Europe is currently not ready to effectively manage a major shift towards electric vehicles and its significant impacts on the electricity system, says a new report from the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), published on Wednesday 16 October.
According to this document, European countries have to establish "the right incentives and market structures" to avoid facing congestion problems with demand for electricity.
Indeed, after analysing the management of electric vehicles in Norway (the European country with the most electric vehicles), the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the authors of the report found that there were "peak hours" for charging the batteries of these vehicles.
The vast majority of these are recharged early in the morning (at the workplace) and in the afternoon and evening (at home), when people return from work or their activities after work. However, as the demand for electric vehicles continues to grow, this could lead to an exacerbated peak in electricity demand at these times of the day in the future.
As a result, the authors believe that the adoption of "smart" technologies that provide the technical ability to shift and distribute charging over time, in order to reduce the peaks in electricity demand created by electric vehicles, will be crucial.
However, they also point out that technology alone will not be enough and that a change in individual behaviour aimed at greater flexibility in electricity demand will also be required.
To do this, the authors suggest two options: a pricing-based approach, where electricity prices depend on supply and demand at a given time, but also on the situation in a neighbourhood or even a street, and a regulatory-based approach, to further control where and when electric car battery charging takes place.
See the report: https://bit.ly/2puj9QV (Original in French by Damien Genicot)