BADGE - BAttery Degradation for Grid-connected Electric vehicles

The vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology emerged few years ago when the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV) gained in popularity and market share about 10 years ago. V2G technology defines the ability for a PHEV and BEV to draw energy from its battery in order to redistribute this energy to the grid. As a fact, vehicles are 90%-95% of the time parked, therefore battery are idling. V2G offers the opportunity to store energy within the vehicle's battery during off-peak hours and then provide electricity to the grid during peak hours in order to support the grid. It could also partly solve the issue of the renewable energy variable production using vehicle's battery as energy buffering. Studies and researches highlighted the ability of PHEV/BEV battery to support the grid and emphasized its benefits regarding peak shaving (technique to reduce electric peak consumption) and frequency regulation. Despite all these benefits, some other studies pointed out as main barrier for V2G adoption the risk of faster battery degradation. This project aims extend state-of-the-art V2G analysis tools and models by: (a) including within the decision-making framework an accurate estimate of battery degradation and (b) will create a smart data collection and management infrastructure to quantify key V2G metrics e.g. vehicle availability, battery energy level, battery health, grid energy requirements. This project will be achieved by the consortium composed of AVL Powertrain UK and Warwick University (WMG). The key innovation is to optimise the energy transfer between the car and grid by integrating real-time knowledge of battery performance and degradation. WMG will extend its previous research and will provide the mathematical model of battery performance/degradation while AVL will collect a big amount of real-world data and develop smart algorithm for the battery control. Real-time information related to V2G operation, such as battery level, charger availability, energy pricing, will be provided to the driver through a smart hub display prototype. This project could help the car manufacturers to develop their future batteries and its control based on this extended usage. The utilities/distribution companies will also be able to plan their future investment and policy. Government could adjust and/or create new incentives to be suitable for V2G application. Finally, the user could be informed through the dashboard about its vehicle capability for V2G purpose.