The FRED trial, which is led by Evergreen Smart Power in collaboration with Myenergi, GenGame, the Energy Systems Catapult, and Swansea University, gathered 250 participants to investigate ways to change residential energy consumption to assist the grid.
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The Flexibly-Responsive Energy Delivery (FRED) trial, which started in 2019 and included 160 electric vehicle (EV) drivers, revealed that although EV users react positively to incentives, there is no one-size-fits-all offer and that there would likely be a market for many kinds of smart charging frameworks.
In April 2021, Ofgem approved the rollout of half-hourly settlement throughout the retail electricity market in the United Kingdom, enabling a more flexible energy system in the nation. However, this is still in its infancy in the United Kingdom.
If it becomes widespread, it will enable future advancements in smart charging and optimization. Within the trial, modelling projected that by increasing incentives for smart charging and addressing impediments such as half-hourly settlement, direct cost reductions might reach 45 percent.
FRED found a number of impediments to the widespread adoption of smart charging and EV-based virtual power plants (VPPs), the primary technical obstacle being the lack of information about a vehicle's state-of-charge (SoC).
Because SoC is not currently included in the data exchange protocols for domestic AC charging, a smart charging provider would need to integrate with the vehicle manufacturer's servers and programming interfaces to determine the battery's exact state of charge and thus the amount of flexibility it can provide. To address this, regulatory measures would be necessary.
The VPP software from Evergreen Smart Power was utilised in conjunction with the smart charging features incorporated into myenergi's zappi charger to optimise the FRED trial participants' automobiles, shifting charging to save money and carbon. Additionally, as part of the trial, the consortium of enterprises investigated the possibility of incorporating this VPP into frequency markets.
Along with a 26% reduction in energy supply costs for EVs, the FRED trial discovered an additional 18% savings through flexibility income. This corresponds to a value of £110 per client each year.
However, this remains a long way off since regulatory changes are required to realise its full potential.
To find out more about the insights from the FRED trial, read the full report here.
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