Vehicle to Grid in Utrecht: Integrating Electric Vehicles into the Energy System of Utrecht

Abstract

This research concerns exploring vehicle to grid (V2G) charging in Utrecht. There are several challenges ahead in the field of energy infrastructure, mobility, energy stability and global warming. V2G could be seen as part of the solution to relieve the stress on these subjects. V2G requires special charging stations, participating electric vehicles and when organized correctly, it would resolve in a series of benefits. But if the municipality of Utrecht would be installing V2G charging stations in the near future, where would they be placed? To find an answer to this problem, this research made use of different methods. An extensive literature review was conducted to understand what V2G is. Next to that a spatial data research was conducted using an MCA as method. This resulted in the allocation of V2G charging stations over 90 selected residential neighborhoods in Utrecht. Implementing V2G requires a series of preconditions which need to be met, of which the most crucial one, apart from the availability of V2G charging stations, are in place. The dispersion of these stations throughout largely followed the pattern of the inhabitants of the city for the three future scenarios in 2025, 2030 and 2035. However, the “Vogelaar”-neighborhoods which are already disadvantaged neighborhoods show lower numbers. These are important implications for further research. Questions which arise relate to adding weights to the selected socio-economic variables, or to investigate how policy of governments or businesses play a role in stimulating V2G.