E-REDES foster regulatory sandbox for flexible connection, allowing EV charging in collective buildings

Following the paper "E-REDES grid flexible power solution for EV charging at residential buildings", where a proof of concept was presented to tackle the challenge of a significant demand increase regarding the charging infrastructure of Electric Vehicle (EV) in residential buildings, E-REDES is implementing this solution in real buildings as a pilot project. This project was designed as an alternative to the necessary investment in the distribution grid to accommodate more EV chargers, which would be not only less costly for the system but also quicker from the EV user's perspective. Considering the typical housing typology in Portugal, where multi-family residential buildings have shared garages and its electrical infrastructures were not designed to withstand large-scale charging points, along with the increasing adoption of EVs, this project assumes a significant role to E-REDES, the main Portuguese DSO, to be a facilitator in the electrification of society. Therefore, E-REDES submitted the FlexConnection project as a pilot project to the Portuguese authority to be considered as a regulatory sandbox so that one can test and evaluate its applicability in real-life scenarios. By installing two devices, one at the point of connection of a building and the second within the smart meter of the building garage, through flexible power management, E-REDES can leverage the existing power capacity of the grid and increase the allowed power for the common service (garage circuit) without exceeding the maximum power limit of the infrastructure, therefore enabling the installation of more EV charging stations. This paper aims to explore two different streams. The first section focuses on describing both the pilot project and the proposed regulatory sandbox framework. Along the way, it was necessary to have an active collaboration between various stakeholders, including the regulator, administrative authority responsible for energy policies, and commercial partners with smart charging solutions for EV and inspection entities, in order to overcome barriers inherent to the implementation of the pilot project. In the second section, E-REDES aims to address more technical subjects and discuss the practical implementation of the project. Examples of implemented solutions are going to be presented together with the main challenges that E-REDES faced during the deployment phase. Furthermore, we intend to state some preliminary conclusions and key findings along with a discussion of possible next steps for the FlexConnection project, including a possible commercial application which would imply a roll-out stage or even the possibility of broadening the scope of the eligible residential buildings where this solution could be applied for higher power on the respective garage circuit. Through this framework, E-REDES aims to actively contribute with solutions that allow the development of sustainable urban mobility solutions so that the grid does not become a barrier to the growing demand for EVs, as well as enhancing the flexibility potential of the grid.