Rather than hampering electricity grid capacity, electric vehicle charging can help it, according to data captured by a leading smart charging provider.
Myenergi has released a study showing that EV charging at peak times can be made to flex with the network. The company has thousands of customers signed up to tariffs that allow their ‘Zappi’ chargers to respond to peak events in electricity consumption. Myenergi has shown that households have reduced their average consumption by 2.4kW per household.
Myenergi say that this gives the potential for much greater flexible capacity than other demand side (DSR) platforms, which reduce energy consumption by automatically turning off lights and other appliances.
“Data we have collected from recent grid events prove that, far from being a hindrance on the electricity system, electric vehicles are ready to deliver huge benefits in terms of the flexible capacity when they shift charging demand to avoid grid constraints”, said Lee Sutton, co-founder and chief executive officer of Myenergi.
“While we recognise that consumer incentives will be a feature of the market, what is especially impressive is that we have been able to deliver this simply by asking customers to sign up to our DSR service.”
“Done right, grid flexibility should not inconvenience consumers. Indeed, it’s clear that our customers have barely noticed these brief interruptions to their EV charging, as their vehicles have invariably still been able to finish charging,” Sutton said.
Zappi EV smart chargers can be instructed to pause or reduce consumption. Myenergi say that ‘turn up’ events are actually far more likely, where the grid will have a surplus of clean, renewable electricity and will request chargers switch on or increase their consumption.
