{"id":22614,"date":"2022-06-27T11:45:19","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T10:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=22614"},"modified":"2022-07-31T17:55:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T16:55:07","slug":"potential-of-bidirectional-ev-charging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/potential-of-bidirectional-ev-charging\/22614\/","title":{"rendered":"The future potential of bidirectional EV charging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Margetts, Director of Sales and Marketing at Smarter Technologies, outlines the benefits of smart EV charging systems and the potential of bidirectional EV charging in the future.<\/h2>\n

Responsible for 27% of total UK greenhouse gas<\/a> emissions, transport is currently the largest emitting sector of the UK economy. Over half the nation\u2019s transport emissions (55%) come from cars. With the UK working towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050, electric vehicles (EVs) offer one method of helping reach this target.<\/p>\n

The UK Government is accelerating the transition to zero emission vehicles. In November 2020, the Prime Minister announced that, by 2030, the sale of new petrol and diesel cars would be phased out and that all new cars and vans would be zero emission by 2035. But with an estimated 677 million EVs on the road by 2040 worldwide and 14 million on UK roads by 2030, where will the energy come from?<\/p>\n

Naturally, the UK\u2019s transition to EVs will increase electricity demand. In September 2021, energy regulator Ofgem highlighted that EVs will require between 65-100TWh of electricity annually by 2050; this represents an increase of 20-30% compared to 2021 levels. With EVs poised to place significant demands on the National Grid, using smart charging or vehicle-to-grid technologies could significantly lower peak demands in the electricity required to fuel EVs.<\/p>\n

The impact of EVs on the overall energy system will depend on when and how EV users charge their vehicles. It will be a massive asset to the energy system if EVs use smart charging technology and provide flexibility to the grid. In fact, models suggest smart charging alone could avoid 5-15GW of demand. Smart charging also benefits EV owners, who can take advantage of off-peak hours and charge their vehicles when electricity prices are low, such as overnight, or at times of high renewable electricity supply. In addition, the batteries in the vehicles could become an asset to the national grid, as they have the potential to be used for grid balancing.<\/p>\n

The benefits of smart EV charging<\/h3>\n

Smart use of the energy system means using power at times when demand (and therefore prices) is low:<\/p>\n