UK government adds £1 million project to V2X technology programme

UK government adds fifth project to multi-million V2X technology programme. Image: Nissan

The UK government has added an electric heavy goods vehicle (eHGV) project to its funding scheme focused on supporting vehicle-to-everything (V2X) projects.

The project, led by Kaasai Services Ltd and its consortium of partners, ZevHub Ltd and Project Better Energy Ltd, received £1,404,414 from the government to support its development through a trial and first roll-out.

The firms joined four other projects which were already part of the programme as of December 2023, making the total invested by the government £6.2 million across all five projects.

This project specifically focuses on the V2G services of an eHGV in terms of load-balancing, frequency stabilisation and resilience. It aims to demonstrate that V2X could significantly reduce the total cost of ownership for eHGVs, making them more affordable than diesel vehicles.

Kaasai’s digital platform will integrate data from Project Better Energy’s bi-directional chargers and ZevHub’s fleet charging infrastructure to enable V2G service provision.

The wider adoption of V2X builds on existing smart charging technologies, where electric vehicles (EVs) can be charged when electricity prices are lower overnight. This could incentivise customers to earn money by enabling energy from the EV to flow back into the grid, a house or a workplace.

The technology can be used with other renewable technologies, such as solar, to create a self-sustainable and low-carbon method of powering a building.

The announcement of this addition follows a successful V2G trial from the UK’s “largest” waste collection fleet operator, Veolia.

The first stage of the trial was completed in January 2024 and was able to charge and discharge 110kW of energy from two specially designed bi-directional vehicles.

Collection vehicles are especially suitable for V2G charging, as their batteries are six times larger than the average car battery.

Moreover, the fleets are usually parked at peak energy consumption times for the National Grid, meaning they are already stationary and waiting when the grid naturally requires a boost of energy.

Veolia currently plans to electrify all of its 1,800 Refuse Collection Vehicles (RCV) by 2040, which together will be able to provide 200MW of daily flexible power capacity to the grid.