National Grid ESO believes that current obstacles when adding Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) enabled EVs to the Balancing Market (BM) as an aggregated unit, could be solved “organically” in the coming years.
According to the report dubbed Powerloop: Trialling Vehicle-to-Grid technology, obstacles still remain when adding V2G technology to the BM but these could well be solved organically with the increased adoption of V2G and EV technologies across the GB, ESO said.
The parameters in the trial, which had been conducted in partnership with Octopus Energy, had been used slightly differently to how they would within a live market but still highlighted inaccuracies in both the maximum import limit and maximum export limit, ESO said.
ESO also disclosed that work is required to ensure aggregated charging schedules meet the physical notifications both before and after instructions. Considering this, increasing the understanding of consumers’ behaviour will help providers ensure their forecasts are accurate and functionality could be adjusted to charging actions to match Physical Notifications could be added.
The organisation added that “the key outstanding barrier from an ESO perspective is operational metering, as it is clear there is a discrepancy between the current metering standards for the BM and the standard of metering being installed at charge points today. The Power Responsive working group is focusing solely on overcoming this barrier, to ensure that operational metering standards are applied proportionately for small-scale assets within aggregated portfolios”.
In October 2021, Octopus’ Powerloop project became the first EV based programme to enter National Grid ESO’s Balancing Mechanism. The trial highlighted the ability of EVs acting as an aggregated unit to meet many of the requirements of the BM when it comes to data parameters and response to instructions, ESO said.
It was also used to understand the viability of V2G entry in the BM, exploring aspects of its framework and obligations that currently act as a barrier for V2G enabled EVs to enter this market, as well as to demonstrate the capabilities of V2G enabled EVs.
Current± reported on the trial in August 2022 in what was a “first” for V2G technology. The ESO directly sent a series of signals to Octopus between 17:00-05:00 over 3-5 August 2022, which then charged and discharged 20 EVs depending on the needs of the BM, helping to balance the system in real-time.
At the time, Claire Miller, director of technology and innovation at Octopus Electric Vehicles stated the trial was a “real line in the sand moment for V2G tech”.
ESO also unveiled the next steps for the technology particularly when accessing the BM. For this, ESO said it will collaborate further with providers in the space via workstreams and various projects being explored.
This includes Power Responsive, a stakeholder-led programme being facilitated by the ESO to simulate increase participation in the different forms of flexible technology such as demand side response and storage.
The stakeholders across this group will continue to engage and work collaboratively to overcome barriers and unlock V2G as a growing resource for energy balancing activities.
The second initiative is the CrowdFlex project which is being delivered by a consortium of companies form across the energy sector. First announced in 2021, the project is looking to investigate the reliability, consistency and the cost of domestic flexibility.
