Integrated Energy Systems for Commercial Vehicles

03057526-0736-48c7-a7cd-17db7fdaceb5

Closed

Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£589,430

March 31, 2018

March 31, 2019

"The commercial vehicle (CV) sector including HGVs, Light Vans, Buses and Coaches accounts for 34% of UK transport related CO2 emissions, globally HGVs contribute 7% emissions. They also impact air quality with about 39% of NOx and about 19% of PM2.5 emissions from transport coming from the sector, despite commercial vehicles accounting for less than 13% of the vehicles on the road. Electrification is one route to reduce the impact of this sector on the environment alongside route and roadmile optimisation, efficient driving programmes and retrofitting.

CVs are a target for V2G because they: (i) congregate in large numbers at depots, (ii) schedule duty cycles in advance, (iii) have battery packs larger than those required for passenger vehicles and (iv) are owned by businesses who would be able to price battery life/energy revenue trade-offs if packaged appropriately.

Whilst some projects have explored the feasibility of V2G for passenger vehicles, work in the CV space has been more limited because operators are risk averse and fleets are currently relatively small. Electrifying CVs is challenging; the distances they cover and vehicle mass are larger than those seen in the passenger car segment. Also because they congregate in large numbers, electrification can be curtailed by access to network infrastructure and their impacts on energy systems are complex.

This project combines insights into CVs, logistics, technology development and energy markets with customer engagement to explore the role that electrification and V2G technology can play in tackling emissions from this sector. By pursuing a full stack of energy storage services, integrated with the site and network energy system and leveraging other CV operational efficiencies, we aim to deliver a business model for electrification to operators by matching vehicles and services to their needs. The key output of the project will be a deep understanding of customer perspectives and technology challenges alongside a set of viable business models (tested with all stakeholders) that can be replicated in the UK and abroad. A next step would be to demonstrate these models on some reference customer sites before wider roll out.

There is also an opportunity to combine this exploration of the benefits of V2G in this sector with a more holistic piece of work seeking to reduce emissions from the sector being undertaken separately by Heriot Watt as part of its work with the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight (SRF) to develop CV sector specific business models."