motorcycles. The impact will be measured through KPIs - Cost savings for customers buying energy through VIETPULSE; Increased income from on-site solar and battery storage; Reduction in carbon emissions for the energy consumed (kg/kwh).