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The Octopus Powerloop bundle is now available in the areas that are served by UK Power Networks (East Anglia, Greater London and some Home Counties, plus Sussex and Kent); click here to check if you’re in the right area.
Electric Vehicles are an essential element in our transition to a clean, green future, and it’s not just because they’re ultra-low emissions. We’re right at the forefront of a pretty incredible alternative use for the car batteries. It would do massive good for the UK’s fuel mix, save you money, and ensure our energy infrastructure can support an all-electric world. It’s called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging.
With vehicle-to-grid, your EV can be used as a battery pack, letting you sell stored excess battery back to the grid when demand for energy is peaking.
We’re trialling this tech now with our groundbreaking Powerloop bundle, one of the world’s first mass domestic V2G projects.How does Powerloop work?
Customers with a Nissan LEAF have their homes kitted out with a special V2G compatible charger. They switch onto our Agile tariff, which has prices that change every half an hour of the day to reflect the peaks and plunges of the wholesale price of energy. The V2G charger can import energy to charge, but also export energy to feed it back to the grid. Like this:
https://octopus.energy/blog/vehicle-to-grid/
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.
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If it was the n my area I would seriously consider it
I looked battery storage when I had solar panels fitted to the house roof…. but the cost wasn’t justifiable at the time.
Domestic solar schemes are already selling energy back to the grid so I’m sure it won’t be long before we do the same with EVs.
Using idle capacity in EV batteries at peak times and then charging overnight at off peak times seems like a very good way of levelling out supply demand.
I presume that the main issue is getting the metering right so that the EV owner doesn’t profit from charging overnight at off peak rates and generating at peak rates.
Getting cheap V2G chargers is the big hurdle roly that’s why this caught my eye as they are fitted free. On a really sunny day or when the wind is blowing the price of electricity can be zero or they will pay you to take it. These chargers and others can be programmed to charge your battery during these times.
I too have solar panels and, when I get an EV and smart charger, will be driving for nothing for half the year. That is until they bring in pay as you drive.
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.I presume that the main issue is getting the metering right so that the EV owner doesn’t profit from charging overnight at off peak rates and generating at peak rates.
Surely doing this is defeating the whole point? If it’s going to cost more to charge overnight than you get back from the system at peak times, what is the benefit to the consumer other than a “feel-good” aspect. If you know, in advance, that it will cost (figures made up to demonstrate my point) 50p to charge your car overnight, but the max you can get back is 45p because the system is set up to avoid people making a profit, you’d be better off not taking part – surely the point is that when energy is cheap, you store it, and when it’s worth more you sell it back – the EV owner making a profit is the only reason for the EV owner to actually take part, otherwise you may as well charge overnight, then unplug so the owner Benefits when they use the car. If the EV owner can get back 60p for the energy they paid 50p for overnight, then it’s worth doing to that user, otherwise they’re just being set up to lose 5p a day by helping the grid cope.
"Man is born in freedom, but he soon becomes a slave, in cages of convention, from the cradle, to the grave."
Correct Colin, EV owners will make up to £200 per year using V2G chargers that’s why this is such an interesting deal. V2G chargers cost about £4,000 to buy but this deal gives you them free.
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.Sorry – I was not clear.
You just need to look at the way the solar feed in tariffs have gone south to see that things are not going to be as simple as buying low, selling high.
I, of course, agree that there has to be a financial incentive for an EV owner to be bothered to plug in.
To be honest, it could also work at a net-zero cost – as long as I don’t LOSE out, I’d be more than willing to help from a greater good perspective. It’s when it actually costs something I think a lot of the appeal is taken away.
"Man is born in freedom, but he soon becomes a slave, in cages of convention, from the cradle, to the grave."
Roly the thing about generating electricity is that it costs money to switch things off. The government pay suppliers when there is no demand, yes they actually pay them to switch things off. So a payment to V2G households is small potatoe to what it costs just now AND the electricity is there in the car battery to be used later.
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.Oh yes, I realise that electricity generation is far from perfect science.
Hence why battery storage en masse is going to be a very interesting development.
Brydo be careful with your maths with this. Pv alone will not nearly charge your electric car.
My I3s has a 42 kw battery on my best ever Pv day I get 53kws from my 6.72kw system over about 16hrs of charge most days around half that.
Couple that with the car has to be available to charge I think you need to aim your ev charging from the sun a little lower….
Haha Ian I was not suggesting your ev system would fill your ev up every day. If you do 8000 miles per year that’s about 22 miles per day. 22 miles is about 10% of some 50kwh batteries so all that is needed is about 5kwh to give you that kind of mileage and my 4kw system gives me that on some winter days.
Whatever the math a solar panel system will mean you will pay very little to run your ev during the summer months.
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.Brydo ah understand your logic sir! I think by using your pv and also getting a cheap overnight charging tariff you are going to see some very cheap motoring! I know that I am nearly 7000miles in since end October!
Look forward to hearing about it
Definitely Ian, this deal is a great deal if you can get it.
You are reaping the benefits of solar ian now you have your new BEV, how are you finding it (don’t say you come out every day and its sitting on your drive lol).
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.Brydo sir it continues to make me smile everytime I get in it. Even the dog chooses it instead of the other car!
Build quality is superb, savings continue to astonish me and rather than being worried about its range I see it is an opportunity to plan trips in a different way.
For the first time today I felt it twitch in a cross wind which was a bit unnerving but I guess if you drive lorries or buses you get used to it.
You get to have conversations with people about it which is nice and I do like not having to go to a petrol station and see £80 disappear.
Haven’t really taken advantage of solar yet, next month is when I start to get decent production. Overnight charging at 5p a kw works brilliantly.
I absolutely do not regret getting the I3s even when I was ordering I wondered whether there was something I had overlooked which would be a problem for me, 3 months into owning it does exactly what I expect it to and I love it!
Ian its great to hear your enjoying it so much, don’t want to wish our life away but in three years time there should be lots more to choose from. Although I do believe the i3 will gain iconic status and be looked back on fondly in the years to come.
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.Nissan LEAF Goes On 230-Mile Fully Autonomous Drive
The subtitle “Nissan Beats Tesla To The Post?” definitely needs the question mark in it, as, with autonomous driving, there are too many unknowns to make any definite comparisons. Not all documentations of journeys are published, and we know Tesla and Waymo have millions or billions of miles of driving data tucked away. Also, who knows when the first truly autonomous vehicle will be generally available to be used by almost anyone, anywhere?
Level 5 Autonomy?
All we can say for sure about the Nissan announcement of a 230 mile journey completed in November 2019 in an automated LEAF is that it is a record for length of an autonomous journey in the UK. It is also remarkable in that it was completed without human intervention, on all kinds of roads, including motorways (freeways) and ordinary rural roads with no markings. Many systems exist, including the current Nissan ProPilot suite, which will quite happily follow well defined lane markings on the motorway, but put it on a rural road, with no markings, and the system will go into meltdown, with too many variables to compute.https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/08/nissan-leaf-goes-on-230-mile-fully-autonomous-drive/
The only person who got all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe.
Anything i post over three lines long please assume it is an article lol.
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