Electric vehicle charging infrastructure on UK roads is to be advanced, thanks to a new £5.6 million project – funded by Innovate UK – to develop Vehicle-2-Grid (V2G) technologies, involving WMG at the University of Warwick.

For three years from April 2018, the EV-elocity consortium will conduct a project to demonstrate and develop V2G technology across a variety of UK locations, including airports and business parks – with the aim of proving its viability and worth to business and the wider public.

Researchers at WMG, led by vehicle electrification and energy storage expert Dr James Marco, will build a techno-economic model of how V2G will be viable within the UK. A key innovation will be the inclusion of new models of battery degradation within the analysis that will underpin new methods to optimise the vehicle’s battery system.

Dr Marco’s team will also analyse real-world usage data from a range of different electric fleet vehicles as they are used within a V2G context.

The project will break new ground in helping consumers, businesses and infrastructure providers to financially benefit from adapting their charging behaviour and vehicle use.

In doing so, the project will help to further accelerate and incentivise the transition from traditional fuel sources to electric vehicles.

At the core of the project is establishing scalable business models and underlying data services that will be required to support the growth of this market.

Dr James Marco, Reader in Vehicle Electrification and Energy Storage at WMG, commented: “This is an exciting opportunity to study the possible benefits of V2G technology in the real-world and to construct a new holistic model of how best to optimise the ever-increasing integration of electric vehicles and our energy infrastructure.”

V2G technology enables plug-in electric vehicles to intelligently communicate with the power grid – potentially returning excess electricity back to the grid while the vehicle is parked or inactive, which can power buildings and infrastructure.

This revolutionary technology would make the UK power grid more efficient as electric vehicles grow in popularity - creating huge potential savings for consumers, businesses and utility companies, as well as a more environmentally friendly charging infrastructure.

Furthermore, recent research from WMG at the University of Warwick found that V2G technology can even improve lithium ion battery life in electric vehicles.

Notes to editors:

The EV-elocity consortium is led by A.T. Kearney, and includes WMG, Honda UK, University of Nottingham, The Peel Group, Cenex, Ecar club, Brixworth Technology and a UK-based energy supply business, Leeds City Council and Nottingham City Council.

The project will run from April 2018 for three years.

The work undertaken by Dr Marco extends research done under two projects that include: Ebbs and Flow (funded by Innovate UK & EPSRC) and C-Madens (funded by EPSRC).

About WMG

WMG is a world leading research and education group and an academic department of the University of Warwick, established by Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya in 1980 in order to reinvigorate UK manufacturing through the application of cutting edge research and effective knowledge transfer.

WMG has pioneered an international model for working with industry, commerce and public sectors and holds a unique position between academia and industry. The Group’s strength is to provide companies with the opportunity to gain a competitive edge by understanding a company’s strategy and working in partnership with them to create, through multidisciplinary research, ground-breaking products, processes and services.

Every year WMG provides education and training to schoolchildren through to senior executives. There is a growing part-time undergraduate programme for apprentices, as well as full-time undergraduates. The postgraduate programmes have over 2,000 students, in the UK and through centres in China, India, Thailand, South Africa and Malaysia.

More about WMG’s battery research https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/research/energy_electrical_systems/