Major breakthrough in Switzerland in aggregation, grid services and smart charging  

Leading energy player CKW has achieved an unique status in the Swiss market. They have become the first balance service provider (BSP) to aggregate the flexibility of EVs and offer aFRR to the TSO Swissgrid. The Jedlix smart charging platform has supported them in the technical aggregation and integration with car and charger to enable and scale this technology among EV drivers in Switzerland.  

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AFRR flexibility for grid balancing

aFRR is one of the main balancing service that Swissgrid, the Swiss transmission system operator, uses to keep the Swiss grid in balance. Electricity grids need to always balance the demand and supply of electricity. For example, to manage the fluctuation in consumption or intermittent production from wind and solar energy. aFRR historically was the domain of large power plants that could provide this capacity in a structured way. Now new distributed technologies, like the flexibility in the charging process of EVs is used to deliver these balancing services. This creates a substantial value per car per year, of up to 100 CHF per year and reduced the dependency of the Swiss grid to rely on power plants.  

Aggregator and BSP role

Switzerland is an unique country and so are some aspects of its energy supply sector. The Swiss still have a regulated retail energy supply market and also do not have a large-scale deployment of smart meters. The role of CKW is not as the energy supplier (their usual role), but the balance service provider (BSP). This means they are responsible for the market access and biding towards the TSO Swissgrid. This means that any Swiss EV drivers could participate in the virtual power plant no matter which supplier they have. By using the sub meter data from the EV or charger, the set up is also not depending on smart meter data and regulation (e.g. allocation). This makes the conditions for onboarding much simpler, a critical item for mass adoption in smart charging. It also implies that such project is unique in Europe, as many TSO still struggle with the implementation of a proper aggregation frameworks for services like aFRR.  

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"With controlled charging processes, to put it simply, we align the electricity demand with the current electricity production. This is important because the electricity production from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy fluctuates," writes Thomas Reithofer, Head of the Energy Division of CKW.  

VPP Technology Potential

In order to participate on markets like aFRR it is crucial to demonstrate and prove the quality and steering. CKW, with the help of Jedlix, has built up a VPP (Virtual Power Plant) pool of EV drivers and conducted lengthy testing cycles to demonstrate the end-to-end working. The potential is huge; all EVs on the road today in Switzerland (about 165K) represent already a higher charging load than the biggest power plant in Switzerland.  

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CKW Smart Charging App & possible partnerships

EV drivers can participate via the CKW smart charging app that is available in Switzerland. However, it does not stop here. The VPP set up from CKW and Jedlix is also open to other partners on the Jedlix platform. This means car manufacturers, EV service providers and other relevant players in the e-mobility space could also join this initiative. Besides creating benefits for EV drivers, a share of the potential flexibility revenue is shared with involved partners. Last to say, the future looks bright for Swiss e-mobility sector as the ambition is to reach 100K EVs in Switzerland by the end of 2025 and this requires collaboration with other leading players in this domain.

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