Darren Kinsella, business development manager of new energy landscapes at Schneider Electric Ireland, discusses what he believes is one of the biggest barriers to electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Ireland – a lack of charging hubs. Kinsella explains how drivers and the community can be better served by a charging infrastructure capable of powering localised electricity for EVs, homes and buildings.
The latest vehicle registration statistics from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids account for 45% of the new car market in Ireland. It’s a promising sign, but new EV registrations declined by up to a fifth when compared to last year.
While EVs have proved to be popular with early adopters, more needs to be done to create an environment that will convince most car owners and fleet managers to convert to battery powered EVs. There has been incremental change over the last few years and EV purchases have been encouraged through tax breaks for businesses and the consumer.
We’re even seeing the first electric buses and trucks on routes around Ireland, plus there is growing commitment from the transport and logistics space to convert to electric fleets. Zero Emissions Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI) has a target under the Climate Action Plan 2023 to have 30% of Ireland’s private car fleet switched to electric by 2030.
We need to capitalise on these behaviour changes by creating a network of reliable EV chargepoints that span the country, removing any concerns drivers may have about charging their vehicles while en route, at home or at work. It’s also important to have this infrastructure in place when the 2035 EU ban on the sales of combustion engine vehicles comes into effect.
Smarter and cleaner power distribution
Currently, most EV owners tend to charge their vehicles at home, but further expansion will lead to more device locations and hubs in public places. This includes residential buildings, office campuses, and enroute locations like motorway services, ferry terminals and hotels. To date, the rollout has been market-led, with charging operators and other businesses, such as hotels, choosing where to install devices.
Greater cooperation is needed between the government, EV charging operators, building owners and other stakeholders to ensure there is an even distribution of sites across Ireland. By working together, we can create an ecosystem capable of delivering a charging infrastructure based on smart technology and renewable energy that isn’t constantly placing new demands on the grid.
In the short-term it will be possible to optimise existing capacity by deploying digital tools that monitor power consumption to help with capacity planning. In the longer-term the solution lies in microgrids based on renewables, tapping into solar, wind and even green hydrogen, to provide more sustainable energy supplies that can be introduced gradually. EVs are only as green as the energy that fuels them, which is why clean energy is so vital to the expansion of a sustainable EV charging infrastructure.
The EV energy storage opportunity
Although microgrids will play an integral role in adding capacity and relieving pressure on the grid, EV batteries also present a huge opportunity in terms of stored electricity that can be used for vehicle to grid transfer. We’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what opportunities EVs can offer in this new sustainable energy mix.
EVs produce zero emissions, but their batteries also store electricity that can support different energy use cases through bi-directional charging. The residual energy contained in EV batteries can be used to power localised electricity before it goes back into the grid, leading to new charging models based on EVs.
For instance, you could have a hub where solar power is used to charge EVs during the day, but residual power from parked EVs can help to power a residential building overnight. But this scenario could easily be extended to powering an office building, factory or even a farm, depending on the location and size of the hub. That’s why it’s important to use infrastructures that facilitate bi-directional charging, vehicle-to-grid, and vehicle-to-building transfer.
The Private Wire connection
A sustainable EV charging infrastructure that leverages clean energy, EV battery storage and smart digital monitoring will add capacity and deliver localised electricity to a network of EV hubs, servicing urban and rural areas. However, a ‘Private Wire’ policy will have to be introduced to establish the smart power distribution system needed to underscore this new infrastructure.
Private Wires can provide an off-grid solution for the supply of electricity, allowing private individuals or entities to own electricity infrastructure that can be used to generate and transmit electricity to meet demand. Essentially, it means that individuals will be able to run their own cabling to support new energy use cases, including EV hubs.
This will potentially involve running cables – which link generation to demand – across real estate that does not belong to them, creating commercial opportunities for landowners. This will lead to new off-grid sites that will add much needed capacity to certain areas, while also relieving pressure on our current grid.
The topic is now subject to public consultation, but whatever the outcome, it’s critical that new privately owned infrastructures can be seamlessly integrated into a larger more sustainable power network. This is possible thanks to a combination of enhanced electrical equipment and smart digital monitoring tools that deliver a clean and reliable electricity supply for EV charging and power storage facilities.
A cleaner future for EV charging
Ultimately, EV batteries constitute a huge amount of energy storage that can be used for vehicle-to-grid transfer, which up to now hasn’t been accessed. The demand for storage is only going to increase on the back of growing renewable penetration in Ireland. EV battery power and storage will become more important as traditional grid storage facilities are phased out. Smart power distribution systems supported by data and smart technology, will be critical to this process when Ireland is looking to make a significant shift to renewables. The time to act is now.