Car, energy firms urge grid agency to ease bidirectional charging rules – media report

A consortium of major car manufacturers, along with electricity companies, has sent an open letter to the Germany’s grid regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), urging it to simplify new rules that could undermine the economic case for bidirectional charging for electric cars, reported business daily Handelsblatt. 

The group, which includes BMW, Ford and Octopus Energy, argues that the planned rules, due to come into effect on 1 October, are too complicated, and threaten Germany’s position as a potential international leader on bidirectional charging, also known as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology. V2G allows electric vehicles (EVs) to feed stored electricity back into the grid when it is needed by other consumers, effectively helping to balance the grid as battery storage units.

The BNetzA has drawn sharp criticism for the new rules, known as “MiSpeL” (market integration of storage and charging points), with industry figures arguing that they would undermine the business case for V2G. “What the Federal Network Agency is currently planning makes bidirectional charging economically unattractive. This will make the mass market unviable,” warned Loic Geipel of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). While the consortium praised the direction of the “MiSpeL” system “in principle”, it warned that the current state of affairs “involves significant technical, economic and operational hurdles that jeopardise the market rollout of bidirectional charging.” Key points of contention are rules on state support and smart meter requirements. 

German carmakers are under huge pressure in the face of stiff competition from Chinese electric car companies. Yet, V2G is one area where the German carmakers see themselves as still maintaining a technological advantage. “When it comes to control, connectivity and marketing, we are technology leaders,” Maximilian Wilshaus of VW’s electricity subsidiary Elli told Handelsblatt. 

While bidirectional charging is already technically feasible, it is not yet widespread in Germany due to several unresolved factors, energy industry association BDEW said earlier this year. Besides the lack of international industry standards for vehicles and charging points, this includes questions regarding the taxation of power use and marketing, when EV owners feed their electricity into the grid. Another hurdle in Germany is the lagging rollout of smart meters, as the technology requires adequate measuring and billing systems to allow a bidirectional charging market to function.