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NETWORK / 33 / DECEMBER 2017 / JANUARY 2018 rich future looks like. What could we learn from the di erences as well as the common features, how they were solving problems, and were there developments that would give us con dence in our own approaches, and inform our own innovation strategy - particularly around helping EVs work in harmony with the power grid. So we took a delegation of a dozen or so UK stakeholders to Oslo for a day. These are people focused on supporting the EV transi- tion, and in developing plans to ensure EV adoption becomes a real win-win for vehicle users and the energy system. We met with a similar group of stakeholders from the Norwegian side, including the local Oslo distribution operator, charge point com- panies, and government and innovation specialists. The key learnings and insights came thick and fast throughout the trip in areas ranging from technical, market mecha- nisms, through to societal. We have pub- lished an informal report on the visit which can be downloaded at https://tinyurl.com/ y8wssfuq Key fi ndings and observations Society generally accepts and is embrac- ing the transition, seeing it as the logical and sensible thing to do. The arrival of the Renault Zoe with a maximum range of up to 400km was described as a game changer in many Norwegian minds. Just walking around Oslo leaves you in no doubt that the EV transition is underway, as there are EVs everywhere you look. One anecdote concerned a multi-occupancy building with its own shared car park block. When the occupants were rst consulted on tting charging points in the car park there was no interest, then on the second attempt they accepted that 30 per cent of the spaces should be converted. Subsequently they requested conversion of all of them. We also heard anecdotal evidence that access to EV charging capability is a ecting property prices (an example of a £10,000 increase on an Oslo ' at was given). A high proportion of domestic EV users in Norway have not installed dedicated home charging equipment, but are using a regular domestic socket up to 3kW sometimes in very ad hoc ways. This is acknowledged as far from ideal from a safety perspective, but is something that is being lived with. Energy customers in Oslo are able to access infor- mation on their DNO website to help them understand the capacity their connection has for EV charging and the DNO has clearly worked hard to train its sta in helping cus- tomers understand how they can con gure charging solutions to suit their needs. there is increasing discussion in Norway of a move towards time of use tari s for charg- ing at times of peak demand, but no clear agreement on how this would be managed. Despite Norway's northerly latitude the PV market is growing, and there's a focus on self-consumption alongside that. There we re some loud voices amongst the stakeholders who believe that distribution level ' exibility markets with dynamic pric- ing, and changes to network cost recovery mechanisms will be essential to avoid dis- tortions in the market from both the growth of PV and self-consumption, and to realise the best outcome for EV users in the longer term. This is not currently seen as a high priority by the regulator. Although there is limited interest in LV smart charging, smart load management at the HV level is something they are actively working on, particularly in shared car park facilities for multi-occupancy buildings. We visited a central Oslo car park (project Vulcan) with charging points (98 x 22kW fast chargers and 2 x 50kW rapids) working in conjunction with local xed storage to reduce peak network demand and balance phases. One of the operators of the network of rapid chargers uses a pricing structure linked to charge speed. If a user wants the highest speed charging they pay a higher rate for the service. Because of the abundance of hydro resources in Norway there is no balancing market of any great value, so at a system level there is little interest in network em- bedded electricity storage, and little interest in vehicle-to-grid currently. So, despite their much larger number compared to the UK, EVs aren't currently causing signi cant challenges to the power system. We all came away feeling incredibly positive, with fascinating insights, and a greater con dence that with the prepara- tory work underway here, an "EV world" in the UK will be a positive one. On a personal level, the highest impact moment was see- ing an "EV only" car park in Oslo which stopped me in my tracks. I got so excited, that I even photographed it. I think I need to get out more… An EV only car park. "EVs aren't currently causing signifi cant challenges to the power system." Their main heat source for buildings is electricity via the LV network designed to be capable of delivering 4-6kW of peak de- mand per property, so approximately three times that of UK homes. Because of the relative strength of their LV network there is less interest in domestic smart charging than in the UK, although