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INESC PORTO helps prepare Europe for the massification of the electric car

INESC PORTO helps prepare Europe for the massification of the electric car

In Portugal, electric cars will be more environment friendly

INESC Porto is the scientific leader of the project MERGE (Mobile Energy Resources for Grids of Electricity) – the largest EU-financed research project that will prepare the European electrical system for the massification of electric vehicles. The aim with this 4.5 million Euro project is to find solutions that will minimize the need to strengthen to electric grid infrastructures and power systems, and thus avoid extra costs that would have to be borne by the users of the electric vehicles.

This is the largest research project of the 7th EU Framework Programme (2007-2013) aiming at assessing the impact on the European electrical grids of a large-scale use of electric vehicles. The consortium of the MERGE project involves 16 European companies and RTD institutions, such as INESC Porto, represented by USE – Power Systems Unit, as well as MIT (USA) and REN – Redes Energéticas Nacionais (Portuguese Electricity Distribution Grid).

Destaque 1

The future is now

What if tomorrow instead of filling your car tank with gas you were able to charge your car directly from the garage? That seems an unlikely scenario, but the pressing need to reduce pollutant gas emissions and the future shortage of oil should lead to the massification of electric vehicles.

This new reality implicates the emergence of three new business models in the energy market: rapid substitution / fast battery charge (in special stations that would have to be created for that purpose in order to serve the electric vehicles) and slow battery charge (in public and private parks, or even at the household).

The feasibility of this new mobility paradigm is based on overnight battery charging because this is the period when the electric network is less loaded, and preferably when renewable energy resources are more available for the production of electricity. As the scientific leader of the project, INESC Porto will be responsible for creating an “intelligent” system that will adapt battery charging to the availability of human resources and grid infrastructures, taking into consideration the features of the European power systems.

Destaque 2

Sustainable for the environment, for the power grid and… for the pocket!

Network congestion and the difficulty that the power centres have in dealing with increases in electricity consumption constitute technical problems and possible obstacles to this change in paradigm. Nightfall on a cold winter day is an example of such situations: in the streets the public lighting system is switched on sooner; in the households, so are the lights, stoves, heating systems, televisions and other appliances. Let us imagine that, around that time of the day, electric vehicle drivers could plug their cars to the sockets in their garages and charge their car batteries. All these consumption events combined could cause the system to be unable to respond to the full electricity needs.

These are precisely the situations that the MERGE project wants to solve, while making the implementation of the infrastructure economically feasible. One of the guidelines consists of minimizing the need to reinforce the existing electric grid infrastructures, as well as the electric power park. Thus, it is possible to avoid extra costs that would otherwise have to be borne by the users of the electric car. Maximizing the use of renewable energies to charge car batteries is yet another goal of the MERGE.

Destaque 3

Portugal at the forefront of change in Europe

With a strong renewable component, the Portuguese power system can make sure that more electricity is produced from “green” sources. Thus, in Portugal, electric vehicles can be more environment friendly than in other countries, namely in Central Europe, an area that strongly depends on fossil fuels for the production of electricity. It is estimated that by 2025, the Portuguese wind power capacity will reach 9000 MW (currently, it is over 3000 MW).

João Peças Lopes, Director of INESC Porto and strategy advisor for USE, is the project’s leader. Luís Miguel Seca, Joel Soares, Carlos Moreira and Pedro Almeida – all researchers at USE – are working on this project.