Up to 36 million electric vehicles could be on Britain’s roads by 2040, according to the latest annual assessment by National Grid. The figure is a significant increase from its estimate a year ago of 17 million. This reflects new policies to encourage the uptake of electric cars as well as the scope of the analysis being expanded to include vans and some lorries. National Grid, the FTSE 100 utility that runs Britain’s electricity systems, inadvertently caused alarm last year by suggesting that electric vehicles could, hypothetically, add as much as 30 gigawatts to national peak electricity demand by 2050. That would have been a 50 per cent increase on today’s peak, if nobody agreed to use “smart” chargers that charged at off-peak times. This year it assumes that smart chargers will be used and that some vehicle batteries will supply power to the grid at peak times, resulting in a “net” maximum increase in demand as a result of electric vehicles of 12.7 gigawatts by 2050.
Times 12th July 2018 read more »
There could be as many as 36m electric vehicles (EVs) on UK roads by 2040, double the number expected just a year ago. That’s according to the latest National Grid Future Energy Scenarios, published today. Yet despite raising electricity demand, National Grid now says the rapid rise of EVs will help the UK shift towards more renewable and low-carbon electricity generation. Smart charging and vehicle-to-grid technology means EVs will be able to help smooth electricity usage through the hours of the day, National Grid says. They will be able to charge mainly when demand is low and even feed back into the grid when demand is high.
Carbon Brief 12th July 2018 read more »
The UK can avoid a sharp increase in peak electricity demand by mid-century by ensuring the rollout of millions of electric vehicles (EVs) is combined with smart charging and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies. In the annual update to its Future Energy Scenarios report, released today, National Grid said peak electricity demand could soar above 85GW by 2050, from just under 60GW today, driven by a shift towards electric heating technologies and EVs. But soaring power demand could be curbed to an increase in peak demand of just 8GW by 2040 provided the bulk of EV charging happens off-peak and the use of vehicle-to-grid technology becomes widespread. Without the use of emerging smart charging technologies much more electricity generation capacity is likely to be needed to meet the anticipated surge in demand, National Grid warns. The company predicts as many as 11 million electric vehicles will be on our roads by 2030 and 36 million by 2040. Under the most ambitious scenario about 14 per cent of these will be charged using V2G technology by 2050.
Business Green 12th July 2018 read more »
