Public Funding for Northern Powergrid (Northeast) PLC

Research and development into the use of gamification (competitions, games and virtual rewards) and other methods to engage ULEV owners with V2G technology and incentivise behaviours such as the discharging/charging of their EV batteries to support the energy system.

This project brings together five organisations to deliver technology that addresses key factors currently slowing the uptake of Electric and Hybrid vehicles. This will be achieved by integrating and improving the function of the battery management system and the on-board charger. The work to be carried out accelerates the development of an innovative product and takes a significant step in addressing the ‘hollowing out’ of the UK automotive supply chain. Hyperdrive are leading the consortium, applying their technical expertise in Electric Vehicle engineering and drawing on their project delivery capability, gained from many automotive, marine and defence applications. The project is a natural progression of the energy storage and Battery Management System products that Hyperdrive currently supply. The new product will reduce charge time and extend battery pack lifetime, in a smaller, lighter package. iEV CaB FAB will meet all automotive industry expectations of product robustness, manufacturing quality and specific safety requirements.

If the UK is to achieve its carbon reduction targets then radical changes are needed to the electricity markets to accommodate the forecast increase in electrical load due to the electrification of heat and transport and the intermittency of supply caused by the closure of traditional power stations and the increase in renewable generation such as wind and solar. One possible solutions to address the issues that this may cause this is to utilise any flexibility that customers have in how they use electricity. This 3 year project will explore the long term opportunity for domestic householders to trade appliance load curtailments in an online game. It will trial gaming options with 2000 customers to test ease of recruitment, the size of load response available and whether this can be reliably sustained to be of use to distribution network operators and other potential users of demand-side reduction services.