electric/hybrid

Largest electric vehicle project in the world now underway in the UK

CarConnect, a pioneering project to help the electricity industry better understand how plug-in electric vehicles (PIVs) charge at home in harmony with the electricity grid, is now underway in the UK
Largest electric vehicle project in the world now underway in the UK

Electric and plug-in hybrid cars are becoming a practical choice for drivers, with the variety of makes and models available on the market continuing to increase. In the last two years alone, the UK has seen a 716 percent increase in PIV registrations and PIVs and hybrids are set to become commonplace with increases in battery size and charger rating. By the early 2020s there could be as many as one million ultra-low emission plug-in-vehicles on UK roads, which is great news for the environment and for air quality.

Clusters of PIVs will also have an impact on local electricity networks and this needs to be managed. Analysis from the My Electric Avenue project shows that by 2050 the electricity industry in Great Britain may have to invest an additional £2.2 billion to upgrade electricity supply infrastructure to customer premises as a result of the demand for plug-in vehicles. This investment needs to begin in earnest from the early 2020s as these vehicles become more popular.

CarConnect is hosted by Western Power Distribution (WPD) and the distribution network operator (DNO) and is delivered by EA Technology, Drive Electric and Lucy Electric Gridkey. TRL will take on a project oversight role, on behalf of WPD. The project will be funded through the Network Innovation Allowance and its aim is to find solutions that could avoid the need to replace electricity substations and cables to customers’ homes and workplaces, saving significant cost and disruption to customers.

The project will run for three and a half years. It will develop and deliver an electricity modelling tool that will enable WPD to identify which parts of their network are susceptiable to plug-in vehicle loads and to assess solutions to avoid network reinforcement works. It will also develop a method for monitoring the effect of plug-in vehicles on low voltage networks that will inform the network modelling tool development. Finally, it will recruit and manage a mass-market customer trial to prove the technical and economic viability of plug-in vehicle/vehicle-to-grid (V2G) demand control in order to avoid or defer network reinforcement.

CarConnect is set to be the largest PIV project in the world and will work with up to 700 EV drivers in its trials to ensure that these systems are acceptable.

“Distributing all the energy required for plug-in-vehicles would significantly alter how our network operates” said Roger Hey, Western Power Distribution’s Future Networks Manager.  “CarConnect will provide us with the tools to model, monitor and act to minimise the impact of growing plug-in-vehicle electricity demand on customers’ bills.”

Dave A Roberts, Smart Interventions Director at EA Technology, added that there is a great deal of talk about vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology and if market conditions allow, the CarConnect project will offer the trial platform for this technology as well. The project could evaluate the benefits that V2G chargers in customer’s homes might bring to distribution network operators (DNOs) in reducing the need to invest in further networks.

According to Denis Naberezhnykh, Head of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles at TRL, DNOs need to start considering how plug-in vehicles and charging infrastructure can be an active part of their network and be managed intelligently in order to minimise potential adverse impacts on the network.

CarConnect will develop and investigate whether PIV demand control services, that can reduce stop or even reverse charging at certain times of day, can be delivered in a way that meets drivers’ needs for charge for journeys, sharing charge constraints out amongst a wide group of customers and using vehicle-to-grid systems to help in balancing supply and demand.

For additional information:

Western Power Distribution (WPD)

EA Technology

Drive Electric

Gridkey

C
PIV are only good for the environment id the electricity used to charge their batteries comes from 100% renewable sources. PIV still have tyres, brakes and other wear parts which release carbon into their immediate environment.
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