A fleet of electric car batteries would whip the plentiful energy away, then sell it back to the grid via bi-directional chargers when demand is high. If the electric car is a battery on wheels, fleets of electric vehicles work like a power plant, smoothing out jumps in supply from alternative energy sources, and in demand. It’s already in use: Ovo Energy has almost 2000 electric vehicles connected to its V2G platform.
Drivers set a minimum level of charge they want to retain at all times, and within that parameter, Ovo controls when the cars cede energy (for which drivers are paid 30p for every kWh) or charge, coinciding with the cheapest or lowest-carbon intensity energy available on the grid, depending on the customer’s selection.
EDF Energy is installing 1500 V2G chargers across the UK. Octopus Energy is trialling the tech with Nissan Leaf drivers.
“The more flexibility customers give us, the more we can trade the market on their behalf, selling back excess power to the grid, earning them money, then charging the car up overnight when it’s five times cheaper than peak day rates,” explains Stephen Fitzpatrick, Ovo’s founder.
For drivers, it means paying nothing to charge their cars, or even making a profit. For the UK’s energy infrastructure it means potentially far more. “The average electric car uses the same amount of energy as a house. If electric cars become as popular as we think they will, that will suddenly require twice as much electricity,” says Fitzpatrick.
“If electrified heating goes mainstream too and everyone comes home and puts the heating on and plugs in the cars, the peaks would blow the grid.
“Old-style thinking was, ‘we need another 20 massive fossil-fuelled power stations’, but imagine the cost just of digging up the streets of London. V2G is the start of something bigger.”
Car manufacturers are getting involved too: Chris Wright, co-founder of Moixa, is working on “smart-charging” V2G software with Japan’s Honda. Its technology “learns” drivers’ patterns of electric vehicles usage.
“Predicting how much people will drive tomorrow, and when they’ll need the car again makes the charging and energy storage seamless,” he says.
Wright says most cars are parked 95% of the time and predicts that “the vast majority of energy stored in the grid in the next 10 years will have wheels attached to it”. He also reckons the technology will soon stretch beyond cars, suggesting wireless hoovers, electric bikes, scooters, buses, delivery vans, and bin trucks could also be selling back to the grid.
There’s even potential for peer-to-peer trading, asking your neighbour for some kWh rather than sugar: last April saw the UK’s first physical trade of energy, from a block of flats whose solar panels had produced a surplus of energy, using blockchain technology.
There are flaws: car manufacturers currently use different charging protocols, so Ovo’s V2G trial, for now, is restricted to Nissan Leaf drivers. (Tesla’s Elon Musk has said he’s considering the technology.)
There are concerns about the long-term impact on electric vehicles’ batteries, too. But the energy industry remains positive.
Tom Pakenham, electric vehicles expert at energy intelligence firm Kaluza, which is owned by Ovo, predicts: “by 2030, the technology could be so cheap. The massive increase in lithium-ion battery volumes is driving prices down. That is a matter of course.
“V2G could take off much faster than anticipated. Theoretically you could see a future where every single [electric] car is a battery for the grid, with every house powered by its car — a massive, moving hyper-intelligent energy system.”
