Salford project to test how EV batteries could save home energy

Renewable energy supplier Good Energy is partnering with Honda, Upside Energy and Salford University on a new vehicle-to-grid (V2G) – and vehicle-to-home – project which will test how electric vehicle (EV) batteries and other battery storage units can impact home efficiency.

Funded by Innovate UK, the project will take advantage of Salford University’s unique testing facility, Energy House, the only full-scale building in an environmental chamber in Europe. Named ‘HAVEN’, it will explore the use of EV batteries to provide flexibility to the energy system within the context of other systems in the home, such as batteries attached to solar panel arrays, heating and hot water systems.

V2G technologies are a way of tapping into the storage capacity of electric vehicles. By conducting tests within the controlled environment of the Energy House and with the use of a charging point from Honda, the project will investigate different configurations to build a suite of models for the value of EV and other battery storage systems within an integrated home energy storage system.

Upside Energy will be managing the project, and its cloud-based software will provide the platform for the testing conducted.

Neil Jones, programme manager at Upside Energy said: ‘These tests at a single house level (Energy House) will help us establish a baseline of data which could be scaled up to hundreds if not thousands of homes and vehicles and start to identify what services can be offered to householders and the grid in the future.’