Consortium to drive major UK vehicle-to-grid trial for EVs

A new consortium has been launched to develop the first large-scale UK domestic trial of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging technology for drivers of electric vehicles (EV).

The £7 million Octopus V2G project from Octopus Energy, Octopus Electric Vehicles, UK Power Networks, ChargePoint Services, Open Energi, Energy Saving Trust and Navigant has been granted £3 million of government funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles, and is backed by Innovate UK.

The smart technology trial is set to be rolled out this year and will see 135 vehicle-to-grid chargers installed in a ‘cluster’ to see how much spare capacity from car batteries can be collected – not only potentially boosting resilience and flexibility for the network during peak demand but also giving customers the chance to sell and earn money on the energy.

The scheme aims to help identify consumer behaviour and preferences, key data on demand times and flexibility, help establish future infrastructure needs and plan for charging models and packages to suit everyone in the market.

Fiona Howarth, CEO, of Octopus Electric Vehicles said: “There has been a lot of talk from the side-lines about how vehicle-to-grid technology will change the face of energy, but with this consortium we will be the first in the UK to actually deliver it to hundreds of households.”

By 2040, the government will ban the sale of all new diesel and petrol cars and vans, with EV, paving the way for electricity to play a key role in future and cheaper transport, grid flexibility, energy to homeowners and faster decarbonisation.

Ian Cameron, head of innovation at UK Power Networks, added: “Electric vehicles are effectively energy sources on wheels.

“In the future you could use your car battery to power your house or earn money by selling its spare energy back into the network at peak times, and all of this whilst ensuring you have enough energy for your next day’s commute.”

UK Power Networks won £11m of government funding for four EV demonstration projects as part of a series of Vehicle to Grid (V2G) innovation bids. They currently have more than 30,000 EVs connected to their networks and by 2030 expect that to increase.

The four V2G projects are:

·       Bus2Grid: Supporting a project to turn a 30-bus garage into the first of its kind in the UK Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) bus garage

·       e4Future: trial on 1,000 V2G fleet vehicles

·       Octopus PowerLoop: Domestic customer V2G trial involving customers in specific areas

·       V2Street: Public charging networks with a local authority and charge point provider. Targeted at the 60-70% of Londoners without off-street charging capability