Electric vehicle integration
Peer-to-peer charging network to improve electric vehicle adoption
Elocity Technologies (ETI)
Location
London
Funding given
$250,000
Description
This project will demonstrate EVPLUG, a peer-to-peer charging network solution designed to remove barriers to the rapid adoption of electric vehicles. EVPLUG is a smart technology designed to convert chargers into blockchain nodes, enabling public and private owners to share charging stations, providing consumers with greater information on their charging behaviour, and giving electricity providers the capability to manage charging loads and implement electric vehicle incentive programs. London Hydro’s role as project collaborator will be to enroll electric vehicle participants and leverage their Green Button Platform. Mindteck Canada Inc., a global technology company will bring system engineering expertise to the project and implement electric vehicle incentive programs.
Status
Project in progress.
Collaborators include:
- London Hydro
Piloting electric vehicle load shaping with dynamic price signals
FleetCarma
Location
Waterloo, Burlington, York Region, Simcoe Region
Funding given
$249,990
Description
FleetCarma will pilot a scalable load management solution with 60 electric vehicle owners, applying different price signals to determine their effect on charging behaviour. The project intends to encourage charging at times that are preferable for the grid.
Status
Project in progress.
Collaborators include:
- Alectra Inc.
- Burlington Hydro
Smart Charging of Electric Vehicles with Real-Time Vehicle Data, Utility Controls & Owner Opt-In/Opt-Out
FleetCarma (formerly CrossChasm)
Location
Toronto
Funding given
$339,637
Description
Thirty plug-in electric vehicles were equipped with network-enabled data loggers to provide utilities with better visibility of EV-related grid impacts. This allowed charging to be optimized according to grid capacity and user preferences.
Status
Project complete.
The project showed that utilities can dramatically shape charging load while ensuring their customers' charging needs are fully met. By integrating EV customers' needs into smart-charging, widespread electric vehicle adoption can be supported in a way that reduces grid impacts and provides the grid a flexible demand resource.
The program demonstrated that the peak electric vehicle charging load could be cut in half each night, and in times of need the charging load could be temporarily reduced by 85%. Both of these reductions could be accomplished while still ensuring that each EV was fully charged by the time the EV owner has defined.
Informative interviews with the participants revealed:
- More than 70 per cent stated they would not have signed up for the pilot if they did not have data on the state of charge of their EV and if they didn't have a guarantee that their vehicle would be charged by a time that they could set;
- The majority of participants noted that they did not even notice charging curtailment;
- 95 per cent reported being interested in future smart-charging programs if it resulted in a reduction if their charging costs and included a battery pre-warm feature; and
- Over 75 per cent found notification about their EV charging patterns interesting and/or useful.
Collaborators include:
- AddÉnergie Technologies
- Toronto Hydro
Intelligent Electric Vehicle Charging Systems (IEVCS)
Location
Niagara on the Lake
Funding given
$1,099,778
Description
Developed an integrated hardware-software solution that allows utilities to gather data on both EV charging patterns and local transformer performance.
Status
Project complete.
Twenty-five EV users in Niagara-on-the-Lake were enrolled in the project helped utilities plan for future EV impacts on the distribution system, and through an In-Home Display, helped consumers manage energy usage. Other observations from the project include:
- Driving patterns (i.e. speed, use of climate controls) can greatly affect the EV battery performance and the driving range
- The EV marketplace is evolving quickly with a growing number of Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE – charging equipment) models, features, and vendors.
- EVSE vendors have a hybrid approach relying on both proprietary and standard communication protocols.
- LDCs have no way of determining the number of EVs in their territory, nor the individual transformers that they might be drawing from.
- The ability to share this information with LDCs will be important when the adoption of EVs increases.
Collaborators include:
- San Diego Gas and Electric
- Niagara-on-the-Lake Hydro Inc.
SecCharge: Secure Electric Vehicle Ecosystem for Smart Grid
Location
Ottawa
Funding given
$768,350
Description
Developed solutions that incorporate charging of EV batteries while incorporating secure payment and privacy of user data, as well as an EV charging station locator mobile application.
Status
Project complete.
The project successfully developed and tested a mobile app that provides:
- charging strategies and EV state of charge for the EV owner,
- an en-route recharging assistant allows the user to plan a travelling route between cities identifying charging stations along the way, and
- the ability to securely pay for en-route charging.
Collaborators include:
- Hydro-Ottawa Limited
- IBM Canada Limited