Innovation in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems: collaborative research and development

Working with The Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and Innovate UK, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are providing funding of £20 million for innovative projects that develop future V2G products, services and knowledge. This amount will be shared between 3 competitions.

V2G is a system where plug-in electric vehicles, such as battery electric cars (BEV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV), return electricity to the power grid with consent from their users. This is usually in return for a financial reward or benefit.

This competition is for collaborative research and development. Proposals should be for innovative V2G technologies (on- and off-vehicle technologies, and V2G hardware and software).

The aim of the collaborative research and development competition is to support business-led R&D projects that investigate novel technologies, consumer engagement approaches and business models for future implementation of V2G services.

As the fleet of electric and plug-in hybrid, ultra low-emission vehicles (ULEVs) grows, this important and rapidly developing area of technology has the potential to benefit vehicle users and support a more efficient electricity system.

The objectives are to achieve one or more of the following:

• build confidence in and demonstrate the value of V2G technology to vehicle manufacturers, ULEV owners and users. The aim is to encourage significant take-up of ULEVs in the coming 5 to 10 years
• learn how to engage ULEV owners and users and understand their attitude to different V2G technologies, products and services
• demonstrate the technical and commercial potential for ULEVs to support the electricity system, either directly to the power grid or other local systems (for example, vehicle-to-building)

Innovate UK  are seeking innovative solutions in the following V2G areas:

• business models, technology and service standards
• understanding user acceptance and consumer engagement
• on- and off-vehicle hardware, including bi-directional chargers, battery hardware and software, and cyber security
• trials of different products and services in different scenarios

Project teams should include partners from across the V2G value chain. Projects should bring together participants from the traditional automotive and energy communities with other infrastructure providers, particularly for demonstrator projects.

Specific competition themes

Innovate UK are looking for collaborative R&D projects focused on industrial research. At the end of the project they would expect to see a physical demonstrator for projects developing hardware.

Projects can focus on on-vehicle or off-vehicle hardware and software, or a mixture of both. Project themes might include:

• bi-directional charger design and manufacture including novel approaches (such as hybrid photovoltaic inverters, DC bus systems and fixed storage integration)
• on-vehicle development (such as on-board chargers)
• software, telematics or battery monitoring, communications security or analysis of vehicle or energy network data to enable V2G products and services
• integration of V2G storage in the wider energy system
• developing battery degradation testing and health and performance management methods specifically for V2G
• standards exploration and experimentation

Eligibility

To lead a project you must:

• be a UK-based business
• be a business of any size
• carry out your project in the UK, unless a strong case is made to do otherwise. Costs of any overseas work or for any overseas parties are not funded through this competition
• work in collaboration with others (businesses, research base and/or third sector)

Non grant partners

Projects may include non-grant-receiving partners (for example, non-UK businesses). Their costs will count towards the total project costs but they will not count as collaborators. There must be 2 grant-claiming partners.

Funding and project details

£20 million in total is being invested to fund innovation projects in V2G across 3 competitions.

It is envisaged that  the funding will be split as:

• up to £2 million for collaborative feasibility projects
• up to £4 million for collaborative research and development projects
• up to £14 million for demonstrator projects

This competition is for collaborative research and development and you could get up to 70% of your eligible project costs if you are an SME.

All projects must involve at least 2 partners and a business must lead all projects.