Vehicle to Grid (V2G) Barriers and Opportunities: a capability approach

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology is still in early stages of development but offers many possibilities for Smart Local Energy Systems by virtue of its ability to supply flexible demand and generation services that can potentially help with the management and balancing of low voltage electricity networks as well as balancing services for the National grid.

V2G can take charge from the grid or from distributed energy resources (such as a rooftop solar array), store the energy for a limited period and then discharge, either back to the site, to the local network or, indeed, to the motor in the vehicle.

Optimising charge and discharge cycles allows the creation of network services, the ability to take full advantage of time-of-use tariffs (based on wholesale markets for electricity) and to charge at times of low carbon intensity of grid supply and discharge at times of high carbon intensity.

Project LEO is testing V2G’s ability to provide flexibility services as part of its trials. This briefing note captures some of the main learnings around the barriers and opportunities for deployment of V2G charging infrastructure captured from LEO experience with the technology thus far.