A new consortium, led by IT giant Cisco, is aiming to prove the value of nascent vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies by testing them with active EV fleets.
The E-Flex project brings together Cisco, Cenex, Nuvve, the Greater London Authority, Transport for London, Imperial College London and E-Car Club to demonstrate the role that V2G can play as electric vehicle adoption accelerates.
The project is to create a real-world test environment for V2G technologies and invite fleet owners across the UK to take part.
As many as 200 EVs will be connected, and participating fleets will be issued with a free 10kW bidirectional charger in order to evaluate the technology in practice.
The project is intended to demonstrate how V2G technologies will allow fleet owners to export unused power back to the grid, reducing the cost of owning and operating vehicles and reducing the impact on wider energy networks.
It’s intended that upon completion, the results of the trials will help the creation of a commercially viable strategy for V2G technologies to deliver a broader range of benefits to those who adopt them.
Maria Hernandez, head of innovation at Cisco UK & Ireland, said that the market opportunity for V2G is huge.
“E-Flex is about testing whether V2G provides a solution to the main challenge of making this a reality: developing an economically and environmentally viable business model for EVs,” she said.
EV fleet owners are being encouraged to sign up to the trial and have until 31 May 2019 to do so.
