Milton Keynes Council
Project FAQs

The aim is to undertake a controlled demonstration of how domestic energy flows can be managed using a network of intelligent devices which includes an electric vehicle.

The project aims to:

• Gather data in the below MKC areas
• Analyse how the technology performs, and understand user preferences and patterns of behaviour that will influence how these services are developed
• Understand the level of information and engagement required to aid householders to make informed and beneficial decision
• Formulate smart EV charging services for both existing householders and new housing developments.

The Domestic Energy Balancing EV Charging project will engage with domestic customers and aim to recruit 12 households from within the Milton Keynes Council (MKC) unitary authority postcode area. The trial will introduce pioneering technologies into a residential setting. This will bring together intelligent charging, bi-directional charging from electric vehicle batteries to the grid and home battery storage, along with the of use of aggregated energy services which will be provided by Flexitricity to explore how households can help to balance the electricity system. The trial will also look to investigate the concerns DNOs have over anticipated rapid EV uptake and the stress on the low voltage network, how to balance this energy demand and look at people’s habits.

There will be a mix of hardware installations for the householders are as follows:

• 8 V1G smart charger installations: 8 separate domestic households
• 4 V2G charger installations: 4 separate domestic households
• The project also welcomes enquiries from householders with existing solar panels.

A smart charger will charge your EV and also connect to the internet via your home Wi-Fi, this is different from a ‘dumb’ charger which is unable to communicate. This connection to the internet allows smart energy services to be offered to allow customers to take advantage of cheaper electricity through dynamic pricing as well as allowing for the ability for remote fault fixing/diagnostics. A smart V1G charger only allows an EV to charge; it is unable to discharge the EV.

Vehicle to Grid (V2G) charging goes a step further than V1G and enables bi-directional charging so that the EV battery can be charged and discharged. This means that as well as using electricity from the grid to charge the EV, the stored energy in the EV battery can be reversed (or discharged) to power your home or send power back to the grid when needed during peak electricity demand. This would help to balance variations in the local and national energy production and consumption, and to help save you money by buying energy when it is cheaper and greener

Currently V2G chargers will only operate via the CHAdeMO charging connector, and Nissan will allow V2G operation on their EVs with permission. Any Nissan LEAF or Nissan e-NV200 vans with at least a 30kWh+ battery are eligible for the V2G section of this project.

Nissan batteries are designed to cope with the things that can increase battery degradation, like excessive rapid charging. Nissan has conducted – and continues to conduct – research investigating these impacts under various V2G conditions and scenarios. So far Nissan V2G trials haven’t shown increased ageing of the battery. But this is a new technology so Nissan will continue to monitor battery health closely. For your peace of mind, Nissan guarantees the battery warranty for LEAFs and e-NV200s participating in the trial will remain valid.

Milton Keynes is an exemplar area with adoption rates of electric vehicles running at twice the national average, due to the efforts of the Council to encourage their adoption. With the predicted levels of market penetration, there could be significant stress applied to the local electricity networks when large numbers of users wish to plug-in within a short period of each other. This suggests that some form of energy load balancing or demand-shifting may need to be adopted in the future.

We aim to prove that the EV V1G chargers, V2G chargers, stationary batteries, and solar PV arrays can be utilised together as a local smart energy system, replicating a future world where these designs are common place in a domestic setting. This will be achieved through CrowdCharge’s intuitive demand management platform to allow customers to access cheaper and greener electricity, save money on their EV charging and lower their CO2 output, while simultaneously supporting their local Low Voltage (LV) network from overloading, as the inevitable rise of EVs and EV charging grows.

The Domestic Energy Load Balancing project is hosted by Milton Keynes Council and is delivered by the following collaboration partners:

• CrowdCharge – Project Lead
• Flexitricity – Aggregation energy service provider

• Milton Keynes Council is hosting the project and providing project oversight.
• CrowdCharge is the project lead responsible for project management, recruitment of participants, installation of project hardware, ongoing project support for participants and delivering the operational customer trial with Flexitricity.
• Flexitricity is providing energy aggregation services during the final 6-months of the customer trial period. (timelines subject to COVID-19 delays)

The Milton Keynes Domestic Energy Balancing Project is a Milton Keynes Council (MKC) and Milton Keynes Go Ultra Low Programme Innovation funded project. The Milton Keynes Go Ultra Low project is supported by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles as part of a £9 million investment into the growth of electric vehicles.