CREED Project: How electric vehicles can benefit the power grid
In the new research project CREED, nine European partners are exploring ways in which electric vehicles, heat pumps, batteries, and other flexible technologies can be intelligently integrated into the energy system. A key component of the project is the practical testing of these approaches.
Image: Virtual Vehicle (AI-generated)
The project name CREED stands for “Cross-sectoral Renewable Energy-Enabled Demand Management,” which can be translated as “Intersectoral demand management enabled by renewable energy.” This European project, led by the Austrian Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH, aims to strengthen the connection between the mobility and energy sectors, with the goal of supporting the power grid and making better use of renewable energy. The solutions developed as part of the project are intended to be demonstrated and tested at seven pilot sites in Austria, Germany, Portugal, and the Czech Republic.
The project, launched on October 1, has a duration of two and a half years and is funded with a budget of 1.29 million euros. The main goal of the project participants is to change the perception that electric vehicles or heat pumps are merely electricity consumers. Therefore, CREED aims to investigate how their energy consumption can be intelligently coordinated. “Charging an electric vehicle, for example, could potentially be shifted to a period when there is an abundance of electricity from renewable sources. Batteries can store energy for later use, while heat pumps and thermal storage systems offer additional ways to adjust the timing of electricity consumption,” states a accompanying statement.
The goal, according to the project leaders, is to make electricity demand more flexible without compromising consumers’ needs — thereby “helping distribution networks handle an increasing share of renewable energy.”
To achieve this, the CREED team combines expertise from energy, mobility, construction, and digital technology fields. For example, the researchers aim to develop forecasting methods to better predict energy generation, consumption, and available flexibility. Digital twins — virtual replicas of physical systems — are intended to model ecosystems that include electric vehicles, heat pumps, and thermal storage. The project also plans to combine various optimization approaches, including the use of AI.
The initiators also consider practical testing of the developed approaches to be a core component of CREED. The various pilot projects aim to enable researchers to “examine these approaches under different technical and regulatory conditions and assess how solutions can be transferred between countries and application areas.”
Dr. Alois Steiner, CREED project coordinator at Virtual Vehicle, comments: “The energy transition is not just about generating more electricity from renewable sources. We also need to manage it more intelligently, determining when and how to use it. Electric vehicles, heat pumps, and storage systems offer tremendous potential for flexibility. With CREED, we want to find ways to utilize this potential intelligently while keeping citizens’ needs at the center.”
In addition to Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH, based in Graz and serving as the consortium leader, CREED includes the West Bohemian University in Pilsen, SEnerCon GmbH, the Graz Energy Agency, Reduxi DACH GmbH, École Centrale Lille, the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies, and the Burgenland University.