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

  • Global navigation reference point to test zero emission driverless vehicles
    December 4, 2014
    A successful consortium led by the UK’s Transport research Laboratory (TRL) has been selected by Innovate UK to deliver the GATEway project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment), one of three projects awarded to test driverless vehicles in UK urban locations. The US$12.5 million project will see three trials of different types of zero emission automated vehicles within an innovative, technology-agnostic testing environment set in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The ‘prime meridian’ was establi
  • TRL to participate in prestigious EV European project
    February 3, 2014
    The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) is to participate in a large European Commission project which aims to directly address the technological feasibility, economic viability and the socio-environmental effects of dynamic on-road charging of electric vehicles (EV). Known as FABRIC (FeAsiBility analysis and development of on-Road charging solutions for future electric VehiCles), this four-year project is in response to the need to assess the potential and feasibility of a more extensive integratio
  • Siemens Mobility is clearing the air
    October 2, 2020
    Tens of thousands of premature deaths in the UK alone are linked to air quality - but it doesn’t have to be that way. Siemens Mobility’s Wilke Reints explains why
  • ITS Australia Awards 2025 finalists announced
    November 13, 2024

    ITS Australia has announced 32 finalists for the 15th Annual ITS Australia Awards, with winners announced at a ceremony on 13 February 2025 in Perth, Western Australia.