Electric Nation featured in Energy World
Electric Nation has been featured in the November 2017 issue of Energy World magazine. The 2,000 word article provides all the information you need to know about the Electric Nation project and smart charging.
Titled ‘Energy use in transport: EV charging and how this would impact the grid’, the feature looks at National Grid’s ‘Future Energy Scenarios’ (FES), published on 13 July 2017, which included a number of scenarios which estimated that the additional system-wide peak electricity demand from electric vehicles would range from 6 to 18GW in 2050.
Barely two weeks after the FES document was published, on 26 July 2017, the UK government announced that it would ban the sale of conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040.
In response to various items of media coverage about EVs and the grid resulting from the two items above, National Grid issued an ‘EV myth buster’ document on 8 August 2017, which aimed to clarify the most likely future scenario (‘Two Degrees’) regarding EVs and the grid.
Since then there have continued to be many stories on this subject. There is one key issue that has not been made clear, which is the differentiation between National Grid’s power supply (generation) and local, low voltage (LV) electricity network capacity to deliver that power to consumers of power. The main issue around network capacity relates to clusters of EVs charging at peak times on local electricity networks – i.e. the cables running from local substations to people’s homes, which Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) are responsible for. The expected peaks on such networks are likely to be for short periods in the early evening in winter months.
Electric Nation is trialling smart charging solutions to the issue of potential local electricity network capacity challenges with 500-700 electric vehicle drivers, comprised of over 40 makes and models of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
You can read the full article in Energy World here
Find out more about Energy World here:
https://knowledge.energyinst.org/magazines/energy-world
Energy World, the magazine of the Energy Institute, is a monthly magazine that looks at the entire energy industry and its customers. Through content from its editors, energy writers and industry experts the magazine offers informed analysis on the big energy picture, covering everything from small-scale solar to nuclear power; energy demand to supply; policy to technology – and how these are interlinked and affect the environment.
