Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | SEPTEMBER 2021 | 33 Yiango Mavrocostanti, innovation manager at WPD, explains the aims and parameters of the DynaCoV (Dynamic Charging of Vehicles) project to UW Innovate. What are the aims of the project? Is it going to lead to a live trial? We won't be digging up any roads yet! We are doing this project to understand how feasible it is to have dynamic wireless charging on motorways in the UK, and what that actually means in terms of the impact it could have on our network, and providing a connection to such a system. So the aim is to conclude whether such an implementation is feasible, and therefore should we proceed to trial perhaps as a next step. If successful, it could provide an important, alterna- tive way of charging. Not everyone will be able to charge at home, or to a• ord an electric vehicle charger or even have o• street parking available or access to workplace or destination charging. So it's important to explore options of how we can make it easier for UK consumers to charge their cars, and to accelerate faster adoption of electric vehicles. How far has this technology progressed in other countries? The - rst part of the work was to do an assessment of similar work abroad; implementations in Europe have trialled the technology on speci- c, limited pieces of road infrastructure, but nowhere has implemented it as a "business as usual" system. Israel has a trial on 600m of road, and we've seen other implementations in Sweden, Germany and Italy. Here in the UK it's not about proving whether you can technically charge a vehicle on the road as it passes over it, but what do you need to do to facilitate it for consumers? What do the Distribution Network Operators [DNOs] need to do in order to be able to support such a connection in their network? That's what distinguishes us from any other work that has been done before. It's a big piece of the puzzle. So how does it work, technically? The EV needs to be able to communicate with the sys- tem on the road, so you need cars that have that capabil- ity. We have some vehicle manufacturers involved in the project [Toyota] so that we can assess whether it is feasible to produce electric cars with that technology. It's also the elements of how you charge the customers when they charge their cars – there are di• erent com- plexities. The project is about understanding what technology should be applied and how close we are, in terms of being able to try it out. The most important thing for us as a DNO is to understand how it will a• ect our network. If the distribution network is not ready, and doesn't have the capacity or the systems to support technologies like this, then it would be a barrier. If this does become a viable technology, is it game changing? De- nitely. It sounds like a concept that's really far away, it sounds like it's not mature enough yet. But that actu- ally isn't that case, so it is important for us to look at these technologies, to ensure that we will be able to sup- port them. We are seeing things changing really fast in the area of EVs. It's a big responsibility for us to ensure that we do move fast as DNOs and change our network to make it more enabled to support this technology. On a dual carriageway or a motorway with several lanes, will just one lane have dynamic charging? And are HGVs and buses a primary target? Yes, the challenge with HGVs is that battery technology is not su– cient for larger and heavier vehicles. So a charge-as-they-drive solution will be really important, to extend their range and make adoption easier. In terms of how much capacity you have for charging, whether it's one lane or two, that's exactly why we are doing the feasibility study, to understand what makes sense. Would we need more than one lane? And if we have one, how is that going to a• ect tra– c? We're look- ing at those whole system considerations that go beyond just the electricity. That's exactly why we have National Express, Toyota and Transport for West Midlands as partners on the project. Who else is involved in the team? One innovation engineer from my team is working on it from our side as the WPD project manager. Coventry Uni- versity are leading the coordination of the other project partners. It was Coventry City Council that got in touch with us with the overall idea and we are excited to be working with them. This project brings together lots of di• erent sectors and we get the chance to interact with experts from transport and others to get the knowledge really, that we wouldn't be able to get if we were work- ing in isolation. We think there's no other way we can achieve net zero: cross sector collaboration is necessary and we have plans to continue leading more collabora- tions like this one. What could the • nal report – due in February 2022 – recommend? The project will tell us whether we should invest in a trial, depending on whether it has the potential to pro- vide bene- ts for UK consumers. And if it does conclude that, our next step would be to shape up a trial, and if not capture the barriers to understand more about them. We are looking forward to completing this project and deciding our next steps in this exciting area! Elaine Knutt, freelance journalist The EV needs to be able to communicate with the sys- tem on the road, so you need cars that have that capabil- ity. We have some vehicle manufacturers involved in the project [Toyota] so that we can assess whether it is feasible to produce electric What's driving DynaCoV?

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