Wednesday 18 April 2018

OVO Energy unveils domestic vehicle-to-grid charger

OVO Energy has unveiled what it claims is the world's first widely available domestic vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charger.

ELN attended the launch event, which also saw the release of a new smart charger, a battery storage unit for households and the VCharge smart management system.

Tom Pakenham, Director of Electric Vehicles (EVs) at the company, told ELN the new technologies will help facilitate the wide adoption of EVs, aid the transition to an energy mix based largely on renewables and help consumers reduce their costs by generating their own power and selling whatever is left over back to the grid.

He suggested the equipment would form a vital role in developing the "intelligent energy system of the future", allowing the challenge of intermittency to be overcome by providing a cheaper and more convenient alternative to installing utility-scale battery units at wind and solar farms.

Mr Pakenham added: "If you think about an EV as essentially a massive battery on wheels, it offers a storage device that the energy system can use to store clean renewable energy at times when it's being generated and pass it back into the system at times when there's less of it available."

The Director of EVs said he expected to see a cost-price parity in terms of buying electric cars within the next few years but believed they are already cheaper to run over an entire life cycle.

He added there will always be a place for non-renewable generation on the grid for strategic reasons but that there will be a "huge shift away from traditional thermal plants" in the near future.