National Grid to drain electric car batteries at times of peak demand

icsys

The National Grid will drain parked electric cars of their batteries in a trial designed to ensure energy supply at times of high demand or low supply. The scheme will see electric vehicles charging on driveways plugged into the system responsible for balancing the National Grid for the first time.

The National Grid has teamed up with domestic supplier Octopus Energy to run the pilot, which 135 households have signed up for. Those taking part will be paid 15p per kWh drained.

If successful, the scheme could be expanded to millions of electric vehicles that could act as a giant battery when the transition to renewable - but less reliable - energy sources is complete.

I can see it now..."Hi boss... sorry I'm going to be late to work.... my car batteries flat!"

National Grid trials new pilot scheme that would drain batteries of parked electric vehicles | Daily Mail Online

QrizB

Great news, can't come soon enough.

Verdigris

No, because they pay you for the electricity.

More misrepresentation from the Mail. How surprising.

icsys

How is it misrepresentation?
Other tabloids are running the same story.

National Grid to drain electric car batteries at times of peak demand (telegraph.co.uk)
Electric car owners asked to give power to National Grid under new plan | UK | News | Express.co.uk
National Grid to drain battery power from electric car owners under radical new plan - New York Times Post (nytimespost.com)

spot1034

I'm sure the Mail will be on standby to report the first instance of someone having to make an unexpected trip to hospital or to assist a frail elderly relative who's had a problem at home, and who has broken down on the way as their car's battery has run out of power.

Aylesbury_Duck

spot1034 said:

I'm sure the Mail will be on standby to report the first instance of someone having to make an unexpected trip to hospital or to assist a frail elderly relative who's had a problem at home, and who has broken down on the way as their car's battery has run out of power.

Don't forget the inevitable immigration and house price angles they'll manage to work into it.

Verdigris

icsys said:

How is it misrepresentation?

You should know. You've edited your post.

Grizzlebeard

That this is being developed in collaboration with Octopus leaves me more relaxed and optimistic than if the energy partner were British Gas.

MWT

A few vital details missing from the report, like for example that V2G is pretty much only available from Nissan /Kia at the moment... (Misubishi?).

There is also a significant timing problem that to be of any use during the 16:00-19:00 peak period the car does actually have to be home and plugged in...

[Deleted User]

A trial which involves 135 EV owners where they are paid for up to 7kWh of energy during the peak 4 to 7pm period is hardly EV battery draining. Octopus estimate that average home use will be in the order of 3kWh during this period making 4kWh available to the Grid. 

Octopus calculate that, at scale, one million electric cars could provide 4,000 megawatt hours to the grid at peak times – roughly the same as 5,000 onshore wind turbines.

This is not the first supplier battery to grid trial that has been undertaken. Ovo has run a V2G trial and Octopus has battery to grid schemes involving Tesla and Powervault batteries. For this particular ‘battery draining’ trial, the consumer will get paid 15p/kWh for all exports and most likely they can recharge overnight at 7.5p/kWh. The loss in range for most mid-sized EVs would be about 25 miles without the recharge.

icsys

Verdigris said:

icsys said:

How is it misrepresentation?

You should know. You've edited your post.

All tabloids are click baity... Is it the bit about being paid? The Mail article does say participants will be paid 60p per hour drained. If not please enlighten me