Nissan and Enel to launch major V2G trial in the UK; LEAF and e-NV200
10 May 2016
Nissan and multinational power company Enel will launch the first major vehicle-to-grid (V2G) trial carried out in the UK. The partners will install and connect 100 V2G units at locations agreed upon by private and fleet owners of the Nissan LEAF and e-NV200 electric van. By giving Nissan electric vehicle owners the ability to plug their vehicles into the V2G system, owners will have the flexibility and power to sell stored energy from their vehicle battery back to the National Grid.
The announcement follows the signing of a partnership agreement between Nissan and Enel in Paris in December 2015 during the 21st UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21) to trial V2G technology in Europe. (Earlier post.) A trial comprising 40 V2G units began in Denmark in January 2016.
The system works by allowing Nissan EV owners to connect to the grid to charge at low-demand, cheap tariff periods, with an option to then use the electricity stored in the vehicle’s battery at home and at work when costs are higher, or even feed back to the grid which could generate additional revenue for the EV owner.
Smart energy management is one of the biggest challenges any nation faces for the future which is why this trial is so critical in assessing the feasibility of using variable, more flexible energy sources. We see Nissan electric vehicles as being the mobile energy hubs of the future, pioneering a self-sustaining energy infrastructure that will help solve the capacity issues of the future.
—Paul Willcox, Chairman of Nissan Europe
The trial is part of Enel’s and Nissan’s commitment to support the entire EV ecosystem, going beyond the car itself and delivering new services to the energy industry.
The installation of our innovative two-way charging technology will encourage the integration of non-programmable renewable energy flow into the grid and will help the spread of electric mobility in the country, benefitting the energy sector and the environment, while also having a positive impact on electric owners’ wallets. The fact that Nissan has chosen Enel’s charging technology to trial in the UK is the perfect demonstration of just how much potential the Group’s V2G electric vehicle charging system has to revolutionize not only transport but also the way electricity distribution works.
—Ernesto Ciorra, Enel’s Head of Innovation and Sustainability
Steven Holliday, Non-Executive Director, National Grid, said that National Grid’s Future Energy team predicts that there could be up to 700,000 EVs in 2020 requiring an extra 500MW of energy.
That’s why we support innovative technologies and pioneering projects such as this one that have the potential to make a real difference to the way we manage energy supply and demand.
—Steven Holliday
Currently if all 18,000 Nissan electric vehicles in the UK were connected to the energy network, they would generate the equivalent output of a 180 MW power plant. If that was scaled up in a future where all the vehicles on UK roads are electric, vehicle-to-grid technology could generate a virtual power plant of up to 370 GW. This energy capacity would be enough to power the UK, Germany and France.
EVs should be charged at night time anyway - it should be easy to manage the charging times with a simple "dithered" timer.
It gets more interesting if you have a lot of wind power - do you try to charge when it is windy not necessarily at night?
Do you use a 24-48 hour weather forecast to predict the best time to charge ?
I am not sure that I would run my house off my car battery, unless the tariffs were very high (say 4x normal) at certain times (for instance 5.30 - 6.30 in the UK/Ireland). You probably want to reduce the cycles on your battery to maintain its life. ON the other hand, 2 or 3 kwH every evening from a 24 kwH battery wouldn't do much harm (I imagine).
You will need very sophisticated charging mechanisms to get people to do this kind of thing - a simple day/night won't cut it, you probably need 4 or 5 rates (for instance 1/4, 1/2, 1x, 2x, 4x)
This will all work fine until the number of EVs gets very large, then you will have another set of problems.
Posted by: mahonj | 11 May 2016 at 12:56 AM
@ mahonj: I read where Germany had negative electric rates for a short period last week due to high wind and sun. So charging at night seems logical, but smart grids may help consumers manage charging.
Posted by: JMartin | 11 May 2016 at 09:37 AM
I just worry we'll be robbing Peter to pay Paul. Say I typically charge overnight, but since the charge bays are available at my place of business, I charge there, too, during peak hours. Might I not be depleting someone's vehicle battery to charge mine?
The electrical grid is no wiser as to why the load has increased. It just knows that it has. I think V2G is a farce with the only exception being avoidance of blackouts or brownouts that can damage capital investments.
Posted by: storky | 11 May 2016 at 09:48 AM
Negative wholesale prices are not negative consumer rates. The consumer rates in Germany have a steep "environmental" charge added to subsidize the uneconomic and unreliable wind and solar generation.
If the charging station is set up for V2G, even if it is charging-only it can be used for grid regulation. Temporary generation surpluses would go into vehicle batteries instead of running the grid frequency above spec.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 11 May 2016 at 08:49 PM
PHEVs and BEVs owners should (via a smart charger) have the choice or choices to:
1. charge now at any rate.
2. charge only when supplier has excess energy (at a lower rate)
3. Charge only when supplier has excess REs (normally at a lower rate)
4. etc.
In other words, the supplier will/should decide when to meet your demand via your smart charger?
Using Paul's batteries to recharge Peter's and probably taking a 50% cut to do it, is not to EVs owners advantage.
Posted by: HarveyD | 14 May 2016 at 11:37 AM
It won't work and especially in blackouts where there won't be enouph impedance in the drid to power it from a small power set of batteries without enouph power and they will deplete fast and after that everyone will be in total blackout including the evs. This will worn batteries with too much damaging cycles, i will never plug my car to a system like that. These scientifics did see too much fiction documentaries and are believing the hype, LOL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAXJZgC13pI
Posted by: gorr | 14 May 2016 at 03:56 PM