ACDC project – Autonomously Controlled Distributed Chargers: Final report

The government wants to suspend the sale of all diesel and gasoline cars in Denmark by 2030. By that time, it is reasonable to expect between 0.5 and 1 million electric vehicles on the road. Controlling the charging process of one million vehicles can provide large flexibility to the electricity system and support the integration of more renewable sources. However, the control infrastructure behind the chargers needs to be sufficiently simple and cost-effective in order to make the process both technically and economically successful. Ideally, the process must become autonomous.

The ACDC project developed two new technologies: an electric vehicle autonomous smart charge controller and a virtual aggregator. The autonomous charge controls a set of electric vehicles charge in order to ensure the fulfillment of specific grid services. The virtual aggregator broadcasts a signal to the set of autonomous chargers in order to coordinate their action. Both technologies are developed and demonstrated in the project by using up to 5 vehicles in Risø campus and up to 20 vehicles in Bornholm. Simultaneously with the development of the hardware, power systems stability studies are performed to analyze the effect of aggregated charging on the large scale.