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Octopus Energy Group and the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) said the tests demonstrated the viability of the technology which could allow consumers to save energy and bring down their household bills.

The experiment used a test environment of the ‘Balancing Mechanism’, the primary tool used by National Grid ESO to balance Britain’s electricity system in real-time.

This is the first time that V2G technology has been demonstrated in the UK to show that electric vehicles can receive a direct signal from the ESO to support system balancing.

In a series of initial tests run this month, Octopus charged and discharged the batteries of up to 20 electric cars from participating customers at times of grid imbalance.

The tests demonstrated the potential benefit of V2G charging: an hour of a million EVs exporting to the grid is estimated to provide the same amount of power as 5,500 onshore wind turbines.

Separate analysis from Octopus Energy’s electric...

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  • I have two areas of concern with regards to this article.  

    1.  ‘Could Save’ is not a very good incentive.  As the cost of electricity rises will Octopus and the ESO increase the amount they pay the owner of the EV to compensate for their vehicle balancing the power grid.  

    2.  Furthermore, the author of the article did not appear to push for a clear answer from Claire Miller with regards to the statement ‘Concerns have been raised in the past that V2G systems could significantly shorten the lifespan of electric vehicle batteries’.  This statement has been left open ended.  Battery life will be reduced by charging and at 8K+ for a new battery one should think, are the savings worth it.  

    Additionally, Lithium-ion batteries are not the safest of batteries and continual charging and discharging of the battery could lead to an increase for the potential of a fire.  It would have been interesting to know the age of the battery used, how many charging cycles it had undergone and how much power would it draw from the battery during the charging period.

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