My Electric Avenue announces first 'street of the future' in Marlow, others to follow
Thu 10 April 2014
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Nine neighbours in a street in Marlow are receiving delivery of electric Nissan Leafs under the innovative 'My Electric Avenue' project. The first 'street of the future' will enable the recipients to use their vehicles over 18 months in order to test a new technology that will monitor and control the electricity demand from charging electric cars.
The project, which is led by EA Technology and hosted by Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSEPD) is focusing on how best to manage the network when a large number of Electric Vehicles (EVs) charge in the same street at the same time. It is also the first trial that directly controls domestic EV charging to prevent underground cables, overhead lines and substations being overloaded. The project aims to prove a solution that would avoid the need to dig up the roads to install higher capacity electric cables.
My Electric Avenue set out around a year ago to recruit groups of neighbours on the same street in ten different locations – including some workplace-based clusters - to drive electric cars as part of its Ofgem-supported trial.
Marlow is the first of eleven ‘clusters’ around Britain that are currently receiving deliveries of Nissan LEAFs, charging points, and equipment that monitors and controls charging. The other ‘residential clusters’ are in Chineham, Chiswick, Lyndhurst, South Gosforth and Wylam, with two more based in South Shields. In addition there are two ‘workplace-based clusters’: Slough Borough Council and Your Homes Newcastle.
The project has exceeded Ofgem’s recruitment and customer engagement targets, by achieving 111 signed lease contracts overall in the technical trials when 100 were required; recruiting 8 clusters with 10 people in each when 7 clusters of 10 were required; and recruiting 11 clusters overall in the technical trials when 10 clusters in total were required.
A key reason for the recruitment for the trials being so successful is due to ‘cluster champions’ in local communities taking up the challenge of recruiting their neighbours through leaflet dropping, door knocking, and even holding community coffee mornings to drum up support.
Although the Technical trials are now fully subscribed, My Electric Avenue’s Social trials are still open for business. The Social trials are designed to complement the information gathered during the Technical trials and participants can lease a new 100% electric Nissan LEAF at a specially negotiated rate for 18 months. Applicants can be individuals or groups and there’s no requirement to have any technology installed in the home. Spaces in the Social trials are limited and so the cars will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. More information is available on the website.
The communication for the My Electric Avenue project has been directed by LowCVP member Automotive Comms, one of the leading UK specialists in communication about low emission vehicles. The company also runs the website GreenCarGuide.co.uk.
Note: Paul Clarke of Automotive Comms will be giving a short presentation to members on the progress of My Electric Avenue to the LowCVP's Passenger Car Working Group on 1 May.
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