EV-elocity Project

EV-shAIR investigates virtual power plants at airports – reducing costs and carbon emissions via electric vehicle charging

admin — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 11:57:06 +0000

EV-shAIR is a 12-month feasibility project looking to develop business models that will enable the creation of value from Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) bi-directional (dis)charging technologies for the benefit of the electricity operations at airports and airport users through the use of the collective battery capacity of parked electric vehicles.

The EV-shAIR Project will unlock value from bi-directional electric vehicle (dis)charging technologies by creating new commercial opportunities for airports and their users to reduce their costs and carbon emissions via virtual power plants.

The consortium will establish the best ways for airports to manage and incentivise passengers to drive and park their electric-vehicles at the airport so the collective virtual electric vehicle battery array can be used to balance the electricity airport operations. This will enable us to optimise energy flows to reduce carbon emissions from the system and allow users to share in the value generated.

Full report: Carbon, cost and battery conditioning benefits calculated for vehicle-to-grid chargepoints

admin — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 12:08:23 +0000

The EV-elocity team has found that vehicle-to-grid (V2G) chargepoints can improve battery life in electric vehicles and reduce carbon emissions and costs of charging.

See the news article on the University of Nottingham website for more details.

Download our full report“EV-elocity final report”

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Strategies for Reduced Battery Degradation During Smart Charging and Vehicle-to-Grid Operation

Julie Waldron — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 06:00:02 +0000

Blog by Professor James Marco and Dr Truong Bui

A number of studies have identified the strategic importance of charging infrastructure to support the introduction of electrified vehicles (EVs) and to underpin consumer acceptance of the technology. For this reason, considerable research has been undertaken to evaluate the different facets of the technology, including the ability to charge at higher rates of electrical power, the introduction of smart charging (V1G) that allows dynamic management of the charging process in terms of both power and charge time and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) that enables bidirectional energy flow between the vehicle and the supply. In recent years, the term V2G has become more generalised to V2X, to acknowledge the variability in which the EV may be integrated, either to the grid or behind-the-meter, for example within a local electrical network, such as a building (V2B).

Irrespective of the exact nature of the integration method, understanding the impact of different strategies on battery degradation is a key requirement that may ultimately underpin consumer acceptance. Only a few studies have examined the potential impact of V2G operation on battery degradation. Often their assertion is that the increased charge-throughput will negatively impact battery life. These works often neglect that the battery will equally degrade through a process of calendar-ageing in which the retained capacity of the battery reduces as the battery is stored at no-load.

As highlighted in these results from the EV-elocity project, the nature of the degradation is highly complex with dependencies that crosscut: the state of charge (SOC) of the battery with respect to the optimal SOC storage condition and the duration of the parking interval. To further compound the challenge, experimental results shows that the optimal SOC point varies with battery life.

In this study, WMG researchers have evaluated the impact on battery degradation of different charging strategies relative to a baseline standard (STD) charging process. These include:

Time-shifted (TS) charging in which the charge is delayed to an optimal time-point to commence charging.
V1G charging in which the battery is pre-conditioned to an optimal SOC for vehicle parking. The battery is stored at an optimal SOC before performing charging.
V2G charging in which the ability to exchange energy with the supply is exploited to optimise preconditioning of the battery while the vehicle is parked.
VxG charging in which the ability to switch between V1G and V2G to optimise the battery degradation during parking.

Table 1 Characteristics of different charging strategies

Strategies	Delayed charge time	Full charge start time	Resting SoC	Prior knowledge of parking period	Required V2G charger
Standard	No	When connected to the charger	100%	No	No
TS	Yes	At an appropriate time before next departure	Arrival SoC	Yes	No
V1G	Yes	Preconditioning to a local optimal SoC, then full charge just before next departure	Arrival SoC or higher SoC with smaller calendar ageing rate	Yes	No
V2G	Yes	Preconditioning to a global optimal SoC for resting, then full charge just before next departure	Any SoC with least calendar ageing rate	Yes	Yes
VxG	Yes	Preconditioning to a global optimal SoC for resting, then full charge just before next departure	Any SoC with either least calendar ageing rate or having smaller cycling ageing rate	Yes	Yes

A validated semi-empirical ageing model is used that captures the impact of calendar ageing (as a function of temperature, resting period and SOC) and cyclic ageing (as a function of temperature, C-rate, depth-of-discharge and charge throughput). The model leverages over 12 months of experimental data from the WMG battery ageing laboratory for parameterisation and validation.

