Maximising Grid Services from Electric Vehicles (M-GSEV)

About the project

The M-GSEV project focused on developing ev.energy’s electric vehicle charging platform into a solution which enables households to provide charging and flexibility services to the grid, with potential benefits both for consumers and the grid itself.

ev.energy has been able to demonstrate that EVs can act as a ‘virtual power plant,’ providing substantial and reliable demand response, typically reducing peak EV load by 80%. 

Project aims and approach

Watch a description of this project from ev.energy, starting at 10:46 minutes in this programme webinar from 2021:

The mass transition to low-carbon vehicles is vital for net zero. National Grid has predicted  that there will be 11 million electric vehicles (EVs) in the UK by 2030, and 36 million by 2040.  This will cause significant disruption to distribution networks if charging is left unmanaged, requiring 32% of low-voltage networks across the UK to be upgraded once 40% of customer have EVs. To avoid this, effective managed charging solutions are essential.

ev.energy already had a platform which manages EV charging across the grid by optimising charging times and loads, saving owners money by using off-peak tariffs and reducing grid congestion.

The M-GSEV project worked on developing this into a solution through which households can provide charging and flexibility services to the grid, including ‘gamification’ principles. The team developed a range of features and tested them across the UK, working with National Grid and UK Power Networks to measure benefits to the grid and to consumers.

Project elements included increasing consumer participation in grid services; integrating the system with EV charging points; and scaling up capability to help create a large-scale ‘virtual power plant’ made up of EVs.

Partners

• ev.energy (lead)
• GenGame

Dates

April 2020 – September 2022 

Achievements and barriers

The team successfully integrated ev.energy’s app with different manufacturers’ chargers, developed a dashboard for businesses to enable managing multiple chargers, and designed monitoring, control and reporting processes.

ev.energy has been able to demonstrate that EVs can provide substantial and reliable demand response, typically reducing peak EV load by 80%.

After testing, piloting and signing commercial contracts for the technology, a project extension allowed it to move towards wider rollout.

Next steps

Further developments include adapting the dashboard produced by the project to cater for shared chargers in multi-unit dwellings or office car parks, and to provide a charging management solution for operators of fleets of electric vehicles.

Informed by the findings of the M-GSEV project, ev.energy took part in Project Shift, the world’s largest smart charging trial for providing grid services from EVs. The results of the innovation project directly influenced the flexibility rules of the DSO leading the trial.