In October 2017, The Group Renault announced the creation of a subsidiary, Renault Energy Services. Its aim: ” to position the group on the energy sector and smart grids, a key element of electric mobility “. Renault announced, on this occasion, a stake of 25 % in Jedlix, a Dutch start-up specialized in smart charging. The two companies will work together to develop ZE Smart Charge, a smart charging smartphone app to take full advantage of renewable energies and the lowest rates.
The ambition announced by Renault in October 2017 has already found some concrete applications, through various tests and partnerships:
- A partnership with British company Powervault to assess the reuse of old electric vehicle batteries for fixed energy storage. 50 units were equipped with second-life batteries supplied by Renault and placed in customer homes already equipped with solar panels. These units explored the technical performance a second use of batteries could offer, as well as customer reaction to home energy storage. Batteries used in electric vehicles generally have a life span up to 8 or 10 years. However, they still have significant useful capabilities for stationary applications, postponing their eventual recycling. (In Issy-les-Moulineaux, Renault had already supplied second-hand batteries from Kangoo Z.E. cars to store the electricity produced by the solar panels installed on Issygrid buildings).
- A partnership with ‘Connected Energy’ group to install fast charging stations on highway rest areas equipped with a stationary energy storage system. The system is also based on the reuse of batteries from ZOE and Kangoo cars. By storing energy via a low-power supply and releasing the stored energy at high power levels, E-STOR technology makes it possible to offer fast charging solutions for electric vehicles in places where it would be very expensive to build a direct connection to the grid.
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The ‘Advanced Battery Storage’ Project
In September 2018, the Renault Group announces it launched the « Advanced Battery Storage » project, which aims to build by 2020 a stationary electricity storage device based on old batteries of electric cars compiled in containers. The objective is to manage the gaps between electricity consumption and production and to increase the share of renewable sources. The first installations will be carried out in 2019 at three sites in France and Germany: at Renault’s plants in Douai (Nord) and Cléon (Seine Maritime) and at a former coal plant in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The storage capacity will then be gradually expanded over time to include 2,000 electric car batteries. In the long term, the system could store up to 60 MWh, equivalent to the daily consumption of a city of 5,000 households. Partners in the “Advanced Battery Storage” project include Bank of the Territories, the Japanese Mitsui Group, Demeter (through the Ecological Transport Modernisation Fund) and The Mobility House.
In October 2018, the Renault Group announced a cooperation agreement with EDF to develop cross-fertilization offers based on the self-consumption offers developed by EDF (Mon Soleil & Moi) and the intelligent charging of Renault’s electric vehicles.
Flexibility for insular territories : Porto Santo and Belle-île-en-Mer islands
The Portuguese island Porto Santo and its 5500 inhabitants, three times as many during summer and a local electricity company seeking to reduce its dependence on diesel, was the ideal territory to test, with Bouygues Energies Services, the Smart Fossil Free Island project. The project, running for 18 months since spring 2018, has three components. Initially, 20 volunteer residents of Porto Santo equipped with 14 ZOE and 6 Kangoo Z.E. cars will be able to charge them thanks to the 40 connected private or public charging stations installed by EEM and Renault on the island. Secondly, they will be able to restore electricity levels during peak consumption periods. In addition, second-life batteries are used to store the intermittent energy produced by the solar and wind power plants in Porto Santo. Stored as soon as it is produced, this energy is injected into the grid for local needs.
In Belle-île-en-Mer, Renault has been working since autumn 2018 with Morbihan Energie, Les Cars Bleus and Enedis on the FlexMob’Île project. The project is essentially based on a fleet of car-sharing electric vehicles. Ten smart charging stations were deployed in April 2019. Electric vehicles are available in self-service, connected to intelligent charging stations that are controlled in such a way as to favour charging when local electricity (from photovoltaic panels) is produced in excess.
Experimentation of ‘Vehicule-to-grid’ system
In March 2019, Renault launched a large-scale experiment on the two-way alternating current charging of electric vehicles in Utrecht, Netherlands, on a microgrid developed by the start-up “We Drive Solar”. Renault plans to deploy a fleet of 15 ZOEs equipped with vehicle-to-grid technology by the end of the year. Equipped with a bidirectional charging device, these electric cars will be able to restore the energy stored in their batteries to the electricity grid.
Renault is also involved, with Bouygues Energie Services, in testing an energy storage and management system at the Sydev (Departemental Syndicate for Energy and Equipments of Vendée) headquarters in La Roche-sur-Yon. This project, entitled Pharre, will allow energy to be distributed according to consumption needs and peak and off-peak hours, but also for recharging the union’s fleet of electric vehicles. These demonstrators would soon be complemented by other deployments in Germany, Sweden and Danermark.
Partnership in Europe around charging stations
The Renault Group has also partnered with Total to launch (with Jedlix) a “Z.E. Smart Charge” offer. This offer is based on electricity from green energy supplied by Total Spring. The two groups are interested in collaborating on charging infrastructure and electricity supply to reduce the cost of charging electric vehicles. Projects are underway with the Italian Enel on the intelligent charging of electric vehicles, via Enel X’s JuiceNet platform.
Last May, at the EVS32 symposium, Renault announced a partnership with NewMotion, which is becoming the preferred supplier of charging stations for its private customers. Shell’s subsidiary will offer them two types of charging stations, the ‘Home Basic’ allowing a charge of 11kW in intensity, and the ‘Home Advanced’ which thanks to its connection, can be used in a shared property.
Renault also announced its partnership with E-Totem and Demeter for the deployment of France’s first public network of on-demand charging stations. Located in the Saint-Etienne Metropolitan Area, this network will eventually include around 100 accelerated or rapid charging stations. The originality of the project is to install a bollard on the public road following a request from a private or professional customer, owner or future purchaser of an electric vehicle.
Maurice Ronai, Items, pour Think Smartgrids
Further readings (in French) :
La mobilité électrique : futur maillon fort des Smart Grids (dossier)
L’Europe des batteries commence à prendre forme
Véhicules électriques : 23 000 points de charge accessibles à tous en 2018, 100 000 d’ici 2023