The electrification of motorized individual transport (MIV) is effective, if resulting in direct, positive effects on the transition of the energy system. Prerequisite for a comprehensive effect would at best be a cooperation of the automotive industry with the affiliated companies running gas stations and – new – with the operators of power grids on the mid voltage- and distribution grid level. The collaboration between automakers and petroleum industry has a long tradition: Standardized fuels are a prerequisite for the development of advanced combustion engines. If these stakeholders coordinate the transformation process within their industries, and even more so with each other and integrate the power sector into deliberations, every stakeholder will benefit.
Exchange stations will be successively built, where gas stations now supply with traction energy. Their task, in addition to supplying with charged and taking back discharged traction batteries, will be, to pool stored batteries and to connect them to the power grid and its operator.
Taking into account the overall milage of the German car fleet, the change to the electric drive creates a considerable storage potential for electricity, that is urgently needed to continue the energy transition. But the technical potential will only be activated, if economic considerations are taken into account. The pooling of battery capacity, its additional function as a local grid storage, is key to the successful coupling of MIV and energy.
To meet the demand for electric power to the extend of today's MIV, batteries, with a battery range of 400 to 500 kilometers, An average of 200 to 300 traction batteries are accessed daily per changing station. The daily energy demand per exchange station is therefore an average of 16 megawatt hours, in Germany at almost 240 gigawatt hours.
While from a motorists view their discharged (partly) discharged battery is replaced with a charged battery within minutes, the company group operator of exchange stations benefits from the number of stored traction batteries in differing charging conditions. By means of intelligent charging management (partly) depleted batteries will preferably be recharged, as the wind blows- and / or solar surplus power enters the electricity grids. Excess power is cheaply available at the electricity stock exchange. In case of power shortage and thus high revenues at the electricity stock markets, the operator of exchange stations may decide, Providing network operators with part of the stored electricity for a short time to stabilize the electricity networks. For example, if an operator has 500 exchange stations in Germany, its intelligent charging management already includes 150.000 traction batteries. This way, the aggregation of batteries leads to an interesting business model, stimulating investment.