Europe's New Power Grid Pricing Could Nearly Double EV Charging Savings
A new study finds that European utilities switching to power-based electricity tariffs could unlock 7-41% cost reductions for EV owners with solar panels using smart charging. The shift from traditional pricing models transforms how utilities bill for grid usage, fundamentally changing the economics of home energy systems across the continent.
Originaltitel: Evaluating EV Smart Charging Under Emerging Power-based Network Tariffs for PV Prosumers
<p>Electric vehicle (EV) smart charging can support the grid and improve owner economics. Simultaneously, European network tariffs are transitioning from energy-based network tariffs (EBTs) to power-based network tariffs (PBTs). Existing studies rarely distinguish between EBTs and newer tariff designs when evaluating EV smart charging strategies. To bridge this gap, this study compares the technical and economic consequences of shifting from EBTs to PBTs for Swedish prosumers with EVs and rooftop photovoltaics (PV) systems under 5 distinct PBTs introduced for 2025. The optimization framework includes three economic objectives, comprising: total electricity cost, EV battery degradation, and ancillary service revenues. In addition, one technical optimization is used to minimize net load variance. Average results show that switching from EBT to PBT increases electricity costs by 12.5% under uncontrolled EV charging. Nevertheless, using EV smart charging results in net cost reduction percentage (CR) of 2.5–16% for EBT and 7–34% for PBT without the ancillary services (AS) participation, and 6–32.5% for EBT and 10–41% for PBT with the AS participation. The mean CR is nearly double under PBT compared to EBT across all optimized cases, with average CR of 23.6% and 12.2%, respectively. The majority of this reduction is attributable to lower power-based charges by rescheduling EV charging demand. CR is greater under PBT, particularly for smaller fuse ratings, higher production-to-load ratios, and the monthly single power peak rather than the multi-peak averaging count method. Although economic performance differs between tariff structures, technical metrics remain similar. The sensitivity analysis indicates that costs increase more significantly under PBT when the PV system is not implemented or when the EV arrives in the evening. Thus, these findings underscore the critical role of active load management in mitigating net electricity costs under PBT.</p>