Networks shouldn’t get ‘hysterical’ about impact of EVs on the grid

Electric vehicles (EVs) will have a significant impact on the grid but not as severe as some have speculated, industry experts have said.

The comments came from a debate hosted by energy consultancy Delta-EE on EVs and the effect they will have on European networks, specifically in the top five EV markets: UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway.

Fiona Howarth, chief executive of Octopus Electric Vehicles, said: “National Grid has forecasted up to 11 million EVs on the road by 2030. Say they are all plugged in at once – maybe between 5-7pm when people get home from work – and were all using standard 7KW chargers, that’s 77GW of demand.  That’s the equivalent of the UK’s peak electricity demand more than doubling.

“And though 11 million may sound like a lot from where we are today, this growth absolutely will happen.”

Howarth added: “There are risks and challenges, but we’re already seeing that consumers want something new – and with the right charging technology this can help us unlock a renewable economy.”

According to Delta-EE there are around 1.5 million EVs on European roads, significantly less than one per cent of all vehicles.

John Murray, principal analyst at Delta-EE, added: “Our recent research shows there are more than 500,000 home chargers spread across the top five European markets – so the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway.

“If they were all turned on at the same time, at full power, then total consumption from those devices would exceed 7.5GW, which is around 15 per cent of the UK’s peak electricity demand. So, even at this stage, you can start to see how the impact could start to swell.”

However Sytse Zuidema, chief executive of Shell-backed smart charging company NewMotion, said: “I’m not sure the impact will be as big as some think. There are certain hot spots in networks that will need strengthening to accommodate EVs at scale, but the tech is there and the operators have time to find the right model.

“We are all still learning, but in general, there is some exaggeration from those who own the networks and some underestimation from those who want to make business models out of the constraints.”

Meanwhile Dominque Lagarde, director of E-Mobility at French grid-operator Enedis, said heat will have a bigger impact on the grid in terms of peak power.

He said: “I agree that it’s important that we operators aren’t hysterical about the impact of EVs. Volumes are low today, but even with large figures it won’t rank as highly as, say, heat in terms of power peak. We must be realistic but also understand how all these demand sources interact together.

“We must also keep in mind this is a distributed phenomenon: EV usage patterns will be very different in urban areas like Paris with low car use and extensive public transport, versus towns and rural environments. It is not one size fits all and the advantage we have as a DSO, as opposed to a transmission system operator (TSO), is that we have great visibility at that level.”

Further discussions centred on the importance of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies in balancing the grid. V2G allows EV owners to sell electricity in their battery back to the grid at times of high demand.

Zuidema said his company prefers vehicle-to-everything, or V2X, because there are many possibilities.

He added: “For example, in Japan, there is a trend for vehicle-to-home where the EV battery can be used to power the home when prices are high and charge itself when they are low. No doubt new models will emerge too, hence V2X. We have completed several pilots with this technology already, for example with Mitsubishi and grid operator TenneT. Together we tested the implementation of our bi-directional chargers in order to understand how electricity can be better balanced and redistributed into the network.”

Zuidema added that one-directional smart charging is “underestimated” and is a “tremendously powerful technology itself and probably enough to manage any EV-grid challenges for the next five years”.

Meanwhile Fiona Howarth praised the UK market as unique which stands out for two reasons.

“One, the UK was one of the first markets to deregulate, so there is a healthy competition among suppliers, some of whom take a very tech-orientated approach in order to differentiate themselves.

“Two, the UK has separated the DSO and the energy retailer, where a lot of countries still maintain the integrated monopoly approach, which might lower incentives a little on pricing or solving these problems. It’s encouraging – the UK really could be a green tech leader and exporter on this front.”