Climate change, especially global warming, has been threatening human’s lives all around the world. Without an immediate and strong reaction, the Met Office UK warns thatthe global warming could reach more than 4oC by the end of this century [1]. The growing concern about global warming has urged the European Union countries to neutralise their gas emissions by 2050, so that the global warming would be harnessed at under 2oC [2]. Sharing this vision, the UK government has defined a long-term ‘Net Zero’ emission plan until 2050, when the greenhouse gas emission in Britain is cut to zero [3].
UK Government to promote electric vehicles
In complying with the UK government’s policies, the Department for Transport has issued a Road to Zero strategy for designing and manufacturing zero-emission vehicles. In the first stage, it set out that all the new cars and vans sold will be 100% emissions-free by 2040. The government also set out its intention and commitment in requiring all new homes to have a charge-point from 2025.
The Road to Zero strategy defined 46 sub-policies, over one-third of which focused on a leading electric vehicle (EV) system. Establishing a broad and firm charging infrastructure was particularly determined and strongly invested. According to the Department for Transport, a budget of £400 million will be spared for developing the charging infrastructure. Also, each charge-point of the Workplace Charging Scheme will receive an installation grant of £500 per socket, almost double the grant in the previous policy in this sector. Obviously, investing in EV is considered an effective way of achieving the ultimate emission target in 2050.
Peer-to-peer energy trading
Without expensive network reinforcement the increasing uptake of EVs, together with electrification of heating, could cause local shortfalls in electricity network capacity in the near future.
The presence of more proactive prosumers and actors in the current power system has triggered a design and adaptation of a more decentralised paradigm to power systems and the electricity market [4], [5]. Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading is one of the promising approaches to implement decentralised electricity market paradigms.
What is P2P energy trading?
P2P energy is the buying and selling of energy between two or more grid-connected parties. In P2P energy trading, each party negotiates directly with another party without any intermediary [6] such as an electricity retailer.
The energy trading is done through a secure platform, using technology like blockchain. Blockchain is a database technology that processes and stores information, such as transactions of assets. A P2P market platform enables direct energy transactions among prosumers in the electricity network.
There are a number of benefits to P2P energy trading:
- It provides choice for consumers.
- Energy generation can be created from renewable energy, which in itself has benefits.
- Energy does not have to be transported from a power plant which could result in cost reductions.
- People without solar panels on their homes can access renewable energy from their neighbours.
- By using blockchain technology, all transactions are public - thereby creating transparency.
When it comes to P2P energy trading for EVs there are some specific benefits:
- It provides the opportunity to eliminate the high demand for EV charging.
- It can provide cost savings and could be economically beneficial for participants.
The question here is, could we create a P2P energy trading platform for EVs, so as to release network capacity?
Department for Transport funded APP EV project
The grid integration of EVs represents a unique and complex problem. As part of the Transport-Technology Research Innovation Grants (T-TRIG) 2019, the Department for Transport has fully funded a few early-stage research projects in support of innovative ideas or concepts that facilitate a better transport system. A project entitled “App for Peer to Peer energy trading with Electric Vehicles (APP EV)” is one of these funded projects, led by Dr Chao Long and Dr Nazmiye Ozkan at Cranfield University. The APP EV project is timely in its support of developing P2P EV charging and facilitating EV penetrations.
A major anxiety of owners of EVs is the fear of running out of battery power on long-distance journeys. Drivers have to carefully plan their routes to ensure that there is a charging station available, and charging time is built into the journey time. In addition, the availability, or lack of availability, of charging stations is often a key deciding factor when choosing whether or not to purchase an EV. The APP EV project aims to develop a P2P energy trading platform, allowing EVs which have surplus battery energy to trade with nearby EVs in public car parks, which will negate some of the anxiety for drivers around running out of power and potentially increase sales of EVs.
For EV drivers who are also owners of household-generators, they mostly charge their vehicles at home with minimum to no costs. Furthermore, these households can also sell their excess generation back to the power grid at a set price (i.e. feed-in tariff). For EV drivers who do not have household-generators, vehicles are charged at home premises or car parks at a much higher rate than the feed-in price. If these two groups of EVs are able to exchange energy at a mid-market electricity price, both groups will gain economic benefits.
Dr Long’s vision on P2P EV charging platform is that “In a residential community, EV users might not have a home charging-point or the charging-point is already occupied (e.g. two EVs at one house). These EV users may find that a nearby coffee/community shop is the place where it is most likely to offer both a parking place and sufficient power supply. Implementing a good business model and P2P trading platform with EVs will allow for realising P2P energy trading through the mobility of transport.”
References
- The national meteorological service for the UK (2019). Effects of climate change. Available at: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/climate-change/effects-of-climate-change. (Accessed 08th April 2020)
- European Commission Factsheets (2018). 2050 long-term strategy for greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/strategies/2050_en. (Accessed 08th April 2020)
- Committee on Climate Change UK (2019). Net Zero: The UK’s contribution to stopping global warming. Published May 2019.
- M. Khorasany, Y. Mishra, and G. Ledwich, “A decentralised bilateral energy trading system for peer-to-peer electricity markets,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, pp. 1–1, 2019.
- T. Baroche, F. Moret, and P. Pinson, “Prosumer markets: A unified formulation,” in 2019 IEEE Milan PowerTech, June 2019, pp. 1–6.
- J. Guerrero, A. C. Chapman, and G. Verbiˇ c, “Decentralized p2p energy trading under network constraints in a low-voltage network,” IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, pp. 1–1, 2018.