Electric Vehicles’ Interaction with the Power Grid

Electric Vehicles’ Interaction with the Power Grid
Team: Dr Phil Coker, Dr Ben Potter, Anthony Simpson
Partner: DriveElectric (an EV leasing and smart charging services company)
Innovate UK funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership

This project explored the technical and commercial opportunities for controlled charging of an EV fleet to support stable operation of the electricity grid. Drivers’ individual circumstances will influence whether charging will tend to occur at home, at a workplace or at a public charging point and this constrains when power is drawn from the grid. Early experience with EV charging is showing something of a worst-case scenario for the power system. Many drivers connect their cars when arriving home from work and set them to charge immediately. The network challenges could be significantly mitigated by implementing controlled charging of EVs to avoid times when the power grid is at greatest strain. There are a range of incentives and mechanisms that could be introduced to achieve this, though considerable uncertainty as to which mechanisms will become widely adopted. The project helped DriveElectric to transform their business model in this area, paving the way for development of their CrowdCharge platform.