Virtual Energy Storage System (VESS) journal paper published
November 23, 2017
Andrew presents to IMechE
October 11, 2017
Alongside Dr David Greenwood, Andrew delivered a presentation to the IMechE entitled "Preparing the GB distribution system for the mass uptake of electric vehicles".
This talk will cover the likely impacts uncontrolled EV charging will have on distribution networks and the challenges these networks expect to encounter. One potential solution to these problems is utilising distributed energy storage. Work undertaken by the Smarter Network Storage project will be discussed; this project is the first in the UK where energy storage is being relied upon to provide customers with a reliable supply of energy. Although the costs of energy storage are rapidly falling, it is still prohibitively expensive - consequently these systems must fulfil multiple functions in order to have a viable business case.
The final part of the talk will consider that EVs may actually be part of the solution as well as part of the problem: a methodology has been developed to create a virtual energy storage system from a number of smart-charging electric vehicles. Such systems are expected to enable vehicles to obtain the energy they need by the time they need it for their primary purpose of transport, while providing flexibility to the transmission and distribution systems, allowing these networks to be operated safely without the need to extensively rewire the UK.