V1G vs V2G: How best to use the EV for grid flexibility?

V1G and V2G offer immense potential for power grid flexibility. But are they, and should they, be used equally?

On a hot summer evening, a fleet of EVs is plugged into chargers. Some are drawing power strategically to avoid peak demand, while others send electricity back to the grid to help stabilise it. Which approach—smart V1G (unidirectional charging) or V2G (vehicle-to-grid)—holds the key to a more resilient energy system?

The question, of course, isn’t so simple.

Each system is a viable way of using the EV to balance the grid while lowering the price of energy, but barriers abound for both.

Smart V1G charging, otherwise known as first-generation vehicle-to-grid, has a more viable use case – there are numerous tariffs being implemented in Europe and there is less need for brand new infrastructure.

V2G on the other hand means the EV becomes a ‘battery on wheels’, as the adage goes, opening more capacity than smart charging. But, although proven a capable mechanism, there are still several elements holding it back from becoming commercially successful on a scale where its impact can really be felt.

And according to industry experts, both need to scale quickly to ensure that their flexibility can be unlocked.

Flexibility potential

According to EY’s Serge Colle, EY Global Power & Utilities Leader, to go forward with either tech, scaling of flexibility mechanisms is going to be key: “We need to industrialise and scale up V1G quickly.

“Consider the number of EVs coming onto the roads and the early congestion problems they’ve brought; that’s just because of load. We will certainly see again an acceleration of BEVs (battery EVs) and hybrids this year.

“We have to solve those congestion problems, which means we need more charge points and to encourage charging at the right moment, which will also help against energy curtailing for renewables, which is another problem. It must be scaled massively and correctly.”

Colle speaks in reference to EY and Eurelectric’s study, Plugging into potential: unleashing the untapped flexibility of EVs, which outlines the immense savings offered by smart charging and bidirectional charging, not only in monetary terms, but also in energy saved.

To highlight two particular figures: the study finds 114TWh capacity offered by EV batteries (equivalent to 4% of Europe’s annual power supply by 2030) and that DSOs could benefit from a projected €4 billion ($4.3 billion) in savings, stemming from a reduced need for infrastructure expansion.

Barriers and V1G as a stopgap

Despite their immense potential, the road to unlocking remains fraught with challenges.

According to AFRY’s Steffen Schaefer, “the biggest challenge is regulations and taxation, which is up to the regulator to change.

“We need to avoid double taxation, otherwise it’s not going to be interesting for any of the parties – not only for the consumer, but also for the for the operator or aggregator. There would be no business case.

“From a technology perspective, however, we have seen that it works. Basically, all OEMs have demonstrated their car is capable for V2G. But the reason why it’s not picking up is in the regulation.

“Beyond the regulation, there’s also a task to be done in terms of the power grid, which needs to become more responsive. It needs to be modernised, digitalised – a task for network operators, who are perhaps also waiting for a regulatory framework to know in what in boundaries they can act.”

Indeed, there are significant elements to overcome, but the opportunities offered, from both systems, are immense.

When it comes to V1G, according to Torben Fog of SPIRII, a huge value case is in it acting as a stopgap, considering how the road to V2G’s commercialisation stretches on.

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Fog, the smart charging company’s co-founder and CIO, says: “V2G is not here…It will come, but meanwhile, we shouldn’t sit on our hands.

“Let’s use V1G, which is, in principle, the possibility to utilise chargers to also assist in balancing the grids. There’s the market approach where, if one hour is more valuable to do frequency regulation then you do that. If the next hours are better within the energy field, then maybe we switch from the capacity field to the energy field and optimise the value for the infrastructure owner.

“Also, a positive spiral here is that this could be used to help the fleet owner, the infrastructure owner, to buy more infrastructure, to buy more vehicles, and accelerate the penetration even further.”

Fog recommends making use of what we already have – V1G for now – until such a time that more nascent tech like V2G becomes more commercially available. Then, we develop both in parallel, without having to wait.

For SaaS company TriPica’s CEO Mathieu Horn, although V1G does offer significant value, the case for V2G goes beyond what can be derived from the former.

“V1g is all about tapping demand. If the customer has the right incentive in a price plan or tariff, they can try to optimise…when the car is plugged in.

“But this is assuming that there is such incentive to use power when it’s not at its peak. V2G, however, adds on top of that, because now there is a battery that’s available for the grid, and suddenly, when there is a lot of load on the grid, it enables you to have access to a wide web of batteries.”

However, adds Horn, all of this is going to take time, comparing it to edge computing for data centres:

“You put computing power very close to where it’s going to be used – it’s the same concept to enable with V2G – it becomes extra capacity, extra storage of energy that is available to be put back on the grid whenever it needs.”

Recurring intermittency

A recurring proposition, especially for V2G, is how it can battle the intermittency challenge posed by the uptake of renewable energy sources.

For Colle, however, this also means V2G’s uptake will also be different depending on the market context, “because some will be more exposed and require more flexibility solutions implemented quickly…it will be different in terms of timing in different markets. Some markets will be more exposed and will require more flexibility solutions quicker.”

Colle references Ireland as a case study, which he says is projected to be 80% intermittent by 2030. “We can imagine what that means for where those intermittency solutions will come from, other than utility-scale batteries or other dispatchable generation.”

He says there is an urgency now to move beyond pilots on V2G and address certain fundamental problems, from making sure there are the right cares and equipment to working on commercial propositions, data and double taxation.

“We need to work on all these problems…because they will take some time.”

This, adds Colle, is where the urgency differs between V2G and V1G. “Although our markets evolve fast, this is not the case on the regulatory and the technical side, where we need to push hard for V2G to be more ready in a couple of years…V1G is a ‘here and now’ scaling problem.”