To support our evaluation, we introduce two driving profiles, which are defined as “gentle” and “intensive” profiles, representing two different drivers to evaluate the battery degradation behaviour through different charging strategies. Simulation results on the validated model show that state of health (SOH) improvements of up to 30-34% may be possible for a new EV battery, reducing to 8-12% as the battery progressively degrades through normal operation as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Comparison of reduced battery degradation through different charging strategies

The TS and V1G strategies perform consistently well in reducing battery ageing under the intensive driving profile while they create negative impact on the battery degradation under the gentle driving profile. The V2G and VxG strategies mitigate battery ageing in most cases, especially when the battery is new. However, their capability reduces as battery SOH progresses.

It is beyond the scope of this initial study to report on the relative impact of different V2G applications (e.g. energy arbitrage or peak shaving). However, the results presented here would scale into a future holistic management strategy for grid integrated EV batteries.

The description of the full research undertaken including a detailed description of the experiment methods, model creation and validation can be found in the related article that is available open source:

M. N. Bui, M. Sheikh, T. Q. Dinh, A. Gupta, D. W. Widanalage and J. Marco, “A Study of Reduced Battery Degradation through State-of-Charge Pre-Conditioning for Vehicle-to-Grid Operations,” in IEEE Access, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3128774.

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The UK’s most scenic V2G chargepoint deployment?

EV-elocity Team — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 15:33:39 +0000

Ignore the low hum from some of the industrial buildings. Focus on the contrast of the pink begonias against the deep blue October sky. Focus on the green leaves of the trees starting to show the amber colours of autumn. Absorb the noise of the splashing of the fountain into the duck pond. And before long you will have forgotten that you’re on Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park.

We can’t verify the claim, but we think that the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) deployment outside our office might be the most scenic in the UK. OK, perhaps the Powerloop or Sciurus projects have an installation at some splendid rural country estate that we don’t know about but even so, surely ours is still the prettiest non-domestic deployment of this innovative bi-directional charging technology?

Whilst our peaceful surroundings have nothing to do with the EV-elocity project – it is the University’s estates team we must thank for that – they do serve as a poignant and timely reminder as to what I believe to be the biggest benefactor of V2G, the environment.

As I type this, the UK’s grid carbon intensity is 194 gCO₂/kWh [1], unfortunately a little over last year’s average of 181 gCO₂/kWh [2] despite some good early-afternoon sunshine and moderate wind across most of the UK. To reach 0 gCO₂/kWh by 2035, as per latest plans [3], then we will need much greater flexibility in demand to allow greater renewables on the system and V2G can play a significant role in this. Whilst there has been a recent boom in the grid-connected stationary battery storage market, with over 20 GW of capacity in the pipeline [1], V2G has the opportunity to provide the system with much needed clean flexibility at lower cost – something that feels particularly relevant with today’s post-COVID fuel price, nuclear plant maintenance, Anglo-French interconnector fire and low wind driven price rises.

In fact, two of National Grid’s Future Energy Scenarios expect the UK grid to have over 1 GW of V2G by 2030, and a whopping 39 GW, approximately 17% of all demand and supply-side flexibility, in the most ambitious scenario, “Leading the Way”, by 2050!

Figure 1: Flexibility in 2050, taken from National Grid’s Future Energy Scenarios [5]

However, as well as the potential to unlock lower-cost flexibility, V2G can also have a lower environmental impact than stationary battery storage; linking existing storage capacity hidden away in EVs to the grid via bidirectional charging could mean less energy required for the mining of raw materials, logistics, manufacturing and indeed operations associated with new stationary storage batteries. In other words, sweating our existing assets more, rather than manufacturing new ones.

This “environmental business case” is weakened if the batteries used for stationary storage are second-life packs taken from EVs, but there simply isn’t the volume of supply for this to be the case at the required scale today. And even when there is, V2G can still be competitive in the market, as shown by the fact the capacity of V2G is similar in magnitude to all other forms of electricity storage (including other technologies such as pumped hydro and other innovations such as a compressed air systems).

Last week, the EV-elocity project moved into Stage 3b: Dynamic Carbon Control. In doing so the chargepoint at Loughborough along with all others in the project started to charge and discharge vehicles based solely on the grid carbon intensity forecast; charge when grid power is green and discharge the stored low-carbon energy when it’s not.

