As announced on June 6, 2018, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc., TEPCO Energy Partner, Inc., TEPCO Power Grid, Inc., Hitachi Systems Power Services, LTD., Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Shizuoka Gas Co., Ltd. and Hitachi Solutions, Ltd. have been engaged in joint experiments to demonstrate the construction of a virtual power plant*1. Today, the seven companies*2 reported the results of their V2G (Vehicle to Grid) demonstration experiment to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
During this demonstration, the largest experiment environment that enables a two-way power exchange between electric vehicles (hereinafter referred to as, "EV/PHEV") and a power grid ever built in Japan was constructed at the East Shizuoka Prefecture Branch and of Shizuoka Gas Co., Ltd., and the Okazaki Plant of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, and the demonstration confirmed that this technology will be effective in contributing to power grid stability.
In detail, it was confirmed that congestion can be managed (current control) by the output control of EV/PHEV power stations (hereinafter referred to as, "EVPS") according to control commands.
In fact, since EVPS can be controlled and tracked on a second-by-second basis, we believe that output control can be realized in a matter of seconds in the near future even in remote areas through combination with high-speed communications networks.
It was also confirmed that voltage control (reactive power control) can give output responses as signaled by control commands in the same manner as grid congestion management (current control).
By leveraging EV/PHEV to improve power grid stability technology we can further promote the spread of naturally fluctuating power sources, such as solar energy, etc., and contribute to the flexible operation of power grids.
