About the project

 

 

The project has four project partners and was funded by the Technology Strategy Board.

 

• KAM Futures is an SME research and development based consultancy business specialising in the Energy and Transport sectors.

 

• Cenex is an SME specialising in the low carbon vehicle market.

 

• Energy Saving Trust is an organisation focussed on promoting action that leads to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions – the key contributor to man-made climate change.

 

• Cardiff University is a university that is providing the academic support in the Energy and ICT sectors.

 

 

 

The project addressed the following issues

 

The national electricity grid has capacity constraints that restrict the connection of distributed power generation and additional loads in particular locations.  The growth of the electric vehicle (EV) market is one of the ways of reducing the carbon emissions from the transport sector.  There are various projections of how quickly the EV market will grow and as a consequence the amount of additional load that may be added on the electricity grid.  If the high growth estimates happen there are likely to be significant capacity issues on the high and low voltage networks.  In addition, to minimise the emissions from transport the energy should come from low carbon sources, ideally close to the point of use to minimise any transmission losses.

 

In the short to medium term decisions need to be made to provide additional grid capacity, restrict the connection of both distributed generation  and EV’s or consider active network management techniques as part of the smart grids solutions.  In the medium term, EV’s rather than being part of the problem could become part of the solution. If appropriate supply and demand control measures are put in place, in the context of a managed local network, the EV batteries could potentially help balance the intermittent supply from some renewable sources with the variable demand on the local low voltage network without the need for expensive network reinforcement

 

If successful this approach will facilitate a higher level of EVs and distributed generation penetration on the local network, removing some of the short and medium term barriers and reducing the cost of the decarbonisation of energy and transport networks.