Enel Energia, Nissan Italia and IIT join hands to drive electric mobility in Italy

The first ‘vehicle to grid’ (V2G) electric car recharging facilities have been set up in Italy. This follows an agreement signed between Enel Energia, Nissan Italia and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). The pilot corporate electric car sharing project has started with V2G chargers at the IIT headquarters in Genoa, Italy.

V2G technology allows electric cars to be considered as real ‘batteries on wheels’, able to store unused power and discharge it to the grid. All these functions are available thanks to bidirectional charge management.

The columns installed at the IIT will, for the moment, work unidirectionally for recharging and will be the subject of a pilot development project with IIT, pending the definition of the regulatory framework for V2G in Italy.

For car sharing, Japanese carmaker Nissan has made available two 100-percent Leaf electric cars, as well as an App Management Platform called Glide, while Enel Energia has installed two V2G charging stations at the Genoa headquarters of the Institute.

"Today, we consider a car as a battery on wheels," said Ernesto Ciorra, Enel's head of Innovation and Sustainability. "V2G can improve the electric sector's performance as well as create value for electric vehicle owners in line with Enel's vision of innovation, while contributing to improved climate conditions. In the light of our 'Open Innovation' approach, Enel has also signed an agreement with IIT for the development of innovative technologies and solutions in the field of energy efficiency, renewable sources and distributed generation – an important part of the search for new sustainable energy alternatives."

E-mobility in Denmark
Along with Nissan, Enel has launched in Denmark the first fully commercial V2G hub worldwide, at the Danish utility Frederiksberg Forsyning, which has also bought 10 Nissan e-NV200 zero emission vans and where 10 V2G chargers are installed.

Recently, 17 additional chargers have been installed across Denmark. Thanks to V2G technology, EVs can expand the range of services available to future energy management systems. When the vehicles are stationary, the car batteries inject power into the network, helping to stabilise it and offering grid balancing services to transmission system operator Energinet.dk, in return for remuneration.

Similar activities already exist in the UK, with nine V2G chargers installed at Nissan Technical Centre Europe in Cranfield and one at Newcastle University.

"We continue to fully commit to the development of intelligent mobility that is sustainable, safe and connected," said Bruno Mattucci, managing director of Nissan Italia. "In this direction, the launch in Italy of MOV-E, the first Nissan corporate electric car sharing project, has been launched by the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, one of the world's leading technological centers of excellence. This is a zero-emission mobility solution with a dedicated platform on App, capable of exchanging energy between the car and the power grid by integrating Vehicle-to-Grid technology developed by Nissan and Enel."

“Mobility and domestic consumption are two priority areas for delivering clean and efficient energy solutions," said Roberto Cingolani, IIT Scientific Director. "The development of our society can no longer ignore the rational use of energy resources, an indispensable element for human health and environmental protection."