Project coordinator Jan Jeriha from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering University of Ljubljana presented the results of the STREAM project at a workshop of the E8 partnership. E8 is an initiative launched by ELES and developed within CER, connecting energy and mobility into a working smart EV charging ecosystem. The workshop gathered grid operators, aggregators, energy service providers, charge point operators and fleet owners.
The starting point matched the core idea of E8: new loads, from the electrification of mobility to AI data centres, are growing faster than the grid can be built, and no single actor can solve this alone. Flexibility offers a way out, since it uses existing, unused grid capacity instead of costly reinforcement.
At the centre was the Slovenian pilot in Ajdovščina. There, STREAM built and tested the entire flexibility chain, from the resource through the aggregator and the local market to the distribution system operator, in a project environment. Jan Jeriha highlighted a key lesson: without a complete digital model of the grid and timely data, real-time adjustment is not possible.
Particular attention went to the opportunities for flexibility resource owners, where E8 creates value: individual investments in vehicles and charging infrastructure become part of a wider, connected system. For owners of electric vehicles, commercial fleets and charging infrastructure, flexibility means additional revenue through profit sharing with the aggregator, lower charging costs and the ability to connect more devices to an existing connection without reinforcing the grid. Others benefit too: the distribution system operator defers expensive investment, and the aggregator’s model becomes viable at a sufficient scale of pooled resources.