Today, the Volkswagen Group and its Elli brand became the first automotive company to start trading on the German electricity market of Europe's largest power exchange, EPEX Spot. The basis for electricity trading is a stationary storage system made of e-up! batteries and a new, digital electricity trading platform from Elli. In the future, the stationary storage system – the so-called "PowerCenter" – will store the energy traded on the electricity market. The pilot project is being driven forward jointly by Elli and Volkswagen After Sales and is a first step on the way to the planned Smart Energy Platform. In the future, Volkswagen and Elli want to anchor the growing storage capacities of electric cars and batteries in the energy system and make an important contribution to the energy transition.
"Elli will significantly advance electric mobility and the energy transition," says Elli CEO Giovanni Palazzo. "We are already Europe's largest mobility service provider in the field of charging and energy. We want to further expand this leading position and develop Elli into a leading trading company for battery flexibility. Electricity trading is a major milestone on this path. Our long-term goal is clear: We want to give our customers a clear advantage in terms of electricity prices and at the same time develop new, high-revenue business models that will strengthen Elli in the long term," added.
Kora Töpfer, Head of German Public & Regulatory Affairs at the European Power Exchange EPEX Spot, adds: "We are pleased to welcome the Volkswagen Group and Elli as the first automotive company to trade with us on the German electricity market. Our continuously growing electricity exchange needs companies that want to get involved in trading and control the growth of renewable energies with us in order to compensate for fluctuating demand and energy supply. With Elli, our broad and diverse trading community is expanded by another significant member, for the benefit of the entire market and all trading participants. After all, more activity also means more trading opportunities for all market participants."
This is how Elli electricity trading works: The focus is on an intelligent platform for trading, controlling and optimizing batteries. Bids can be automatically placed on the stock exchange via the platform. The trading results are translated into a timetable and the battery is automatically charged or discharged. Electricity is purchased during periods of low prices (with a tendency towards a high share of renewables) and sold during periods of high prices (with a tendency towards a low share of renewables). As a result, not only can trading revenues be generated, but a better use of renewable energies can also be achieved. The stationary battery storage uses 28 battery systems and 34 e-up! cell modules.
In this pilot project, Elli is gaining valuable experience for the development of a smart energy platform, which can later be used for larger and more complex applications. For example, Elli is currently investigating the possibilities and scalability of large-scale storage systems together with the battery company PowerCo. In the future, the growing e-car fleet can also be integrated into the energy grid via Vehicle-2-Home and Vehicle-2-Grid and serve as a mobile power bank. Thanks to intelligent charging tariffs and algorithms, Elli is already making it possible to charge the car exactly when there is a lot of renewable energy available at low cost.
Article source: www.volkswagen-newsroom.com