Skip to main content

UK research team aims to develop smart electric vehicle car park

Cenex, the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies, is to be part of the team carrying out a project to establish the feasibility of turning a Solihull car park into a MW-scale battery to provide power on demand to the electricity grid. Part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, the 12-month Net-Form project seeks to develop a secure, dynamic data management platform that collects, aggregates and optimises energy collected by large populations of grid-connected
March 3, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Cenex, the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies, is to be part of the team carrying out a project to establish the feasibility of turning a Solihull car park into a MW-scale battery to provide power on demand to the electricity grid. Part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, the 12-month Net-Form project seeks to develop a secure, dynamic data management platform that collects, aggregates and optimises energy collected by large populations of grid-connected electric vehicle batteries at a single location.
 
Working in partnership with Encraft, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Costain, Aston University and Western Power Distribution, Cenex will offer guidance on vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology and work with EV owners. The Net-Form project will evaluate the opportunity to provide a managed charging service and income to EV owners, who could provide access to their vehicles via a secure mobile application.
 
The sixth V2G project Cenex is contributing to, Net-Form is unique in that it integrates and analyses diverse sets of data and time-sensitive information to optimise the energy system in a non-invasive way. Cenex hopes this feasibility study will shed new light on how EV owners can be expected to interact with the grid, and shape what V2G infrastructure looks like in UK cities and towns.

Related Content

  • August 1, 2023
    Transportation’s electrifying future
    Climbing out of our silos will be vital to create the frameworks and networks needed to decarbonise transport, if we are serious about mitigating climate change, says Colin Sowman
  • July 25, 2017
    New UK study trials effectiveness of low-emission HGVs
    Cenex, the UK’s Centre of Excellence for low carbon technologies is to partner with logistics provider Kuehne + Nagel to trial the effectiveness of low-emissions heavy-goods vehicles (HGVs) operating as parts of large fleets with demanding-duty cycles. Funded in part by Innovate UK’s Low-Emission Freight and Logistics Project, the Reduced-Emission Logistics (RED-E-LOG) trial will see one of the UK’s largest fleet operators trial the effectiveness of dedicated (spark-ignited) gas and dual-fuel direct injecti
  • November 9, 2017
    Cenex conduct EV feasibility study in Northern Wales, UK
    Transport and energy consultancy, Cenex has been appointed by Cadwyn Clwyd (CC), a Rural Development Agency, and Wrexham County Borough Council (WCBC), to determine the feasibility of installing electric charging points across the county of Wrexham. The work is aimed at promoting the uptake of plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) in and around the area. Funding for the project has come from the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European
  • December 3, 2018
    EVs & smart cities: Tritium keeps things moving
    Electric vehicles are widely expected to play a major role in the smarter, cleaner cities of the future. Paul Sernia explains why – and looks at the place of ultra-rapid chargers as part of a versatile public infrastructure Electric vehicles (EVs) are widely expected to play a major role in the smarter, cleaner cities of the future. With no dirty tailpipe, EVs can help improve the polluted air of inner cities. And when deployed as widely shared assets – through car clubs, ride-sharing services and taxi