Electric vehicles: Threat or an opportunity to the grid? 


Electric Vehicles (EV) reached an important milestone in 2022, with sales hitting 10% of the global vehicle market, driven by strong sales in Europe and China.

Governments are jumping on board to support the EV revolution, investing in charging infrastructure, and pushing it as part of the climate change agenda. As one of the biggest EV charging markets, the US is well-funded for development. The Biden Administration announced more than $7 billion in funding for the country’s charging infrastructure as part of its bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021.

While the UK Government published its Electric Vehicle infrastructure Strategy last year to set out its vision and action plan for the rollout of an EV charging infrastructure, with a confirmed £1.6bn of public funding for charging points.

This is positive news in terms of driving a cleaner, greener world, but what are the challenges, particularly when it comes to the impact on the electricity grid?

First, let’s look at the need for a charging infrastructure that’s fit for purpose. With a proposed ban in the UK on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2023 (currently under review) we can expect to see EV sales accelerate in the next few years. But despite Government charging infrastructure plans, research by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded that the UK would need 10 times more EV charging points by 2030 if it is to meet its net zero emissions target.

The Government recently announced an additional £56m in public and industry funding for increasing EV charge points across the country, expanding the existing Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) plans and effectively levelling up the charging infrastructure.

Legislation might be pushing for EV adoption, but the CMA’s conclusions suggested that concerns over charge points was still putting people off going electric. Charge points need to be easy to find, with up-to-date information on availability, clear pricing structures and accessibility. Once people are confident there’s a viable network of fast charging points in places they need them, they will make the switch.

The second challenge is the growing demand for electricity. If every driver goes electric, grid capacity will be put under huge pressure, particularly when people come home in the evening and want to recharge their car at home. With peak use from 4pm to 6pm, the grid will have to balance this demand for power.  

Electricity suppliers could look to incentivise customers to charge their vehicles outside of peak periods, offering lower rates. Showing how people can save money, especially during a cost of living crisis, will be key.

At the beginning of this year, the DESNZ and Ofgem published plans for domestic EV charging. The Electric Vehicle Smart Charging Action Plan outlines steps to unlock the power of EV charging, offering people the chance to charge their vehicles and power their homes using excess electricity stored in their car, or selling it back to the grid.

Car batteries have a surprising amount of power stored in them, offering hours of energy capacity. In the future, new generations of EVs will be designed for this purpose – to serve as an additional source of backup power, a concept already being explored in the US.

Ford is working with utility operators and service providers to pilot both vehicle to grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-home (V2H) programs. In two schemes, Duke Energy will use EVs to help manage the grid, one to reduce demand for electricity at peak times, and one to increase resilience for residential consumers.

The EV acts as a mobile energy storage unit that uses electricity, but also supplies it when demand is high. The future vision is that thousands, even hundreds of thousands of EVs could form a virtual power station at people’s’ homes, places of work and even on the move.

All of this complicates things of course. With more distributed energy resources - electric vehicles, as well as solar panels, wind turbines, storage devices and so on - the grid will become even more complex. Communication between suppliers and customers therefore becomes increasingly important.

Improved and standardised information exchange on pricing, energy consumption and capacity is the basis for effective load control, enabling energy suppliers to respond flexibly to fluctuating demand. Distribution System Operators need to communicate this information to customers, quickly and securely using open standards like OpenADR. 

As Jaguar Land Rover announces plans to build a flagship EV battery factor in the UK, investing £4bn in the new site, it sets the intention for the industry as a whole. Change is on the way and electrification is the way forward.

We have some problems to solve – from the increasing load on the grid to the automation of load control - but funding, development, and innovation in charging infrastructure and EVs will set us on the right track to help meet these challenges.