‘Vehicle to grid’ trial aims for 1000 installations

Up to 1000 ‘vehicle to grid’ (V2G) installations will be used to demonstrate how fleet operators can interact with the electricity grid, with £9.8 million in funding from the  Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Private owners and businesses with large EV fleets will be able to create mobile energy hubs by integrating their vehicles into the grid. Connecting to the grid to charge the battery during low-demand, cheap tariff periods, drivers can use the electricity stored in the vehicle’s battery to feed back to the grid which could generate additional revenue for the EV owner.

The project will use 1000 V2G installations that will evaluate a commercial offer to electric vehicle fleet customers. The chargers will be controlled by an aggregator and data will be collected to understand the technical characteristics of vehicle to grid charging for both the vehicles and the electricity networks.

The consortium includes Nissan, V2G infrastructure/aggregator provider Nuvve, National Grid, DNOs UK Power Networks and Northern Powergrid, and activities will be supported by Newcastle University and Imperial College London.

 Myriam Neaimeh, Newcastle University’s project lead, said the announcement would be “a real game changer as we move towards decarbonising the grid. This will be the first, large scale demonstration of vehicle to grid technology anywhere in the world.

“Using these V2G chargers that allow bi-directional power flows, customers could offer their EVs to support a reliable and cost-effective operation of the power system in exchange for lower bills.”

Francisco Carranza, managing director of Nissan Energy at Nissan Europe said: “We now look at our cars as so much more than products which simply move people from A to B – they are an intrinsic part of the way we consume, share, and generate energy. This will have a fundamental impact on the shift from fossil fuels to renewables.

“Our EVs can be plugged into the grid and support the transmission and distribution companies in making the UK grid more sustainable and more stable.”

The project is part of a £30 million investment from BEIS – working with the Office for Low Emission Vehicles and Innovate UK – to fund projects that investigate new business models, consumer awareness and technologies that support interaction between electric vehicles and the grid.

Further reading

OPINION: Legislating for a future with electric vehicles

OPINION: Electric vehicles’ next big step is off-grid

Range anxiety? It will be the making of electric vehicles

Electric vehicles: ‘perfect storm’ could see consumer boom

The New Power Interview: Tim Payne from InstaVolt tells New Power that government projections that there will be two million electric cars on the road by 2020 are understated.

Uber EV trial identifies barriers to electric private hire fleets

WPD wants electric and hybrid vehicle users for UK’s biggest trials

Ovo and Ubitricity to create 50 lamp post EV charging points in Kensington and Chelsea

The gas, electricity, transport balancing act: ITM Power chief executive Graham Cooley spoke to Janet Wood about using the gas and transport fuel networks to help balance the power system.

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