On September 10, Hyundai Motor·Kia, LG Energy Solution, and three other companies announced that they would begin a demonstration of an ESS based on used electric-vehicle batteries in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.
The project will determine whether batteries recovered from vehicles can be reused as storage devices that supply power to fast chargers instead of being discarded immediately.
How much the facility will actually reduce power costs remains a subject of verification, not an established result.
3-Line Summary
1. LG Energy Solution will handle UBESS production.
2. The demonstration facility in Hwaseong has a capacity of 200kWh.
3. The project will verify safety and operation, not savings.
How Used Batteries Are Connected to Fast Chargers
Hyundai Motor·Kia, LG Energy Solution, Hyundai Engineering, and Wonik PNE held an event titled “EV Used Battery-Based UBESS Demonstration Cooperation” at Wonik PNE’s Dongtan facility in Hwaseong and announced their plans to pursue the project. UBESS is a system that reuses used batteries recovered from electric vehicles as an energy storage system (ESS).
The facility will use used battery packs from vehicles based on E-GMP, Hyundai Motor·Kia’s dedicated electric-vehicle platform. The key is to operate a UBESS built at a scale of 200kWh in conjunction with electric-vehicle fast chargers. Hyundai Motor·Kia described this as Korea’s first case using used E-GMP batteries.
The system uses differences in electricity rates by time of day. It stores electricity in the UBESS during periods when electricity rates are low, then supplies that power to fast chargers during periods when rates are high to charge electric vehicles. The structure examines not only whether the batteries can be reused, but also whether they can be used in a charging-station operating environment.
LG Energy Solution to Support Production and Performance·Safety Verification
LG Energy Solution will produce the UBESS using used battery packs provided by Hyundai Motor·Kia and support verification of the system’s performance and safety based on its battery diagnostics and operation technologies.
The participating companies have separate roles. Hyundai Motor·Kia will pursue verification of used-battery utilization technologies and the development of business models, while Hyundai Engineering will review project feasibility and connections with existing electric-vehicle charging-infrastructure deployment projects based on its experience operating charging infrastructure. Wonik PNE will handle operation of the demonstration facility and technology verification.
The subjects of verification include charge·discharge control algorithms, system safety and reliability, battery performance-retention characteristics, charging-service quality, and operational efficiency. The important point here is that the companies have presented a demonstration plan and verification items. The commercialization timeline, the scale of facilities to be expanded, and the number of charging stations to which the system will be applied have not been disclosed.
What Has Not Been Disclosed Is the Amount of Electricity-Cost Savings
The demonstration will test a structure that stores electricity during inexpensive periods and uses it during peak periods, but it did not present specific economic figures such as the expected reduction in electricity costs or the peak-power reduction rate. Therefore, it is difficult to immediately regard this project as a case in which cost-saving effects have been confirmed.
Even so, the broad scope of the verification is worth noting. The project will jointly examine in an actual environment whether used batteries operate stably outside vehicles, whether charging-service quality can be maintained, and whether facility operating efficiency can be secured. LG Energy Solution’s role also extends beyond supplying battery packs to include UBESS production and support for diagnostics, performance, and safety verification.
References
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