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The role of vehicle-to-grid technology in a new era of mobile energy flexibility
Transport accounts for 23% of the UK’s CO2 emissions - more than any other sector - putting it on the frontline of efforts to meet our net-zero target.
One of the greatest challenges will be the transition from combustion engines to electric vehicles. A seismic change will be required to transform, in a few short years, how we buy and use vehicles for public, private and commercial transport.
Electric vehicles are now entering the mainstream, and their rise is set to accelerate as rules to reduce air pollution and cut greenhouse gases are introduced at local, national and international levels. Carmakers are responding by increasing the number of EVs on the production line. Most recently, Volkswagen - the largest carmaker in Europe - announced a plan to produce 22 million EVs over the next decade (its previous goal was 15 million). But supplying vehicles isn’t the only issue.
A sizeable fleet of EVs, though welcome, poses a challenge for the network and system operators that are responsible for balancing the grid and supporting its projected growth. Replacing every vehicle in the UK with an EV would put perhaps impossible pressure on the grid.
So it’s good news that EVs might also represent part of the solution. Discussions are underway about how the ecosystem that supports EVs - including drivers, aggregators and charging points - can help to reduce constraints on the network and be a fighting spear for grid operators. Not only that, but advocates of flexibility services like Vehicle-to-Grid technology, in which energy stored in EVs can be fed back into the grid, and smart chargers, that can shift demand away from peaks, are exploring how owners of EVs can benefit from their role in the energy storage network, save money and even unlock additional revenue streams by being part of innovations in flexible energy.
Kaluza’s Project Sciurus is one initiative which plans to connect 1,000 V2G units, at no cost to customers, to validate the technical and commercial potential for a domestic V2G charging solution. The project hopes to prove that V2G is capable of providing flexibility services to electricity networks and bring added benefits to the device owner.
Another project is Electric Nation, led by Western Power Distribution. When it launched, it was the world’s largest home smart charging pilot with nearly 700 EV owners taking part in the 18-month trial. At its conclusion, the project was able to provide evidence that smart charging of EVs has the potential to move demand away from peak hours and enable the rapid decarbonisation of the transport sector through vehicle electrification.
Electric Nation was also able to build a greater understanding of how vehicle usage affects charging behaviour - depending on the charging rate and battery size - and evaluate the role of apps and EV-specific electricity tariffs to enable and incentivise drivers to participate in efforts to manage the grid.
These are just two of several projects that have set out to prove the viability of V2G technology to maximise efficient energy usage, save money, and cut carbon emissions. The technology exists but it faces roadblocks. And since V2G is only likely to be effective for managing the grid when it’s available at scale, it requires investment and policy to enable its future.
In the UK, initiatives such as the Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (featured in The Road to Zero report) hopes to stimulate the rollout of EV charging infrastructure. Meanwhile, the requirement that chargepoints are ‘smart ready’ has the potential to catalyse the growth of smart chargers and in the future, perhaps V2G technology too.
As with many of the challenges we face in reaching net-zero, the route to success is complex requiring joined-up thinking and strategic initiatives. We believe that the combined forces of policy-makers, DNOs and independent marketplaces such as Piclo will help to achieve the electrification of our roads sooner, by providing solutions to every step.