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NETWORK / 35 / JULY/AUGUST 2016 sive event in June that the UK has the largest potential market for V2G in terms of scale. Project partner Enel has been active in e-mobility since 2007 and has installed more than 2,700 charging stations in Europe (mainly in Italy, Spain, Romania and Greece), all remotely managed and con- trolled in real time through Enel's Electric Mobility Management system. It has also undertaken a project with IKEA to install recharge columns in its stores in all 18 cities where Enel is the DSO. But while automo- tive manufacturer Fiat does not have an EV model, no real meaningful EV market exists in Enel's native Italy. Enel has also been active in Latin Amer- ica, and is the official power partner of the Formula E Championship, where the group is delivering smart metering, energy man- agement, renewable energy generation, storage and charging technologies. One issue that has already emerged with charging is the lack of an international standard, which means Enel is currently working to two different standards with its charging technology. So far the V2G project in the UK has required little involvement from DNOs themselves despite the likely relevance of the findings to DNOs operations. Carranza added that enthusiasm for V2G "varied" among the DNOs he has spoken to, with the more forward-thinking ones embracing it, while with more traditionally minded operators, "it is like speaking a different language". Last year the potential was revealed for electric vehicles to bring about a fresh approach to energy use, consumption and storage. The Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy (AMIE) demonstration, conducted by the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, is a model for energy-efficient systems that link buildings, vehicles and the grid. The project connected a natural-gas-powered hybrid EV with a solar-powered building to create an integrated energy system. Both the building and vehicle were manufactured using 3D printing. Wireless technology developed by the lab allows power to flow in either direction between the building and the vehicle. This means the EV battery can be used to provide supplementary power to the 210 sq ft house when the sun is not shining. Advanced building controls and power management maximise the efficiency of the system's components. The project's energy control centre manages the system's electrical demand and load by balancing the intermittent power from the 38x12x13ft building's 3.2kW solar array with supplemental power from the vehicle. "We designed a building that innovates construction and building practices and a vehicle with a long enough range to serve as a primary power source," says Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Roderick Jackson, who led the AMIE demonstration project. "Our integrated system allows you to get multiple uses out of your vehicle." W o r l d f i r s t E V h i g h W ay The world's first electric motorway has been opened in Sweden. The E16 motorway outside the central-Swedish city of Gävle has a 2km test strip of electrified road for heavy-truck transport. Trucks will receive electrical power via a pantograph power collector mounted on the frame behind its cab, which will be connected to overhead power lines located over the road. While on the highway, the trucks will operate as EVs but on normal roads they will be run as hybrids, either using combustion engines or the battery-charged electric motor. The technology, known as conductive electrical transmission, has been developed by Siemens, which, in association with truck manufacturer Scania, has been conducting trials of electric trucks at its research facility outside Berlin since 2013. Trucks powered by electricity are capable of reducing fossil fuel emissions by 80 to 90% and energy consumption by 50% or more. E V m i n i g r i d The power of EVs to change the way energy is consumed has been explored in a printed prototype gEt to Low carbon transport and renewable heat are the subject of one of the Energy and Climate Change Committee's ongoing investigations. See networks. online for news coverage