Creating electric car clusters to test the grid of the future

 

Electric cars are selling well, and every day there are more and more EVs and plug in hybrids on the road.

That's a good thing, in terms of oil consumption and carbon emissions. But what about the stability of the grid?

We've already seen some grid operators saying EVs are not a problem, and we've looked at innovative ways to manage demand for electric vehicle charging.

Now Robert Llewellyn looks at My Electric Avenue, a project to create clusters of EVs in UK neighborhoods, monitor usage, and test solutions for both managing demand and, ultimately, harnessing the power of EVs to store energy from renewables and feed it back to the grid when it is most needed.

Now what would be really cool, in terms of demand management, is if they gave them all a bike and a bus timetable, too.