A consortium of British companies has secured £1,344,552 in government funding to explore how electricity stored in electric vehicle batteries can be used to smooth out peaks in supply and demand on the UK's electricity grid. 

Solar car parks operater 3ti is leading the new project, funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. It will integrate bi-directional DC charging and the associated power management systems into Papilio3, a pop-up solar car park and EV charging hub. 

The consortium brings together renewable energy experts 3ti with advanced EV power solutions provider Turbo Power Systems (TPS), smart energy company GridBeyond, and EV & decarbonisation experts Cenex, in a 17-month collaboration to deliver a state-of-the art system, including a six-month real-world demonstration. 

The Papilio3 will have smart grid controls and a 280 kWh DC battery. Both CCS and CHAdeMO EV charge points will be used and it can host up to 12 EVs at a time, housed within an upcycled, rapidly deployable shipping container that can be placed almost anywhere. It will use a 20 kWp solar roof array. 

The set-up will provide bi-directional EV charging at speeds up to 30 kW, with much higher energy efficiency than AC solutions. 

Mark Potter, CTO at 3ti, said, "Everybody wants more EVs on the grid. They represent a massive scale, distributed energy resource that can be used to balance real-time supply and demand. This project will prove that bi-directional EV charging can work in the real world. Connected EVs will be teamed together to act as virtual power and energy storage facilities, with each car releasing and replenishing its stored energy according to user preferences and grid demand. This generates income and cost savings, which can be passed on to our customers. 

The V2X FastHub project, part of the V2X Innovation Programme, is funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, delivered by Innovate UK. The V2X Innovation Programme is part of the up to £65m Flexibility Innovation Programme, funded from the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.

The points can charge and discharge at 30kW through an AC connector