Episode 59
Episode 59 – How AI and Smart Charging Unlock EV Flexibility Revenue for CPOs – with VUB
Mobility First, Flexibility Second
For most of their history, the energy sector and the mobility sector evolved separately. Electrification has now pushed them together, and the charging site is where they meet. Every connected EV is both a vehicle with a trip to make and a flexible load the grid could use, which creates new challenges and a real revenue opportunity for charge point operators.
The timing matters. Imbalance prices swing sharply in both directions, European balancing markets are becoming more unified, and grid constraints are pushing more sites towards co-located batteries. Yet even the basics are underused: smart charging that can cut charging costs by up to 50% is still not the default on most networks.
Christophe Lephilibert speaks with Cedric De Cauwer, professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and researcher at MOBI, one of Europe's longest-standing electromobility research centres. Cedric brings more than a decade of research on EV range, grid integration and flexibility, including recent work applying reinforcement learning to EV charging in the Belgian imbalance market and a new three-year project on coordinating tens of thousands of EVs at once.
The result is a research-grounded view of where EV flexibility revenue really comes from, and why the smartest path starts with the mobility need rather than the energy market.
What You Will Learn in This Episode
Cedric shares what his research reveals about turning charging sites into grid-aware, revenue-generating assets:
- How reinforcement learning can exploit imbalance prices, and why his simulations even reached negative charging costs
- Why the driver is the biggest variable in EV flexibility, and how ease of use and education matter as much as financial incentives
- Why co-located batteries rarely pay off on a single use case, and what value stacking actually requires
- Why aFRR is lucrative but especially difficult for EVs, compared with stationary batteries
- Which use cases, like long-term airport parking and truck depots, make flexibility far more predictable
- Why smart charging, peak shaving and self-consumption remain the low-hanging fruit CPOs should scale now
Expert Insight
"If you just look at the EV as an energy asset, it's a very expensive asset. But if you look at the EV as a mobility asset that has a huge potential for increased revenues as an energy asset, that's really where you can make the difference."
- Cedric De Cauwer, Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
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