Tag: SilicInny Valley

AC Vehicle-to-Grid Technology Arrives in the United Kingdom

Here is the moment that Robin Berg of “We Drive Solar” announced to Robert Llewellyn and the huge crowd attending the V2G panel session at Fully Charged Live 2109 that the first ISO 15118 compliant AC V2G charging station had already arrived in Great Britain:

A little later Robin and I exchanged a ceremonial handshake in the muddy field that passes for a car park at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire:

Having transferred the charging station from the back of Robin’s Tesla Model S into the rear of our humble Honda Jazz, it has now made its way safely to the courtyard here at V2G Towers in (currently!) sunny SilicInny Valley near Camelford in North Cornwall:

The next step is to provide it with some power!

The Things Network and Digital Catapult join LoRaWAN forces!

Some extremely interesting news just arrived in my inbox. Perhaps Kasia will have much more to say on this in due course, but for the moment here are the bare bones from this morning’s press release from The Things Network:

Digital Catapult & The Things Network join forces to create the largest LoRaWAN network in the UK

Digital Catapult’s Things Connected initiative has partnered with The Things Network (TTN). This collaboration brings together two well-established initiatives in the UK, creating Britain’s largest free-to-use LoRaWAN network and innovation community.

UK innovators will now be able to develop and build Internet of Things (IoT) solutions on a network with over 400 base stations across the country. It brings together the existing Things Connected regions (London, North-East, and Northern Ireland) and the 63 local The Things Network communities with over 700 members and 300 base stations. Things Connected innovation programmes are now more accessible and inclusive to UK entrepreneurs no matter where they’re based.

Apart from anything else that means that down here in North Cornwall we can now stop umming and ahhing and forge ahead with setting up a LoRaWAN gateway somewhere high in the hills above SilicInny Valley!

In which V2G EVSE have an Adventure in the City of London

On Wednesday Kasia and I travelled up to London to visit the Department for Transport. Things did not begin well!

We eventually arrived at the Department for Transport with our suitcase in tow and my suit still in its case. However after a literally sticky start the discussion about our Transport Technology Research Innovation Grant (T-TRIG for short) seemed to go very well. The meeting was scheduled to last an hour but continued for another half an hour beyond that. The title of our newly funded project is “Vehicle to Grid Controller with Modular Communications”. However we were reliably informed that it may well take a month for “The Minister” to sign off on the associated press release and the “public summary” to be published.

The connection may not be immediately apparent, but the next day I attended the FIX Trading Community 2018 EMEA Trading Conference. Suffice it to say that the phrase “energy markets” was mentioned almost as often as “financial markets”. Here’s the panel that discussed “How is a Growing Demand for Digitalisation Shaping the Next Wave of Transformation in Capital Markets?” who at one point debated the pros and cons of blockchain technology in energy markets:

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I’m afraid that I took exception to Bill Murray‘s assertion that blockchain technology would enable small scale renewable generators to partake in local energy markets. My question was succinct:

“How?”

In his answer Bill mentioned “Eastern Europe” and “Asia”, but not the United Kingdom.

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I also discovered a most interesting piece of news, about which I will have more to say in due course. According to an Itiviti AB press release:

The Board of Directors of Itiviti AB announces that the transaction to merge the company with ULLINK was completed on March 14, 2018.

With annual sales exceeding $200 million, 1,000 employees and local presence in major financial markets across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, the combination of Itiviti and ULLINK creates a full-service technology and infrastructure provider for global and regional financial institutions.

The intention to combine Itiviti and ULLINK was jointly communicated by the companies and owner Nordic Capital on November 28, 2017.

The Board has appointed Torben Munch as Chief Executive Officer of the combined entity.

Then on Friday we took a brief break from work in order to visit the Winnie the Pooh exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Not to be missed by children of all ages!

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V2G EVSE’s startup adventure has only just begun. Apart from delivering what we have promised the DfT we also have to find funding for the next stage of the project at some point in the not too distant future!