And although this is a rather simplified view of how the network is really operated and ignores the potential for higher cost to the consumer or even risks degrading the vehicle’s battery by performing repeated cycles (more on this to come in Stage 4!), it focuses the project lens on the problem that V2G is really trying to solve.

And so whilst I’m sure the debate will rage as to whether the Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park is the most picturesque V2G deployment, it will at least play a part in answering questions about V2G with the hope that its role in the wider initiative to decarbonise electricity networks worldwide can be larger than you might think.

References

Blog by Samuel Abbott. Sam is a Technical Specialist in the Energy Systems & Infrastructure team at Cenex. He has been using his expertise in EV charging hardware, including V2G, to manage the installations of the eNovates units for the EV-elocity project

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Vehicle-to-Grid at Leeds City Council

EV-elocity Team — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:34:24 +0000

Leeds City Council have completed the installation of six vehicle-to-grid (V2G) chargers across two local authority locations. There are five units installed at the Council’s busy Knowsthorpe Gate site. These units supplement existing charge point facilities which in turn support a number of the authorities’ large electric vehicle fleet.

V2G charger at Farnley Hall

The Knowsthorpe Gate is the base for several service areas, and has on-site catering facilities with commercial scale refrigeration and ovens which create a unique energy demand profile. Load balancing technology is in use at the site to assist with management of the energy demand. The building is not publicly accessible and is open for staff between 7am and 7pm with vehicle charging typically undertaken overnight when energy demand from the on-site services is low. There are 12 Nissan e-NV200 vehicles that operate from this site and these will be charging/discharging at these Nichicon V2G units.

Additionally, we have installed a Nichicon V2G unit at Farnley Hall, this is the Headquarters of the Parks & Countryside service. As well as being the administrative base for the service, the location also serves as one of the depots and workshop sites. There are 8 Nissan e-NV200 vehicles based at this location that will be utilising the V2G unit as well as the existing charge facilities at this site.

The energy demand patterns of the buildings at these two locations in conjunction with the carbon intensity from the grid and the availability of the estates’ vehicles to store and supply energy to the buildings, are the variables that EV-elocity will be analysing over the next year.

In collaboration with CrowdCharge, we are developing different charging profiles and aim to test the economic benefits behind the meter, as well as reduce carbon emissions from the grid and the vehicles, and optimise the efficiency of the battery.

The installation of the chargers was completed by EV Charging Solutions, with the back-office and installation management led by 4th Dimension Technology / MyEVS.

#eletricvehicles #EVs #V2G #VehicleToGrid #RenewableEnergy #CarbonEmissions #EnergyStorage

Blog by Andy Hickford, Project Manager, Sustainable Energy & Air Quality, Leeds City Council

The Project EV-elocity is part of the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) competition, funded by the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), in partnership with Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.

In January 2018, OZEV and BEIS announced that 21 projects (8 feasibility studies, 5 collaborative research and development projects, and 8 real-world v2g trial projects) were to receive funding of £30m to develop the business proposition and the core technology to support Vehicle 2 Grid deployment in the UK, including its demonstration with large scale trials.

The projects involve more than 50 industrial partners and research organisations from both the Energy and Automotive sector, marking the largest and most diverse activities on V2G in the world, and trialling more than 1,000 vehicles and V2G charger units across UK.

The V2G projects represent a significant step towards the transition to a low carbon transportation and a smart energy system. Allowing EVs to return energy to the Power Grid when parked and plugged for charging, will increase Grid resilience, allow for better exploitation of renewable sources and lower the cost of ownership for EV owners, leading to new business opportunities and clear advantages for EV users and energy consumers.

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Vehicle-to-Grid at Hallward Library – University of Nottingham

Julie Waldron — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 12:18:44 +0000

The second vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charger installed at the University of Nottingham is located next to one of the most iconic buildings: Hallward Library. This building opened in 1972 and is the central library of the University Park Campus (I’m sure many of you are familiar with this building!). The library operates from early in the morning until late in the night; therefore, the highest energy demand is between 7am and 7pm.

A Nissan e-NV200 from the Estates fleet of the University of Nottingham will be charging/discharging at this Nichicon V2G unit. The energy demand patterns of the building in conjunction with the carbon intensity from the grid and the availability of the Estates’ vehicles to store and supply energy to the building, are the variables that EV-elocity will be analysing over the next year.

