EDF Edison RD&TI

[This animated film presents the Edison RD&TI R&D centre in Italy and its technology scouting, testing and support activities aimed at accelerating the energy transition. From smart homes to electric mobility, hydrogen, energy storage and smart cities, its teams are developing tomorrow’s technologies to serve customers, territories and the climate.]

EDF R&D Centre – EDF EDISON RD&TI

Our missions

• Technology scouting
• Studies and experimental testing of innovative technologies
• Operational support for business units

So that Edison and the EDF Group can be among the first to adopt the most innovative technologies for the energy transition.

Our activities

Smart Homes & IoT
To provide comfort and energy efficiency services, while improving self-consumption rates for residential customers.

Robotics
To provide robotic assistance and inspection services, improving the efficiency and safety of repetitive or challenging tasks.

Advanced Photovoltaics
To develop innovative photovoltaic technologies to improve energy production and reduce environmental impact.

Energy Storage
To identify the most promising technologies to support the development of renewable energy generation.

Electric Mobility
To study the technical feasibility and profitability of V2X in a laboratory environment, by simulating real-life and future use cases.

Hydrogen and Decarbonisation
To support the business with innovative technologies to decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial processes and heavy-duty transport.

Smart Cities 
To support cities and territories in adopting sustainable solutions that put people and the environment at the heart of their development.

Edison RD&TI works closely with the other EDF Group R&D sites in France and around the world.  

[This report presents the work carried out by Edison, DREEV (an EDF subsidiary) and Politecnico di Torino to test, simulate and optimise a promising technology: Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), which can feed energy back into the grid and support the energy transition. It features Pablo Tosco (Electric Mobility Manager), Marco Zampolli (specialist in electric vehicle charging system testing), Ettore Bompard (Professor of Electrical Energy Systems), Enrico Pons (Associate Professor of Electrical Energy Systems) and Eugenio Casotti (Electric Mobility Project Manager).]

Vehicle-to-Grid: a revolution in charging for electric mobility

Vehicle-to-Grid turns electric vehicle users into active participants in the electricity grid.

Pablo Tosco: With this system, electric vehicles not only receive energy from the grid, but can also feed it back into the grid by selling the energy stored in their batteries during peak periods, when energy demand is particularly high.

In this way, V2G can help make the electricity system more efficient and flexible. Edison is closely following this new electric mobility paradigm and here, at the Officine Edison in Turin, we are working on a project in collaboration with Politecnico di Torino to explore how to optimise the use of vehicle batteries to provide services to the electricity grid.

The objective is to acquire advanced technical expertise that could become a competitive advantage when technological, legislative and regulatory developments allow charging infrastructure to be fully integrated into electricity grids.

At the heart of V2G technology is a key component: the bidirectional charger.

Marco Zampolli: It is a device equipped with an internal inverter capable of converting the direct current from the vehicle’s battery into alternating current to feed it back into the electricity grid, and vice versa.

Here we have an ABB charging station, an 11 kW three-phase charger. It is a product selected by DREEV, the EDF subsidiary that develops and markets smart charging services. This charger uses the CHAdeMO communication standard.

This communication standard was developed in Japan and is currently the only one capable of managing bidirectional energy flows. Unfortunately, few products and vehicles support V2G technology. Among them is the Nissan Leaf, which we use for our laboratory tests.

Standardisation itself is one of the main obstacles to the large-scale deployment of Vehicle-to-Grid. However, open protocols are being developed for communication and data exchange between vehicles, charging systems and the electricity grid.

Ettore Bompard: For this research project, we used an innovative technique known as real-time simulation with Power Hardware-in-the-Loop. This means combining a virtual reality, namely a model of the electricity grid recreated in the real-time simulator, with a physical reality, namely the electric vehicle and its charging station, which are connected via a power amplifier inside the simulator.

The hardware therefore becomes part of the simulation and behaves as if it were connected to the real grid, whereas in reality it is connected to its virtual model, communicating exactly as it would in a real-world environment and thereby enabling the analysis of highly realistic experiments.

Enrico Pons: To assess the interaction between bidirectional charging systems and the electricity grid, we developed a model reproducing part of the medium- and low-voltage distribution network, right through to the charging sockets inside the car park.

This model was run on the real-time simulator, and the actual charging stations you have just seen were connected to the simulation via a power amplifier. This made it possible to assess voltage drops and losses on the network when the systems are charging or discharging.

Another interesting aspect that was studied was power quality. Indeed, current harmonics can tend to accumulate to the point where they become critical for the system, particularly when charging systems are installed very close to one another.

These aspects are very important and must be taken into consideration when designing the electrical system for charging stations, so that they operate correctly and are economically viable.

Eugenio Casotti: The pillars of Edison’s electric mobility strategy focus on innovative and smart charging methods, particularly the Vehicle-to-Grid paradigm. This technology enables significant interaction between electric vehicles and electricity grids, making new business models and services possible, in which energy suppliers such as Edison will play an increasingly important role.

We are somewhat behind other countries, but in the coming years, Vehicle-to-Grid will also move out of the laboratories here and lead to new commercial offerings that we will be able to provide to our customers.

It is not always easy to anticipate the future, but I am sure that we will also be pioneers of innovation in the field of electric mobility.

Researchers from here and elsewhere travels to Italy to meet Giulia Todesco, who is part of the R&D department and the Smart Home, Internet of Things and Robotics team at Edison.

Giulia Todesco: Hello everyone, I’m Giulia Todesco and this is the Officine Edison. I’m part of the R&D department and the Smart Home, Internet of Things and Robotics team. Let’s take a tour of the site!

The Axiom

Question: How did you get to where you are today?

Giulia Todesco: This is Politecnico di Milano. This is where I studied. I obtained my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and my master’s degree in automation and control engineering here. Then, thanks to my thesis, I had the opportunity to join a start-up incubator. I then worked in the automotive sector, for a major braking systems company. And since 2021, I have been working here at Edison.

I’m part of the Smart Home, Internet of Things and Robotics team, whose mission is to develop innovations quickly and address technological challenges.

The Centre

Question: Can you describe it and explain its missions?

Giulia Todesco: It’s essentially an innovation centre for Edison, EDF’s Italian subsidiary. Its primary mission is to bring together people with the mindset and skills needed to deploy innovative projects quickly.

This is the Domus laboratory. Yes, it looks like a typical kitchen. And that is actually one of the purposes of this space. It may not be immediately obvious, but we work with many technology companies to develop our innovative projects.

The Alchemy

Question: How does this alchemy manifest itself within your team?

Giulia Todesco: There are 25 of us. I work with 4 or 5 people in R&D. The others work in another department: Digital Projects.

I also collaborate with the R&D team at our offices in Turin, the Officine Torino, and with other colleagues at the company’s headquarters, right in the heart of Milan.

We work using agile methods. For example, we developed an application for a home energy management system that allows households to manage their energy flows and optimise their consumption.

Collaborative working was crucial to the success of this project. Together, we grew in confidence. We built a real connection. For example, we shared family moments together.

I think there’s a really great atmosphere here.

The Spark

Question: What do you like most about your work?

Giulia Todesco: One of the things I enjoy most about my job is interacting with others: my colleagues, our academic partners and our technical service providers. Thanks to them