With a budget of €4.5 million, Project MERGE (Mobile Energy Resources for Grids of Electricity) aims to find solutions to minimise the need to strengthen the electricity network infrastructures and power systems, in order to avoid extra costs that would have to be borne by electric vehicle users, a source from INESC Porto explained.
The MERGE consortium involves 16 European companies, research and technology development institutions and the MIT (USA), which will evaluate the impacts that electric vehicles will have on EU electric power systems with respect to planning, operation and market functioning. The project will focus on the simultaneous deployment of electric vehicles and smart grids/microgrids, together with an increase in renewable energy generation.
The widespread use of electric vehicles is based on overnight battery charging because this is the period when the electricity network is less loaded, and preferably when renewable energy resources, especially wind power, are more available for the production of electricity. INESC Porto will be responsible for creating an “intelligent” system that will adapt battery charging to the availability of these resources and grid infrastructures.
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