Government funds UK vehicle-to-everything energy transfer research

Malvern-based bi-directional EV charger company Indra is in two of the winning consortia: in Next Generation V2X Power Module to improve its charger, and in V2X Inflexion with Kaluza, OVO Energy and Volkswagen looking into CCS (combined charging system standard) as used by European EV manufacturers (see complete list below)

It points out that bi-directional charging can expand from just V2G (vehicle-to-grid), allowing homeowners to use their car to power their domestic energy need (V2H – vehicle-to-home) at times of peak grid prices, re-charging from off-peak energy tariffs or when renewable sources are peaking.

“With V2X technology, an electric vehicle effectively becomes a personal energy storage device on wheels, allowing power to be transferred to the home, to the workplace or even back to the grid. This technology can deliver major cost and environmental savings,” said Indra founder and CTO Mike Schooling.

The winning projects are:

V2HP Vehicle to Heat Pump
Grant: £108,136
Passiv UK
Active Building Centre
Combine and automate the operations of high-energy EV charging and heat pumps assets in a house. Prototype and trial a control system that will harness bi-directional electric vehicle charging combined with heat pump optimisation. Includes monitoring for dynamic tariffs

V2X-Flex
Grant: £220,356
EV Dot Energy
Energy Systems Catapult
Develop prototype software and a business model for domestic use of V2X bi-directional chargers to provide energy flexibility services. The goal is to connect network operators and EV drivers through software.

Next Generation V2X Power Module
Grant: £187,227
Indra Renewable Technologies
Devtank
Proof-of-concept bi-directional charger more powerful than Indra’s existing model, and suitable for higher voltage batteries.

Entrust V2H Charger – Bidirectional DC/DC Charger for V2H Applications
Grant: £235,168
Entrust EV Technology Ltd
University of Huddersfield
Bi-directional EV charger with V2H/V2G capabilities for domestic properties with off-street parking. Control system will integrate charger with smart home micro-grid – maximising self-consumption of solar power, use of off-peak grid electricity, and reduction of peak power demand.

Bi-directional MIMO DC/DC Converter for V2G/X Infrastructures
Grant: £229,960
Otaski Energy Solutions Ltd
Northumbria University
Intelligent lamp post capable of hosting streetlights, V2X bi-directional EV charger, 5G pico-cell radios and sensors. Includes DC Charge de move (CHAdeMO).

V2X Local Network Fleet Solution
Grant: £199,089
Fuuse Limited
Turbo Power Systems
Gridicity
Investigates feasibility of using EVs as storage for temporary mismatches between demand and supply. Data will be collected to predict EV plug-in times and energy demand one day ahead using artificial intelligence. Load balancing, energy cost and revenues from the provision of ancillary services for the next day will be evaluated using these predictions.

EV-shAIR
Grant: £224,426
J&B Hopkins
University of Nottingham
EV Mobiliti
Focussed on business models to create value from V2X technologies at the East Midlands Airport using the collective battery capacity of parked EVs. EV charging will be where possible done through solar canopy arrays – airport has pre-booked and therefore predictable vehicle parking times.

ENSTOREL-V2X – Mobile, Bidirectional EV Charging
Grant: £219,334
Doublemsc Solutions
University of Warwick
Arcadis Consulting (UK)
Develop bi-directional EV charger with energy storage that can be taken to vehicle.

Zero Carbon Tariffs with Cashback for V2X enabled Non-domestic Customers
Grant: £233,775
Qbots Energy
Keele University
Industrial research on Qbots Energy’s smart energy trading and optimisation platform, through a testbed at Keele University. Pilot trials in commercial sites in Greater Manchester, Warrington Cheshire regions. At-least 20 bi-directional chargers, 30 EV charging customer sites, five generators, 2MW of flexibility from vehicle batteries, energy storage and demand flexibility.

V2BUILD – Vehicle-to-Building User Interface Learning Device
Grant: £73,734
Element Energy
Wallbox UK
With support from UK Power Networks, aims to identify for which types of buildings, vehicle fleets, and locations V2B would be most suited, as well as to explore business models. V2B could use parked vehicles to  load-level and balance between rooftop PV, the national power grid and heat pumps.

Project Inflexion
Grant: £135,053
Kaluza
Indra Renewable Technologies
OVO Energy
Volkswagen Group UK
Initially carry out technical tests to validate V2X flexibility using CCS 15118 comms. Understand affordability of EV+V2X, identify potential energy market subsidies, and then identify a business model for energy suppliers, vehicle manufacturers, hardware providers, software providers and consumers.

Megawatt Charging Multidirectional Microgrids
Grant: £234,075
Syselek (UK)
Levistor
Technical and economic assessment of the microgrid equipment and local energy storage  for multi-directional megawatt charging of electric HGV (heavy goods vehicle) fleets.

VECTORS (vehicle to energy communities)
Grant: £213,162
Smart Power Networks
EDF Energy R&D UK Centre
Loughborough University
Urbanomy UK
Oxfordshire County Council
Project to support realisation of V2X services around V2H, expanding on V2-community and aggregated V2-grid. An approach to V2X services, considering multiple objectives for the various actors and stakeholders.

Leasy V2H
Grant: £170,690
GenGame
Evergreen Smart Power
Chameleon Technology (UK)
Enappsys
Business model, tailored to the specific home use case, to mitigate off-putting high up-front costs to consumers.

Secure-V2B
Grant: £209,100
Petalite
RTS Technology Solutions
Aims to securely integrate the power management systems in smart buildings with V2X vehicles, enabling car parks to supplement a neighbouring building’s power needs during high transient energy demands. Will address the barriers to wide-scale adoption of V2B and widen the economic viability of V2X. Resulting data will could shed light on how building operators and EV owners can be compensated and encouraged to participate in V2B / DSR services.

BEVScanV2X
Grant: £165,405
Agile Charging
Hiyacar
Seeks to overcome battery degradation and perception challenges by creating a tool to monitor battery health and advise optimal approaches to maximise battery life and financial returns from V2X. It will apply algorithms across data obtained from the vehicle and battery to provide health assessment with the aim of increasing V2X uptake by removing vehicle owner concerns.

V2VNY
Grant: £145,311
Hanger 19
Crowd Charge
Development of a AC-V2G solution for fleet market with three-socket charger design for V2G, V2B and V2V applications.

Photo supplied by Malvern bi-directional charger company Indra