Tag: V2G

The 2019 Regen V2G Forum

I was up in London yesterday to attend the Regen “Electric vehicles and electricity system forum” on “Vehicle to Grid”. Not wanting to miss all of the excitement Kasia and Jim managed to make it to the “Networking and refreshments” afterwards as well. The 10th floor offices of our hosts for the afternoon, Burges Salmon, offered a spectacular view over the City of London:

The event was introduced by Olly Frankland, Regen’s EV project manager, who opened his remarks by berating me for taking this candid snap of the panellists, plus one or two others!

Next up at the lectern was Ross Fairley from Burges Salmon, followed by Chris Cox from Cenex, one of whose slides offered this “History of V2G”:

Note that one of Chris’s significant events is the launch of the “Nissan LEAF-to-home Unit” in 2012. I covered that news over on my V2G UK blog, and opined:

Nissan’s press release concludes by saying:

Nissan and Nichicon will continue to work together to create new value in EVs as part of the way forward toward the realization of a zero-emission society.

although they don’t forecast when such a society will be realized!

One question I had was subsequently addressed in the panel session. Olly asked the assembled experts “How many vehicle-to-grid capable EV charging stations are there in the UK at the moment, and how many will there be in 5 years time?”

The consensus amongst the panel members seemed to be:

  • 2019: 150-200
  • 2024: 5,000

A subject very dear to my heart was also discussed at some length by the panel, and what is more I wasn’t the one who posed the question! What are the pros and cons of AC versus DC vehicle-to-grid technologies, alternatively known in US English as “Vehicle Grid Integration” (VGI for short)?

A slide that wasn’t in Olly or Chris’s deck is an infographic Kasia produced for my visit to Newcastle University last year for the International Energy Agency’s Hybrid and Electric Vehicles Technology Collaboration Programme V2x Experts’ Workshop, which I attended in my capacity as a member of assorted international “smart grid” standards setting committees. In the electric vehicle context notably ISO 15118 and IEC 63110:

Infographic: Kasia Turajczyk

That block diagram is obviously over simplified but hopefully makes it plain that an AC V2x charging station doesn’t include the bank of expensive “bi-directional inverters” required by a DC charger. Which does of course make AC charging stations much less expensive than the DC variety.

Hopefully that is if some help? The Regen V2G panel certainly seem to have been persuaded by that argument. Previously James Morgan who is a senior policy advisor in the Energy Team at the Office for Low Emission Vehicles had said he was attending the event with the aim of listening more than talking. He will have received the message that AC V2G is the future, and that in Europe at the very least, DC V2G via CHAdeMO is history.

In such circumstances I felt it was my loyal duty to HM Government to point out that (to the best of my knowledge) the UK’s first dual port bi-directional AC V2G capable charging post is installed in the V2G EVSE car park way down here in North Cornwall:

200 + 120 + 1  = ??k

For further information on our clever Cornish charging post please watch this video recording of a recent “We Drive Solar” AC V2G webinar until the bitter end:

Marc Mültin’s ISO 15118 “grid codes FAQ” that I refer to at 52:00 in the video can be found over on LinkedIn.

UK Government Funded Home EV Chargepoints Must Be “Smart” By July 2019

The UK Government announced earlier today that:

All government funded home chargepoints for electric vehicles must use innovative ‘smart’ technology from July 2019, the government announced today, fulfilling the commitment in the Road to Zero Strategy published earlier this year.

This means chargepoints must be able to be remotely accessed, and capable of receiving, interpreting and reacting to a signal. Smart charging can also reduce high peaks of electricity demands, minimising the cost of electric vehicles to the electricity system – and keeping costs down for consumers by encouraging off-peak charging.

Alongside this the government has also announced that they have maintained grants to install chargepoints at home and in the workplace at their current level of up to £500, making charging easier for consumers and ensuring that plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles can be used to their full potential.

Any “domestic” electric vehicle charging station manufacturers who feel they may be unable to meet the UK Government deadline using their in house resources may wish to contact the team here at V2G EVSE to obtain more information about our UK Department for Transport funded “smart” international standards compliant EVSE controller, particularly if vehicle-to-grid functionality is also of potential interest.

