The UK’s e4Future project team issued a white paper that quantifies the benefits of V2G and addresses challenges that this innovative solution is facing in realising its full potential.

• • The white paper explores the present-day opportunity and challenges for aggregators of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) fleets in the UK.
  • Analysis presented estimates that 1 million V2G-enabled fleet EVs could achieve annual financial benefits of up to £1250 (around €1412) per V2G-enabled EVas well as cost savings of up to £883m (around €1 billion) and the reduction of carbon emissions of up to243gCO2/km per vehicle for the overall power system.
  • CHAdeMO is the unique provider of the V2G technology with production model vehicles such as Nissan LEAF and e-NV200, as well as bi-directional chargers readily available in the market.

Ever wondered why V2G is getting more attention today? The ‘Drive towards a low-carbon grid’ – a white paper jointly issued on 7 January by Nissan (CHAdeMO Executive Member), E.On Drive and London Imperial College – might give some insights to the question.

According to the white paper, with a low penetration of 50,000 V2G-enabled EVs scenario, each EV can enable the annual savings of grid’s operation cost up to £12 000 (approximately €13 500) and CO2 reduction of approximately 60 tonnes per year. Reduced wind curtailment and more efficient frequency response provision through V2G are the main drivers of the cost and emission savings, the author explains. Stacking different use cases, the team estimates that annual V2G benefits could range between £700 to £1250 (around €780 to €1400) per EV per year.

Professor Goran Strbac, Chair in Electrical Energy Systems at Imperial College London was quoted in Nissan’s press release: Our research has demonstrated that V2G can provide very substantial economic benefits to the power system as well as reduce carbon emissions. This revealed that the additional flexibility provided by V2G fleets can considerably improve system efficiency and reduce investment in new low-carbon generation, while meeting national decarbonisation targets”.

The white paper also underscores that a reliable business model is needed for V2G to take off at the scale required for its full potential to be unlocked. However, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach towards a V2G fleet customer business model is difficult to put into practice due to the complexities that V2G implies. For example, the benefits that V2G can deliver may vary significantly due to factors such as the energy usage pattern, the DNO region and the fleet’s driving and charging behaviour (find more details in Chapter 3.4).

At the end of the white paper, the authors urges policy makers to no longer consider low-carbon transport and energy sector separately or in isolation and recommend financial and non-financial incentives to accelerate the zero emissions mobility transition as well as the roll-out of V2G charging infrastructure across the UK.

The full white paper is available for download here.

CHAdeMO is the unique provider of the V2G technology and we look forward to seeing more V2G projects develop around the world. V2G Hub, created by InnovateUK, provides a database of V2G projects from around the world. If you wish to add your project, you can do so directly from their website.