What Is an Aggregator in Trade-EVs II?

With the increasing market penetration of newly-electrified components, such as electric vehicles, the provision of flexibility in the power grid and its aggregation is gaining importance. Currently, no uniform understanding of the function of an aggregator exists, resulting in different definitions. In the project Trade-EVs II (“Trade of Renewable, Aggregated and Distributed Energy by Electric Vehicles”), the project partners Forschungsstelle für Energiewirtschaft (FfE), Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS), SAP, and Nextmove aggregate electric vehicle fleets and market them in a price-optimized way to reduce the operating expenses of electric vehicles. As the role of the aggregator plays a central role in the project, a consistent understanding by all project partners is required.

Previous literature defines the aggregator in different ways (see [1], [2], [3], and [4]). These definitions differ mainly in terms of the actors executing the aggregator role and the market area in which the aggregator is active. A general definition was established from the existing definitions:

In the Trade-EVs II project, the electricity supplier Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS), the balancing group manager and virtual power plant operator, and the data processing company Coneva carry the role of the aggregator. Coneva alone is referred to as a “data aggregator” – based on the data provider role defined in the BDEW’s model of roles for market communication in the German energy market [5].

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