Road transport accounts for 22% of total emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and is by far the largest contributor to climate change. There are currently over 800 million internal combustion engine (ICE) motor vehicles on the road worldwide and this number is predicted to triple by 2050. Governments around the world are making various carbon commitments and carbon reduction plans to address this need. Bastian Fischer, vice president of industry strategy, Oracle Utilities, EMEA explains

Due to their significant potential in lowering carbon emissions many countries are turning towards e-mobility solutions, such as electric vehicles (EVs). EU industry ministers called for EVs to feature in the EU's 2020 strategy, which is an energy policy that aims to combat climate change and increase the EU's energy security while strengthening competitiveness. To support this scheme, European governments need to take significant steps to encourage adoption and speed up deployment of an electric vehicle infrastructure. For example, the UK government introduced a £5,000 subsidy for consumers who bought specific EVs to encourage the uptake and removed the need for planning permission for companies deploying charging points on streets and indoor car parks.

By design, EVs offer superior fuel efficiency with emissions dropping to almost zero when electricity comes from nuclear or renewable sources. EVs require a quarter of the energy needed to power a conventional ICE and the range of energy sources to power the engine can be expanded to include renewables, nuclear, gas and clean coal. Furthermore, EVs do not consume energy while they are not moving and have the potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% compared to modern, fuel efficient petrol driven ICE cars. With so many benefits it is no surprise that Steve Holliday, chief executive officer of National Grid Plc, has predicted EVs will make up 20% of automotive sales by 2016.

However, as things stand, the mass adoption of EVs will put excessive pressure on the current energy grid large volumes of electricity will need to be directed to EV charging points and as such power outages must be prevented. In the UK for example the National Grid's high-voltage electricity transmission system can currently manage the demand of one million electric cars, but as Steve Holliday rightly commented, local distribution networks in cities like London may struggle to balance their grids if drivers choose to all plug in their cars at the same time. Therefore with the current infrastructure, little gain will be achieved from EVs and for this reason it should be a fundamental pre-requisite to have a smart grid infrastructure in place, capable of meeting the energy demands that will ensue from the EV rollout.

The benefits of a smart grid infrastructure
The smart grid enables better knowledge of actual and forecasted loads and provides intelligent and rapid decision support to address the energy demands that will follow the widespread adoption of EVs. Some countries are already making progress in this area, for example the MOBI.E vehicle electrification project, recently completed in Portugal, one of the first true universal and integrated platforms for electric mobility. It puts a network of charging stations in place for both private and public EVs so drivers can refuel anytime, anywhere, at reasonable prices, using electricity generated from the cleanest possible sources.

Electric vehicles are only as green as the energy sources which are used to power them. Portugal is a natural place to launch an environmentally aware electric vehicle initiative because it already produces 43% of its electricity from clean renewable sources. Moreover, the country will host one of Nissan/Renault's battery factories. That means local sourcing for two of the most important electric vehicle components-batteries and fuel.

The MOBI.E project involved the installation of 1,300 slow charging stations and 50 fast charging stations across 25 municipalities in Portugal. The e-mobility platform implemented was based on a smart grid infrastructure that enables utilities to manage electric car refuelling at minimum cost, with maximum positive environmental impact.

The smart grid is also able to support applications which will allow customers to charge their vehicles, and pay for electricity in locations other than their homes. In addition, it has the capability to integrate renewable energy sources into the network, as well as identifying excess power which can be used to charge EVs instead of asking coal or gas power plants to switch off to stop overloading the grid.

Impact of EVs on the energy sector
Switching to EVs will not only have an impact upon local emissions, but will also have a wider affect on the community. The electrification of the transport sector suggests that emissions of greenhouse gases will be transferred from the transport sector to the energy sector. However, unlike the transport sector, the energy sector is regulated by the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which by law requires large emitters of carbon dioxide to stay within the number of carbon credits they purchased from the government in that year. The sector is tightly monitored to ensure it stays within its annual limit, which controls the total emissions of greenhouse gases within the energy sector by stating an annual maximum.

Therefore, if the transport sector is electrified, emissions would not only be lowered but the energy sector will be required to look to alternative methods to produce the electricity required without increasing its greenhouse gas emissions.

As a result, the mass roll out of EVs will introduce many challenges for utilities. Not only will utilities have to monitor their carbon allowances more closely, but without having the necessary infrastructure to support the power demand to charge EVs; little gain will actually be achieved. It should therefore, be seen as a fundamental pre-requisite to have a smart grid infrastructure in place, capable of meeting the energy demands that will ensue from an electric car roll-out.

Charging and information management technologies
Another critical success factor is the need for an open, integrated, interoperable and competitive recharging and service infrastructure. This will attract new partners, such as parking operators, hotels, and highway authorities; alternative energy suppliers, aggregators and charging infrastructure operators; and will offer new business models for car-sharing, car-pooling, car-rental and battery charging. In turn, this will create attractively priced service bundles, foster innovation and differentiation, as well as continuously improve the density of the network.

The integration of individual electric mobility with public transport networks will combine the efficiency of mass-transport with the flexibility and comfort of EVs, offering customers a truly end-to-end travel experience. This will only be accepted if the relevant data is in real-time, ubiquitous and easily accessible. Additionally, the identification, ticketing and billing must be detailed and consolidated. Similarly, the entire system and business model must be designed with the customer at the centre.

Therefore, the necessity of a highly scalable rating and billing engine combined with a customer centric customer information system (CIS) is a must to have a successful EV strategy. An effective CIS allows companies to manage every aspect of their customer relationship with the aim being to turn customer satisfaction into loyalty. Moreover, utilities, EV-operators and EV-charging service providers are advised to implement a CIS linked with a network management system (NMS) and feeder load management functionality in order to address the anticipated electricity flow as the number of EVs increase, as well as tackling scenarios in which EV batteries feed electricity back into the distribution network.

An intelligent CIS system delivers further benefits when supported by a smart grid infrastructure, as it can enable better forecasting and management of the energy demands placed on the grid through the increased roll-out of EV charging points and at the same time responding to the agreed service and charging levels subscribed to by the EV-customers.

For EV adoption to grow it is crucial to understand the role the smart grid will play in uptake as well as meeting the demands and withstanding the pressures of electric cars. Without the benefits delivered by the smart grid, such as its forecasting and management abilities, we will be faced with a grid network incapable of managing consumer electricity demand, which will have a detrimental impact on the success and uptake of EVs. Therefore, in order to smooth out energy demand and intermittent generation, a smart grid infrastructure combined with automation and decision support provisioned by the appropriate ICT infrastructure will prove crucial in making an EV future a reality.

Impacts of Car Pollution; Environmental Protection UK, 2011
50by50 Global Fuel Economy Initiative: Making Cars 50% More Fuel Efficient by 2050 Worldwide; FIA Foundation, March 2009, p.1
Vattenfall Research and Development Magazine, No. 2, December 2009, p.11
Taken from Halo's "Electric Cars to Reach 20% of U.K. Vehicle Sales by 2016, Grid CEO Says" article, Published 10th December 2011
Author: Bastian Fischer, Vice President of Industry Strategy, Oracle Utilities, EMEA