Project Summary
Lightspeed seeks to re-imagine how the UK rolls out on-street EV charging to facilitate the decarbonisation of transport. Almost 40% of UK households do not have off-street parking, and therefore the UK needs to rapidly accelerate the deployment of public charging infrastructure to meet consumer demand and government targets.
The project will develop a bidirectional lamppost-based EV charging solution for new and existing lampposts that can support both smart charging and V2X capabilities, while providing rapid EV charging without the need for major network upgrades. The solution will help ensure that DNOs are not a blocker to Net Zero.
Innovation Justification
How does your Project demonstrate novel and ambitious innovation in the energy networks? How does it build upon your previous SIF Discovery Phase or other funded innovation Project? Why is it suitable to be funded by SIF rather than other sources?
Lightspeed seeks to decarbonise transport by re-designing how on-street EV charging is deployed and operated in LA areas Lightspeed will achieve this by both retrofitting existing lampposts and building and deploying new lampposts and network infrastructure specifically designed for the Lightspeed EV Charging solution. Lightspeed aims to increase the accessibility of on-street EV charging infrastructure by developing a bidirectional lamppost-based charging solution that provides flexibility to EV users and the grid, thus addressing Challenge 4 - Accelerating decarbonisation of major energy demands.
Lamppost EV chargers already exist; however, these solutions typically provide AC charging at 3-5 kW, which diminishes their benefits. Lightspeed will develop a first of its kind V2X capable lamppost solution that consists of a multifunctional DC converter and integrated underground battery storage and renewable generation. Lightspeed will develop a control management system that integrates customers’ needs, the grid’s available capacity and DER to dynamically alter charging capacity and provide flexibility to networks. This will enable a street of lampposts to be managed as an EV charging network.
This solution is highly innovative in the context of on-street public charging. Current bi-directional DC-DC designs in the market are limited, lack advanced power conversion configurations, control systems, and face interoperability issues. The two closest technology providers looking at similar innovations in the market are Enphase and Wallbox. However, these chargers rely on AC transformers for bi-directional power and therefore face different limitations.
During Discovery Phase, the project engaged with a wide range of stakeholders. Over fifty user stories and functional requirements were documented and prioritised to meet the needs of different stakeholders and used to design the technical specifications for the solution’s hardware and software. In Alpha, Lightspeed will take the user stories, requirements, and specifications to build and test a prototype and undertake other readiness activities.
How Discovery learnings have informed Alpha Phase:
· To build the energy management system and software, we need to understand how Lightspeed will interact and interface with customers especially for flexibility. In Alpha, ev.energy are a new project partner who will be leading on this work package.
· There are many testing requirements that need to be met for Lightspeed to be rolled out. In Alpha, we will develop a Beta deployment plan which includes testing, certification, manufacturing, and installation.
· There many different connection scenarios that Lightspeed may encounter. To understand the network integration in detail, during Alpha we will shortlist streets and assessing the network capacity for these streets.
· Accessibility needs to be included as part of Lightspeed’s design. In Alpha, we will be engaging with Brighton & Hove City Council’s (BHCC) Disabled Car User Advisory Group.
The proposed scale at Beta is ~1,000 EV chargers deployed in BHCC’s local area, which is based on their EV targets and current tender for lamppost chargers. This scale is appropriate and feasible as it enables Lightspeed to demonstrate the solution’s value through aggregating flexibility services, enables scaling challenges to be identified and resolved, and will therefore provide the confidence to replicate the solution across other LAs. By the end of Alpha, the TRL, IRL and CRL of the Lightspeed innovation will be 7.
Development of Lightspeed innovation cannot be funded elsewhere within the price control or as part of business-as-usual activities given the nascent lamppost EV bidirectional charging technology and complexity and risk in approach. Other innovation funding has been explored but is not suitable as Lightspeed needs the flexibility to pivot between use cases, bring on new partners when needed, and scale when ready. Therefore, the SIF provides the right funding and ecosystem for the project to develop in an agile way.
Impacts and Benefits
Lightspeed has a discounted NPV of £3.03m by 2030 within BHCC area only.
This Discovery CBA is conservative as some benefits need more qualification during Alpha. For example, there will also be benefits in ‘Revenues - improved access to revenues for users of network services’, ‘Financial - cost savings per annum for users of network services’ and ‘New to market – processes’ as the Lightspeed solution will expand access to flexibility services and provide a new way for LAs to manage EV charging and street lighting.
The Discovery CBA is based on the following assumptions:
· The ambition is to deploy 1,000 chargers over 2025-26, split evenly between the retrofit and new build.
· If Lightspeed is not deployed, 500 lampposts will be retrofitted with non-bi-directional slow EV chargers and 500 new lampposts will not be installed with EV chargers as there is not currently a market ready solution.
· Lightspeed will help to increase the uptake of EVs from diesel/petrol cars by giving residents without off-street parking access to on-street EV charging. We assume three new EVs for every charger installed.
Financial - future reductions in the cost of operating the network (£1.93m undiscounted)
Baseline: Assume seven LV substations that Lightspeed would save from needing upgrades, do still require upgrades.
Solution: There are 564 LV substations in BHCC. During RIIO-ED2, UK Power Networks (UKPN) forecasts 4.7% of these substations need upgrading. Assuming Lightspeed can alleviate 25% of these due to the scale of the Beta Phase, the energy management system and by providing flexibility services to the grid, we forecast we could save seven substation upgrades.
Lightspeed will monitor the number of LV substations in RIIO-ED2 that require upgrades. We will identify if the difference between forecast and actual can be attributed to the Lightspeed solution based on energy management and performance of the Lightspeed solution and the amount of flexibility that UKPN procures from Lightspeed.
Financial - cost savings per annum on energy bills for consumers (£0.27m undiscounted)
Baseline: There is an annual cost to a consumer of EV charging which has been calculated by multiplying the average electricity price of on-street chargers by the average number of kWh an EV uses. This is calculated by multiplying the number of annual EV miles by the EV efficiency.
Solution: The annual Lightspeed cost to a consumer is calculated in the same way, however, we’ve assumed a 13% saving on the electricity price and therefore cost to consumer which is based on the saving customers typically see from smart EV charging*.
Lightspeed will measure and track the electricity price and incentives offered to Lightspeed users to work out an average cost of charge for a Lightspeed EV and compare this to industry and competitor benchmarks to work out the actual percentage cost saving.
*https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2019/Sep/IRENA_EV_Smart_Charging_2019.pdf
Environmental - carbon reduction – indirect CO2 savings per annum (£1.66m undiscounted)
Baseline: The GHG emissions associated with petrol cars is calculated based on the average number of petrol miles, the petrol fuel efficiency, and the carbon emissions factors for petrol.
Solution: The CO2 savings from consumers switching from petrol cars to EVs is calculated using the EV efficiency, annual EV miles and electricity carbon emissions factor*.
The CBA does not include the GHG emission benefits from switching from current EV chargers to bi-directional EV chargers that can shift demand to off peak low carbon periods. In addition, if renewables are integrated into the solution, this will lower the emissions factor further. Air quality benefits which have not yet been included.
Lightspeed would measure and track the number of new chargers installed to calculate the actual CO2 savings.
*https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/valuation-of-energy-use-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions-for-appraisal
