Network

NETWORK / 9 / FEBRUARY 2019 Electric cars are mechanically simple, with far fewer moving parts than combustion engine cars and require less servicing, another challenge to the established motor industry. Public perceptions are changing, the public understanding of air quality, par- ticularly in cities is growing and both local and national governments are responding to this. The automotive industry as a whole, and the oil industry are doing all they can to delay the process, while knowing that the changeover to non-combustion transporta- tion is inevitable. Q. How should the electricity indus- try work with the automotive sector to enable growth of the EV market? This is a crucial area but possibly not as doom laden as some reports might suggest. It's essential that the framework for private companies to invest and run public charg - ing infrastructure is laid down, particularly allowing new technologies like grid level battery buffers to be installed near rapid charger hubs. Without question, on the long road to the electrification of transport, some improvement in DNO infrastructure will be necessary, but recent reports from the na - tional grid indicate that with the adoption of the right technology, with smart charg- ing, timed charging, the need for major new generating capacity will be drastically reduced. Q. How important is collaboration amongst the network operators and wider industry when it comes to delivering a future energy system that is capable of driving things forward? My knowledge of the intricacies of grid operating is pedestrian but clearly the more cooperation and transparency there is in developing new integrated systems to cope with the spikes in demand the mass adoption of electric vehicles could produce, the better. Every time I hear of a bottleneck, lack of capacity, etc, there seems to be vi - able and cheaper than expected solutions appearing. Q. What is the most exciting pos- sibility for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology? One of the most exciting and surprising reports I've read about this is that the trickle charging and discharging of car batteries when connected to V2G systems im- proved the battery chemistry, it was a posi- tive benefit which is a bit counter intuitive. Clearly the possibility of one million electric cars connected to the wider grid through V2G systems could have a very beneficial ef - fect to grid balancing. If you took 1 kilowatt hour out of each car, that's 1 gigawatt hour, which by my amateur reckoning is quite a lot. Q. What is the biggest barrier for V2G in the UK? Cost. A V2G system I saw that could, theoretically be installed in my house cost over £6,000. I assume, like batteries, solar panels, wind energy, those costs will come down, but for domestic users it's clearly not a viable economic model just yet. Worth remembering though that for 90 per cent of the time, your car is idle. So V2G systems in company car parks are likely to be installed much sooner. Q. How should the industry prepare for the unknown future of EVs and V2G? I think the transition will be gradual, tri- als for much of this technology are tak- ing place, 'My Electric Avenue' and more recently 'Electric Nation' have been rolled out to see the impact clusters of electric cars in one area have on the local network. It's important that from the point of view of ve- hicle users, the system is simple to use, but clearly we want to be charging the majority of cars at night when electricity is clean and cheap. Q. What do you make of recently announced plans (Pivot Power) to develop a 2GW network of grid- scale batteries and rapid EV charg- ing hubs across the UK? Vitally important, and only economically viable now that battery costs have reduced. I think we'll see more and more grid and domestic storage being introduced. Q. How important is tackling con- sumer behaviour change? Will the industry be able to bring about the necessary changes? I would hope, and experience bears this out, that as new economic opportunities arise as a result of the electrification of transport we'll not only see the general population embrace this new technology, we'll see new industries and systems devel - oped to support it. We can see this already, one person on a street has an electric car, neighbours and friends are sceptical and suspicious, but a"er a while, when they see that person using their car as normal, they start to wonder. The same goes for hotels, restaurants, shopping centres, airports, sports centres, doctors' surgeries, in fact anyone who has a public car park, who install charge points and see an increase in customer visits, the news spreads fast. Des - tination chargers at hotels and restaurants

• Cover