In collaboration with CrowdCharge, we are developing different charging profiles aiming to test the economic benefits behind the meter, reduce carbon emissions from the grid and the vehicles, and optimise the efficiency of the battery.

The installation of the charger was done by EV Charging Solutions, the back-office was led by CrowdCharge, and the commissioning and networking was done by Hangar 19.

To know more about EV-elocity’s Case Studies keep an eye on our website posts and social media.

#eletricvehicles #EVs #V2G #VehicleToGrid #RenewableEnergy #CarbonEmissions #EnergyStorage

Blog by Dr Julie Waldron, Research Fellow, Building, Energy and Environment Research Group & Transport, Mobility & Cities @ Nottingham, University of Nottingham

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Spotlight on eNovates V2G charger

Julie Waldron — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 12:39:09 +0000

This time we would like to talk about the chargers installed at Worcestershire County Council, West Midlands Police and University of Warwick.

Rob De Vogelaere, V2G Project Manager from eNovates shared some details about these chargers:

All chargers were supplied by eNovates, an electric vehicle charging solutions specialist based in Lokeren, Belgium. As well as providing wallbox and public charging solutions, eNovates design and manufacture a 10 kW bidirectional V2G unit. Cenex purchased five of these following a due diligence and procurement exercise, and University of Warwick purchased two units.

Some of the key features of the eNovates’ unit which resulted in its selection are:

Designed for the UK electricity system – 3 phase, 400 V, 50 Hz
G99 type tested as well as all other necessary product compliances, accreditations and CE marking.
Open Chargepoint Protocol (OCPP) v1.6 allowing for connection by CrowdCharge to the EV-elocity back-office for remote monitoring and control to allow a wide variety of business cases.
A more compact size than many other V2G units allowing for wall-mounted or pedestal mounted installations.
RFID user authentication
Tethered CHAdeMO connector (as V2G is for now only possible with the CHAdeMO charging protocol)

eNovates were also able to fit the units with custom covers, designed by Cenex, which not only identify the project and its key stakeholders, but provide the user with links to the project website and user guide. Providing user information in this way in real-time is invaluable given that EV-elocity is a public demonstrator and the eNovates units will be used by multiple drivers.

#electricvehicles #EV #V2G #VehicleToGrid

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EV-elocity: Operational Strategy agreed

Julie Waldron — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:10:45 +0000

Our Installations:

For those of you following us, you will be aware that we re-started our project with a new set of aims in the second half of 2020 and have since completed installations at Cenex, University of Nottingham and University of Warwick. Click the links to find out more.

EV-elocity V2G chargers installation in progress

Leeds City Council and Nottingham City Council will have news to share shortly, with project partner CrowdCharge working hard behind the scenes to get everyone operational.

But as we move into the trial proper, what are we intending to do and what value will this bring to the partners, funders and industry?

Our research objectives:

To remind you, the EV-elocity project’s objective is to:

Demonstrate Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) in a range of real-world situations to gain technical, customer and commercial insights into this emerging technology

We have 5 main aims (see our website homepage for more details), which we will address by answering these questions in our trial:

Technical – can one platform and user interface successfully deliver V2G services across a range of UK locations and hardware?
Operational – can the V2G services be delivered without impacting on the driver experience significantly?
Cost Benefit – can V2G reduce the cost of driving an EV?
Carbon Benefit – can V2G reduce the carbon intensity of driving an EV?
Conditioning Benefit – can V2G extend the driving life of the EV?

Our Operational Strategy:

We have now agreed four principles to guide our activities and ensure we will deliver against our objective and aims.

We will prioritise user needs.

This cuts right to the heart of why we’re a demonstrator and not simply a feasibility study. All sites will set a minimum vehicle State of Charge (SoC) which we will maintain at all times so that emergency or unplanned journeys can be completed. And all sites will specify a SoC at a particular time to ensure that each vehicle can complete its daily responsibilities unhindered. Our project will then explore the best ways to deliver benefits within these constraints.

All chargers will complete the same tests at the same time.

We’re only small so to make sure we make the most of our chargers, they will all be optimised according to the same principles at the same time. Nottingham City Council may deviate here due to the commercial arrangements necessary for their installations but where possible everyone will be testing the same thing at the same time.

We will not focus on grid-side services or revenues.

