Nissan has helped reach an important milestone on the road towards emission-free energy and mobility in Germany.

With an innovative charging and energy management solution, the project partners – technology company The Mobility House, energy supplier ENERVIE and transmission system operator Amprion – have qualified the Nissan LEAF for the regulatory requirements needed for primary power regulation. This means that the LEAF can be used as a reserve for the German electricity grid – a breakthrough in establishing Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology in Germany.

“We strongly believe in an emission-free future,” said Guillaume Pelletreau, vice president and managing director, Nissan Center Europe. “Accordingly, we are also very proud that the Nissan LEAF has, as the first electric car ever, been approved as suitable for stabilizing grid frequencies. LEAF batteries could make an important contribution to energy transition in Germany and a sustainable future.”

New and innovative solutions for stabilizing the electricity grid are necessary to transition to decentralized energy generation from renewable sources in Germany. The increasing use of renewable energy leads to fluctuations in the grid, which must be initially balanced by primary regulation, able to prevent impending power cuts at a second’s notice.

Electric cars such as the Nissan LEAF, with integrated bidirectional charging technology, could play an important part in stabilizing the electricity grid. With its CHAdeMO charging connector, the LEAF is able not only to extract power from the grid and store it in its traction battery, but, if necessary, can also feed power back. This is the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) concept.

The bidirectional chargeability of Nissan’s electric car is the foundation for its integration in the pilot project at the ENERVIE site in Hagen, Germany. In combination with innovative, intelligent charging and energy management technology from The Mobility House, the charging and discharging processes can be controlled and monitored.

“We are pleased that Mobility House technology has been approved by the TSO for the most challenging and important product of the German power supply system,” said Thomas Raffeiner, CEO and founder of The Mobility House (TMH).