EV Charge point trail could solve power demand

According to UK Power Networks, smart technology could enable the potential for the introduction of thousands of Electric Vehicle (EV) charge points. Trails have shown more than 500 electric vehicle charges could be integrated around a single electricity substation. Instead of building new cables and substations, new software will be implemented.

What is this EV Charge point trail?

The trail used an AI (Artificial intelligence) computer simulation to test the Active Response software on a London substation. This automatically moved electrical capacity around the power network to accommodate demand. This is a key part of UK Power Networks’ work on ‘smart grid’ development. They state just one rapid EV charger can use as much electricity capacity as a block of flats. Meaning, proactively ‘creating space’ for new chargers is an important step in allowing the UK’s transition to Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The simulation was based on a substation in Tooting in south London. Active Response processed vast amounts of data and used switches to automatically reconfigure power flows around the network, and efficiently distributed electrical load across the available infrastructure.

Promising, but what does this mean in reality?

One of the simulations tested a ‘peak demand’ scenario in the evening when people are at home cooking, using electric heating and charging electric cars. The system identified a way to unlock 1,000kW of capacity -– equivalent to 142 fast chargers – and there was scope for more from other cables.

Experts at UK Power Networks believe the software solution could release capacity for 568 additional EV chargers in Tooting alone.

There are 195 primary substations like this across London and 1,313 across the South East and East of England that share similarities – so the software has potential to enable thousands more fast chargers to be connected in other areas. The project team is now preparing to trial the system on the live electricity network

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