There are a lot of great V2G projects out there. Many are funded by Innovate UK and many are looking at the interesting topic of energy market participation and grid services. EV-elocity doesn’t want to duplicate their good work but add our unique value alongside them. And looking behind-the-meter focus links well with our project partners’ interests and overall aims.

We will focus on the vehicle-user-building system.

Our focus on behind-the-meter activities is particularly interested in the inter-relation between the battery, driver and facility. This links very well to the University of Warwick’s battery research and the holistic approach that University of Nottingham is taking to the V2G user experience.

Our Plan

All this comes together in our plan to optimise for cost, carbon and (battery) conditioning. We’ll start testing on 1^st May 2021, so check back here soon for news on how it has gone and what we have found out.

Chris Rimmer is the Infrastructure Strategy lead at Cenex, the UK’s centre of excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies. Chris is responsible for the overall project management for the EV-elocity project, ably assisted by the partners and their representatives.

#electricvehicles #EV #V2G #VehicleToGrid #RenewableEnergy

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Installation of three Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) chargers at the University of Warwick

Julie Waldron — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:48:12 +0000

As part of the Innovate UK funded EV-elocity project, WMG at the University of Warwick has installed three eNovates Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) chargers on campus. The V2G chargers are located at The Boiler House Car Park. Chiel Construction Ltd completed the groundworks, and Claddagh Electrical Ltd installed the chargers. The Phoenix Works commissioned the chargers by setting up the connections to the back office that collect data from the chargers.

The V2G units have been installed on campus to support a planned programme of applied research that revolves around analysing real-world data garnered from vehicle usage and battery performance to create new models of battery ageing and degradation bespoke to V2G operation. Three Nissan ENV200 vans from the University’s Estates fleet have been fitted with data loggers and will be utilising the three V2G chargers. Usage data from the vehicles and the V2G chargers will then be stored in a data warehouse managed by Cenex, Crowd Charge and Hangar-19.

Vehicle to Grid chargers installed at the University of Warwick

The degradation model will take account of both cycle aging (e.g. vehicle drive and charging) and calendar aging (e.g. extended periods of vehicle inactivity).

Different use cases will be integrated to underpin a variety of scenarios to highlight what may be feasible with increased EV-infrastructure and forecasting capability.

The University of Warwick declared a climate emergency and is committed to target net-zero carbon emissions. The majority of Estates fleet is already converted to electric vehicles. Using the campus as a living laboratory is important to support research and socialize innovative technologies.

Blog by James Marco, Professor of Systems Modelling and Simulation at WMG, University of Warwick

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The first V2G charger at the University of Nottingham

Julie Waldron — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 17:05:39 +0000

Yes, you read it right! we installed the first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charger at the University of Nottingham, one of the most sustainable universities in the world!

The charger was installed at the Creative Energy Homes (CEH) which is a living test-site on campus for smart-grid energy technologies and zero-carbon buildings. This site is the test bed for systems integrating renewable energy, energy management, energy storage and user behaviour. Adding vehicle-to-grid will introduce the missing part of the equation: the vehicles acting as storage within the energy system.

The Nichicon charger is connected to the energy grid, but more importantly, to the solar energy income. This means that the vehicle’s battery can be charged from the energy grid , but also from energy generated by photovoltaic panels located on the roof of the building.

We are currently developing different charging and discharging profiles to optimise the benefits of vehicle-to-grid. For instance, it will be possible to store excess of energy generated from renewables (locally produced or from the grid). Then, the energy stored in the vehicle’s battery could be sent to the building when the carbon intensity of the grid is high, and the production of renewables is low. By doing this, the vehicle will support the grid by reducing the demand from the building.

Nichicon V2G charger installed at the Creative Energy Homes – University of Nottingham

EV-elocity will be testing different scenarios for charging and discharging the vehicle’s battery, in order to understand the economic benefits of V2G behind the meter, reduce the carbon emissions from the grid and the vehicles, and optimise the efficiency of the battery.

The installation was done by Stratford Energy Solutions, the back-office was led by CrowdCharge, and the commissioning and networking was done by Hangar 19.

To know more about our installations please keep an eye on our Case Studies posts, follow us on Twitter @EV_elocity and LinkedIn.

Blog by Dr Julie Waldron, Research Fellow, Building, Energy and Environment Research Group & Transport, Mobility & Cities @ Nottingham, University of Nottingham

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