Cenex to advise partners in innovative Net-Form vehicle-to-grid pilot

 Loughborough, UK – 2 March 2017: Cenex – the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies – today announced it will be part of the team carrying out an innovative project to establish the feasibility of turning a Solihull car park into a MW-scale battery to provide power on demand to the electricity grid. Part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, the 12-month Net-Form project seeks to develop a secure, dynamic data management platform that collects, aggregates and optimises energy collected by large populations of grid-connected electric vehicle batteries at a single location.

Working in partnership with Encraft, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Costain PLC, Aston University and Western Power Distribution (WPD), the role of Cenex is to offer guidance on vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology and work with EV owners. The Net-Form project will evaluate the opportunity to provide a managed charging service and income to EV owners, who could provide access to their vehicles via a secure mobile application.

The sixth V2G project Cenex is contributing to, Net-Form is unique in that it integrates and analyses diverse sets of data and time-sensitive information to optimise the energy system in a non-invasive way. Cenex hopes this feasibility study will shed new light on how EV owners can be expected to interact with the grid, and shape what V2G infrastructure looks like in UK cities and towns.

Robert Evans, CEO at Cenex, said, “Cenex is excited to join the team leading this innovative vehicle-to-grid research project.  This feasibility study targets consumer engagement, a key building block in understanding how to operationalise vehicle-to-grid operation in the UK.  We think this project will have some interesting outputs that will help shape the way EV owners interact with V2G in the future.”

Linda Forbes, Encraft’s Commercial and Innovation Projects Manager, said, “Cenex was selected to advise the project team on EV owner behaviour and V2G infrastructure because of its extensive knowledge of renewable transportation and V2G technology. The Net-Form project will yield results that inform how EVs, smart ICT systems and big data can work together to manage and direct energy flows in support of a low carbon economy.”