A picture is said to be worth a thousand words, so here’s what our proof of concept smart controller looks like:

Department for Transport Invests in V2G EVSE

This morning the United Kingdom’s Department for Transport issued a press release which mentions us! It also mentions what is hopefully some very good news for other Great British small businesses too:

The Department for Transport (DfT) has today (6 August 2018) set out plans to level the playing field for small businesses bidding for government contracts.

In its SME Action Plan, the DfT has committed to directing a third of its procurement spending towards small and medium-sized enterprises by 2022.

As part of this pledge, the department has also awarded £700,000 in Transport Technology Research Innovation Grants (T-TRIG) to support innovative transport projects, including a universal train access ramp that would help disabled people board trains more easily across the network.

Transport minister Jo Johnson said:

Small and medium-sized businesses play a key role in this country’s economy and I am proud of our outstanding record in this area.

With this new action plan, we are leading by example by making it easier for these businesses to bid for contracts, and we will continue to support them over the coming years.

This year, out of 23 innovative transport projects given a share of £700,000, 14 were from small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 250 members of staff.

According to the Department for Transport’s aforementioned SME Action Plan:

This action plan outlines how the Department for Transport (DfT) will meet the Government’s aspiration of ensuring that 33% of all procurement spend will be with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by the end of this Parliament, either directly or indirectly through the supply chain.

and here’s how the implementation of that plan is progressing:

2018-08-06_DfT_SME_Targets

Here at V2G EVSE we currently have far fewer than “250 members of staff”, and this is what the DfT had to say about our “Vehicle to grid controller with modular communications” project, seed funded by the Department for Transport in response to our “Transport Technology Research Innovation Grant Open Call” bid:

Developing a prototype for a vehicle to grid electric vehicle charging station controller, which will enable optimal charging across multiple vehicles, managing energy demand. This will include modular communications which will provide information to a central system.

We were notified about our successful bid back in March, and a lot of progress has been made since then down here in North Cornwall! Here’s how the hardware side of our proof of concept EV charging station controller looks at the moment:

V2G-EVSE-Controller

With its assorted comms modules and their associated aerials it can currently communicate using Bluetooth “Low Energy”, WiFi, ZigBee, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, NB-IoT, LTE-M , “long range” WiFi, LoRa and Sigfox. Note first of all that not all of those technologies are suitable for the V2G use case. Note also that the V2x acronym covers a wide variety of ways of “improving the charging of electric vehicles” apart from just full blown vehicle-to-grid, including V1G (AKA “smart charging“), V2B (vehicle-to-building), V2H (vehicle-to-home) and V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure).

From our perspective down here in sunny South West England the word “infrastructure” in the context of “electric vehicles” covers a range of Government departments. Electric vehicle charging stations definitely have one foot in the “transport” arena. In this day and age another one stands in the “energy systems” stadium as well. What’s more EV charging stations are not bipedal. Another foot is in the “digital” domain, and the fourth falls firmly in the “Future Cities” field.

Standards Based V2x Charging Station Technology

We have been asked to elucidate on the nature of the work we will undertake following our successful bid for Department for Transport funding. Whilst we await ministerial sign off on the associated press release please note the following items of information. The title of the project is:

Vehicle to Grid Controller with Modular Communications

Our tagline above mentions:

Standards based V2x charging station technology

Here is an infographic based on a slide from the “International V2G Standards” presentation I gave at the International Energy Agency’s (IEA for short) Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (HEV for short) Technology Collaboration Programme (TCP for short) Wireless Charging and V2X Experts’ Workshop held at the Newcastle University Business School on March 20th 2018:

Infographic: Kasia Turajczyk
Infographic: Kasia Turajczyk

Our current funding does not cover the development of any power electronics.

Hopefully that is of some help?

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:

2018-03-15_16-22-52_0

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.

2018-03-15_15-55-58_486

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!

2018-03-16_11-53-20_572

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!