Leeds City Council is the second largest local authority in the UK. As the third largest and one of the fastest growing cities in the country, Leeds has a key role to play in ensuring a greener and more sustainable energy and vehicle infrastructure. Since first introducing electric vehicles to its fleet in 2016, Leeds City Council now has more than 320 electric vehicles on fleet—the largest of any local authority in the country—and is continuing to expand. Having declared a climate emergency and committed to become a carbon neutral city, the council has rapidly increased its focus on promoting the utilisation and uptake of zero emission electric vehicles within the city.
Leeds City Council is excited to test cutting-edge, innovative technology alongside leading industry partners on the EV-elocity project. The council has a number of strategic objectives that will be supported by the project. EV-velocity will enable us to continue working to decarbonise buildings and transport by increasing energy efficiency across council sites, and expanding use of and knowledge of electric vehicles. It will also help to identify further opportunities for revenue generation through the installation of six vehicle-to-grid points in two key service buildings.
Blog by Andy Hickford, Project Manager leading on the EV-elocity project within 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 Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV), in partnership with Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.
In January 2018, OLEV 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.