EDF Energy announces plans to install 1,500 V2G chargers in UK
Wed 24 October 2018
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EDF Energy has announced plans to install 1,500 vehicle-to-grid chargers for its business customers in UK through a joint venture with San Diego-based Nuvve. Meanwhile, the first vehicle-to-grid trial project from the £30 million Government competition, thought to be “the largest, most diverse” project of its kind in the world, will be completed in May 2019 according to Innovate UK’s lead on the project. (Note: Resources related to this topic from the LowCVP-facilitated EV Energy Taskforce are now available - see below.)
EDF's V2G chargers will be offered to the energy supplier’s business customers as well as used at its own sites to provide up to 15MW of additional energy storage capacity.
The Innovate trial has found, however, that despite the progress that has been made in developing V2G projects, and the high levels of interest trained on the technology from utilities, flexibility providers and more, full commercialisation remains some way off.
OVO Energy’s head of electric vehicles Tom Pakenham (quoted in 'Current') who is working with project partners including Nissan to deploy 1,000 V2G chargers in UK homes to test the technology’s capabilities and develop a business model behind its use said that it is still “extremely difficult” to work up an end-to-end offer as the sector remains in the “early days” of development.
However, both he and partners Innovate were keen to recognise the potential for the technology.
Once established, Marco Landi of Innovate (quoted in 'Current') said V2G services would be able to play in the £1 billion market for flexibility while helping to offset some of the £17 billion in network upgrades expected by 2050 to integrate the rise of EVs.
Note: The LowCVP-facilitated EV Energy Taskforce (EVET) held a stakeholder launch meeting on 22 October (Resources from this are now available to download here). The Taskforce will, for the first time, bring together the energy and automotive industries to plan for the changes that will take place as a result of rising electric vehicle use, including opportunities for V2G. For more information see the EVET web page.
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