CAN VEHICLE TO GRID TECHNOLOGY IMPROVE POWER AVAILABILITY & GRID UTILISATION IN INDIA?

India is third largest producer and also the third largest consumer of electricity. As of 30 June 2020, it has installed capacity of 370.054 GW. On a whole India has renewable power resources installed of capacity 35.4% of India installed capacity. During the financial year 2018-19, the gross electricity generated by utilities in India 1,372 TWh and the total electricity generation (utilities and non-utilities) in the country was 1,547 TWh. The per capita electricity consumption is low compared to other countries despite having low electricity tariff.

The problems related to Indian power sector include inadequate last mile connectivity i.e. most consumers depend upon diesel generator. The diesel consumption alone is 15 million tons. Over 10 million households use UPS as backup during load shedding. Another problem is unequal electricity distribution which is intermittent and unreliable. On the contrary side the power station goes to idle mode due less power demand. If they are non-idle, they are sufficient enough to supply households three times over. On the transmission side include losses due to distribution and consumer level losses.

What could be possible ways to solve this problem. Well there is possible technology, which cannot drastically improve the power quality but it can improve the intermittent power losses occurring due to various factors. The VEHICLE TO GRID also known as V2G, can be used to solve this problem. Not much has been done in India, but various researches are going on.

Electricity is an extremely affordable way to power a car. An average Indian pays less than Rs. 4 per kilowatt hour. If the average Indian drives about 40 Km, it will cost about Rs. 16 a day for electricity. That’s about the same cost as running a common household appliance. As already stated, India is having deficit of 12.1% of peak demand. Also, efficiency of the plant decreases when running at off peak hours. If we connect all the EVs to store the energy at off peak hours and supply back to peak hours, the gap between demand and supply will reduce.

Before this, let’s see what V2G is. As name suggests V2G is the system where a electrical vehicle (in some cases hybrid also) is connected to main grid or regional grid of a electrical distribution network. This system can also be miniatured and can be restricted only to few blocks or a single apartment where they have their power distribution system. By connecting your electric vehicle instead of charging, it will now supply power to the electric network to which it is connected. And if it happens that your electric vehicle is discharged, it will automatically sense it and start charging your battery. This is the simplest explanation of V2G. Going deep inside there is a big network of controls and interface which allows the efficient use of V2G. Below figure will give you a brief idea of V2G works.

Figure 1: V2G NETWORK (IMAGE-ScienceDirect.com)

From above image we can clearly see that the whole of V2G system is connected to the grid or network. Also, this grid is fed by other sources such as Coal Power Plant, Solar and Wind. The bidirectional converter in EV helps in converting both AC to DC (rectifier) for charging and for V2G, DC to AC (inverter). The aggregator used here will calculate how much power should be juiced out from the available cars and how much power is required to compensate the losses and fluctuations in grid.

Learning all this, let us also think EV penetration and electricity production. In India, electric power sector has grown substantially since independence from 1,362 MW (megawatt) in 1947 to 3,56,100 MW as on 31-03-2019, representing a CAGR (cumulative annual growth rate) of 3.52 %. with a peak demand of 1,75,528 MW and an average supply of 1,494 MW with a peak power deficit of 0.5% which is around 748 MW. Taking 16 kWh of battery capacity, for each EV, the number of vehicles required to meet this deficit will be around 47000. If these number of vehicles are converted to hybrid EV and put on charge in the off-time period and discharge in peak time period by connecting to the grid, the peak demand of India can be reduced. Considering the efficiency of the overall system to be 80% and letting 30% of battery energy to be utilized by the car for commuting purpose, the peak demand of 50% can be easily met, which will lead to a huge reduction in demand and supply gap. But there is subsequent challenge in Indian scenario for V2G. Some of the challenges include monitoring an overall system, battery replacement, grid control, efficient converter topology and implementation of fast charging in context with various government initiatives for successful implementation of V2G in India.

Disclaimer – This article is written in full personal capacity and free of charge. This has no conflict of interest with the organisation I work or the current role I perform in the organisation or the information I have access in the organisation. This write-up expresses personal views purely based on information easily and widely available in public domain. Rights to reproduce is protected with self.

Pravesh Soni

Guest Writer, Thought Leader and Non-Profit ‘Student Start-Up’ Mentor.

Autonebula is a connected transportation vehicle accelerator and investment fund that nurtures startups in this realm by mentoring them across business, technology & marketing – Check out Softlanding with Autonebula


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