Technology allowing the UK’s power grid to balance the additional demand caused by a rising use of electric cars would correct only 6 per cent of the additional imbalance in supply and demand by 2020, a study released today concludes.
Landmark research from Ricardo and National Grid reveals that through the use of grid balancing technology, electric vehicle owners could make a modest financial gain of up to £50 a year for zero investment by returning electricity to the grid.
The report – Bucks for balancing: can plug-in vehicles of the future extract cash – and carbon – from the power grid? – finds that Vehicle-To-Grid (V2G) based grid balancing would provide significantly greater revenue on an individual vehicle basis – ranging from approximately £600 per year for a 3 kW system to in the region of £8000 per year for a 50 kW three phase installation. However the very significant capital cost of a vehicle based bi-directional power interface would restrict the value of the service if implemented fleet wide, would serve to render the fleet scale roll-out of the V2G balancing service uneconomic.
Energy companies are concerned that the wider use of electric cars could cause supply problems when EV users plug their cars in to recharge during peak hours after returning to work.
With a balance system in place, the grid operator would be able to interrupt or vary the charging according to energy demand. Best of all, a balancing system could help the electricity market become less dependent on traditional energy sources such as coal and gas and make greater use of more variable energy-and yet cleaner- sources such as wind and tidal.
Experts at Glass’s expects that by 2020 over 11 per cent (or 274,000 units) of all new cars sold in the UK will be electric.
