Electric vehicle (EV) uptake is set to surge, and to enable this we must either reinforce the network or will need customers to be flexible around when they charge their cars. Indicatively, without flexible arrangements, we expect to see peak demand growing approximately up to 10% at secondary substations by the end of RIIO-ED1 and up to 30% by the end of the 2030s. This is based on the load impact analysis done at Recharge the Future project at primary substation level, which was then translated into secondary substation level. The majority of this growth will be driven by the uptake of EVs connecting to the LV network. This is an unprecedented pace of growth that will require a step-change in the way we manage the LV network. In the absence of smart solutions, this growth in demand will trigger the need for reinforcement on the network which will be paid by network customers.
UK Power Networks is strategically looking at procuring flexibility as alternative to traditional reinforcement and is adopting a ‘flexibility first’ approach to delivering additional network capacity, which will lead to lower costs and increased renewable energy on the network through more competition. In this context, UK Power Networks has a key role in stimulating the market for flexible services and helping to reduce customers’ bills.
Specifically, smart charging of EVs has the potential to unlock flexibility at LV level, therefore deferring a proportion of the required reinforcement associated with the uptake of EVs. UK Power Networks’ project Smart Charging Architecture Roadmap (SmartCAR) has developed feasible designs for market-led smart charging. However, this has not yet been demonstrated in practice, therefore it is now the time to engage with the market and mobilise trials to explore how these designs will work in reality, and to deploy the smart solutions required on network level to enable smart charging.
Learnings
Outcomes
Building on the outcomes captured in the 2019 and 2020 NIA progress reports, Shift has recently led to:
· Over 2,000 domestic customers smart charging in response to financial incentives. This includes £51,500 of rewards shared with customers over the trials (excluding savings on their electricity tariff, which will be quantified during the final phase of the project)
· New revenue streams for LV connected customers thanks to deployment of the LV Flexibility product developed through Shift in our business as usual tenders. This led to the award of contracts in 15 LV zones and the inclusion of 59 zones in the January 2021 tender.
· More mature smart charging products due to a more comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of different products
· Informed policy, including Ofgem’s Access and Forward Looking Network Charges review, through trials of real-world behaviours.
Lessons Learnt
While the trial with ev.energy was running, we adopted the LV flexibility product designed for Shift into our business as usual flexibility tenders (April 2020). This was a world-first for procurement of flexibility services on the LV network and others around the world can learn from the development and deployment of this product to increase opportunities for domestic flexibility generally, as well as EV services.
To share the learnings from during the trial, we published the Shift Progress Report that describes the network price signals used to incentivise flexibility on the LV network, implementation considerations for scaling these products, and includes the following emerging insights:
· Market participants have been able to deploy smart charging propositions, with a range of approaches and hardware requirements for customers – an encouraging sign that market led smart charging is possible;
· All trials elicited a reasonable response and shift demand away from peak times. Each of the mechanisms has led to a secondary peak in the overnight period;
· High levels of demand reduction over the LV peak (resulting from a single, identical optimisation constraint across an EV portfolio) can reduce charging diversity, leading to secondary peaks, which exceed evening peaks at a household level;
· The impact of secondary peaks on the network depends on the level of EV uptake, proportion of customers who smart charge, and the degree to which they respond;
· The level of override behaviour has been markedly different between individual customers and the Kaluza and ev.energy trial groups, suggesting that the proposition design may be able to reduce this.
The full report is publically available at https://innovation.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/UKPN_Shift_Interim_Report_v05.pdf
