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The Topic: Flexibility FLEXIBILITY THE TOPIC 10 | 30TH JUNE - 6TH JULY 2017 | UTILITY WEEK E lectric vehicles are expected to be one of the major drivers behind transforma- tion of the power system, thanks to the massive changes they will create in power consumption and demand – at least, when rolled out at scale. The impact they will have – and the whole-system solution needed to mitigate the impact – was top of mind for power system experts at Utility Week Live. John Scott, director of Chiltern Power, outlined the exponential growth of the elec- tric vehicle market around the world. He said rapid chargers typically operate on 50kW and can usually charge an EV in around a half an hour. However, new tech- nology is emerging: a supercharger recently installed in Switzerland operates at 150kW and can charge an EV in as little as ten minutes. "A couple of those chargers in your local supermarket car park is the equivalent of 100 new houses appearing on the distribution network. That's really, really significant and it could happen overnight," Scott said. He noted that National Grid's Gone Green future energy scenario foresees three million EVs by 2020 and posed a thought experi- ment: what happens if 25 per cent of those cars are connected to a smart charger at the same time, we move from a high time-of-use tariff to a low time-of-use tariff and all of them start charging at once? "The step change in load on the GB energy system is over 2GW, potentially instantane- ously… The maximum that is accommodated in step change at the moment is 1.3GW… A 2.2GW step change would actually destabi- lise the power grid. "The old-world solu- tion is for National Grid to simply carry move fast reserve, but that's extremely expensive." Scott said there are all sorts of things engineers could do, for exam- ple intro- Driving towards a whole-system solution A sudden explosion in the take-up of electric vehicles could mean a corresponding ramp-up in the number and capacity of chargers, which would need drastic action to stop the grid falling over. ducing randomised delays to switching, "but that would require a co-ordinated approach; it would require that logic to be introduced to the soware in the cars, the soware in the chargers; communications with the grid operator". Scott and fellow experts argued that the degree of change brought about by EVs and other technologies would require a new kind of solution – a whole-system solution. Simon Harrison, group strategic develop- ment manager at Mott McDonald and one of Utility Week Live's top ten transformative leaders, highlighted the many stakeholders that need to be part of whole-system solu- tion: "It's not a future that dwells in the big generation arena, or dwells in the networks arena, but crosses the total system including what's happening on the consumer side of the meter… There's a whole landscape that most of us who spent our careers working in the utility world actually don't see and don't engage with. "There are at least two speeds, and the speed at which firms which work in the con- sumer world operate is much, much faster than what tends to happen in the utility world and so there is a pace issue, which is coming from consumers and companies that work with consumers… That potentially cre- ates conflicts. "If you go and talk to those groups of people they speak a different language. They use the same word for different things, and its actually really hard to find commonal- ity between the two except where they are forced to come together. "Unless, we can find common ground and have a debate on common terms, we're not going to find a shared vision, and if we can't find a shared vision, we're going to struggle to make the most of this huge oppor- tunity which this future change is bring to us." "A couple of those [high capacity] chargers in your local supermarket car park is the equivalent of 100 new houses appearing on the distribution network." l John Scott, director, Chiltern Power "There's been a relentless pace of delivery over the last few years. That pace of change needs to continue. The market won't be thanked for ossifying into a steady state too soon." l Steve Arthur, director of market performance, MOSL Report sponsored by: