Intelligent Grid Interfaced Vehicle Eco-charging (iGIVE)

0fbaf944-0957-45b3-8fb4-b40db6e531cd

Closed

EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC

£4,275,550

Dec. 1, 2013

July 31, 2017

The UK government is determined to address the challenges of tackling climate change and maintaining energy security in a way that minimises costs and maximises benefits to the economy. Among all sources of CO2 emissions in the UK, the energy supply accounts for about 40%, followed by the transport for over 25%. To meet the target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, large proportion of electricity generated from low carbon sources integrated with mass adoption of electric vehicles (EV) offer a great potential. Likewise, the Chinese 12th National Economic and Social Development Five-Year Plan has set the target of 3.5% reduction per unit of GDP in both energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, and identified new energy and clean energy vehicles among the seven priority industries in the next five years from 2012.

It is clear that both countries are fully committed to a planned 'decarbonisation' of their respective energy systems. However, both face the challenges of planning and building the suitable infrastructure, and of managing the resources to ensure future power systems operate more reliably, more flexibly, and more economically, by integrating and coordinating the actions of all actors. It has been widely recognized that electric vehicles could both benefit from and help to drive forward the development of smart grids where renewable resources are widely and substantially employed. However, a number of technical challenges are still open for further exploitation.

The proposed collaborative interdisciplinary research will investigate and develop an intelligent grid interfaced vehicle eco-charging (iGIVE) system for more reliable, more flexible and efficient, and more environmental friendly smart gird solutions for seamless integration of distributed low-carbon intermittent power generation and large number of EVs. To achieve this, a multilayer hierarchical power and information flow framework for monitoring and optimal control of the EV charging while minimising the volume of information passed to the utility control centers will be investigated first. Within this framework, a variable rate bi-directional high performance EV battery charging unit based on a patented technology will be developed, and battery management and optimal EV charging and discharging dispatching strategies will be investigated. Other issues associated to the charging stations, such as electromagnetic interference and harmonics generation and their impact on environment and electricity grid will also be studied. Finally, simulation platform will be built to investigate the interactions of EV-related different participants and their impact on the grid operations. A test bed to verify the design will be developed and a joint UK-China joint laboratory on smart grid and EV integration will be established, bringing together key academic and industry partners in smart grid and EV from UK and China.

Both system operators and EV industry in the UK, China and other parts of the world will benefit considerably from the development of intelligent EV eco-charging systems when a large number of EVs are adopted by the public and greater amounts of renewable power are utilized, as they provide an adaptive and intelligent framework and EV charging systems to economically, efficiently and environment-friendly accommodate charging requirements as well as providing ancillary service to the grid integrated with larger amounts of intermittent renewable energy sources and thereby enable the decarbonisation of the electricity supply industry and the transport sector.

Potential Impact:
Our vision is to advance the understanding and realization of the integration of electric vehicles with the grid and renewable energy sources through a novel fundamental and yet holistic approach involving new scientific, multi-disciplinary, international (UK-China and others) collaborations that will tackle technical, societal and economic challenges facing stakeholders in the EV, the smartgrid and renewable energy supply chains.The project programme will strengthen existing links between the research organisations between UK and China, and forge new links with key Chinese institutions and industry in the fields of EVs, utility and renewable energy. Thus, the programme's impacts will be both far-reaching and long-lasting, and will ultimately benefit everyone in the UK and China, and beyond.

U.K. and China's Companies
- Reduced costs, increased productivity through enhanced knowledge in charging equipment, smart eco-charging and dual-use of devices.
- Load management for reduction of peak demand
- Improved reliability and condition monitoring
- Enhanced grid stability
- Clearer pathways for implementing research outcomes
- Enhanced supply chain opportunities with China and others
- Increased competitiveness by moving up value chain

Users - Car, Commercial and Domestic
- Reduced electricity bills due to reduced peak power generation
- Reduced fuel bills by selling energy (e.g. from renewable) to grid via EVs
- Enhanced power balancing and security using EVs as storage
- Enhanced control of energy usage to match lifestyle (e.g. work shifts to get premium rates for EV charging/reverse-charging at work)
- Energy brokerage and trading using the Integrated EV-smart grid system as a Virtual Power Plant

Society
- Reduced greenhouse emissions and reduced impact on climate change
- Reduced power outages
- Sustainable energy usage
- Cleaner and quieter urban environment due to enhanced impact of electric vehicles

Governments/ Policy makers
- UK: Enhanced opportunity for meeting both EU/international (beyond Kyoto) and domestic targets (Climate Change Act 2008) for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
- China: Enhanced opportunity for meeting the 12th Five-year Plan on Greenhouse Emission Control

Academics
- New scientific breakthroughs and findings from the UK and China's academics in this collaboration
- Dissemination through journals and international conferences
- Greater supply of and more coordinated approach to training young researchers this will benefit industry and regulators
- UK to become major player in the field, potential for exporting outcomes
- Follow-on funding from external bodies (TSB, EPSRC, EU)
- Enhanced collaborative opportunities
- Better opportunities for technology transfer with industry.