A new trial of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging technology has successfully demonstrated that electric vehicles (EVs) can provide grid support in real time.
This is the first time that vehicle-to-grid technology has been demonstrated in Great Britain to show that EVs can receive a direct signal from National Grid ESO to support system balancing.
It marks a major turning point in electricity supply and means that in the future, consumers could play a direct role in balancing the national transmission system through their electric vehicles.
A series of trials by Octopus Energy Group and National Grid ESO demonstrated the potential benefit of V2G charging and found an hour of a million EVs exporting to the grid could generate the same amount of power as 5,500 onshore wind turbines.
Jake Rigg, corporate affairs director at National Grid ESO, said: “Vehicle-to-grid technology opens the door for everyone to engage in our electricity system, in a way that we can all benefit from.
“The next steps for us are to take these learnings and work with industry on how we develop and deploy a balancing mechanism service for V2G.
“The trial findings will also influence future innovation projects, including the CrowdFlex project we are currently developing with industry, to establish additional routes for consumer engagement in electricity networks.”
Separate analysis from Octopus Energy’s electric vehicles arm shows that if the trial results were extrapolated across a whole year, the EVs could realise a profit of around £62 million per year, while also saving non-participating customers money through grid balancing cost reductions.
When a service is up and running, consumers could save cash off their energy bills as the BM incentivises the use of their car battery as a balancing device, contributing to reduced balancing costs across the network, which will help to reduce bills for all energy consumers.
Claire Miller, director of Technology and Innovation at Octopus Electric Vehicles, added: “This is a real ‘line in the sand’ moment for V2G tech. We have shown that this technology is capable of helping to balance our future, green grid, to the benefit of people and the planet.
“We’ve proved what is possible with the technology and cars that are currently on the market, and this is only going to grow.
Soon we will have millions of electric cars sitting on driveways capable of storing and exporting green energy back to the grid when it needs it most - and once the vehicle to grid proposition is ready to be launched, these cars will help to support our renewables expansion and taking us a huge step closer to net zero.”
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Matt has been an automotive journalist for eight years. As senior staff writer he is responsible for the automotive content on Fleet News and also contributes to Automotive Management. Prior to this, Matt worked in the automotive industry for 10 years.
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