In the coming years electric commercial vehicles market will grow in the world and in Brazil. Electric vehicle (EVs), beyond representing a way to reduce air pollution, could become providers of innovative additional services by an improved interaction between vehicles, communication systems and power grids in a smart grid architecture.
Smart grid can enable EV-charging (grid-to-vehicle, or G2V), with load shifting from off-peak periods, flattening the daily load curve and allowing vehicles to grid operations (or V2G), with EVs being used as distributed generation and storage devices.
Advanced metering and bi-directional battery chargers, like interface equipment between the grid and the vehicles, are essential components, enabling a two-way flow of information and power.
However, there are a number of technical, practical and economic barriers that must be taken into account during product development process. Close and cooperative relationships between the R&D departments of Electricity Suppliers and the Cars, Trucks and Buses manufacturers will be the key for the success.
In this paper, Sete Lagoas City of Future project, involving CEMIG, IVECO Latin America, FIAT Automoveis S.A. and Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais - PUC MG is presented and a discussion on some of the project issues is made. Mains targets of this project are to develop and design a pilot plant to enable EVs operations in V2G and G2V mode, and a methodology to analyze the impacts due to EVs connection to the electric distribution grid.