Boosting flexibility: Kaluza integrates EV chargers with domestic batteries

An innovative new energy service has launched today in a bid to integrate household energy storage systems and electric vehicle (EV) chargers to optimise the provision of flexibility services to local electricity grids.

Smart energy technology specialist Kaluza is to provide the new service to distributor Western Power Distribution (WPD) in a move it described as a first for the UK grid that will unite storage and chargers on a single smart system to provide energy services to the UK grid.

The initiative - which is part of WPD's IntraFlex project to develop a scalable market in flexible energy - builds on Kaluza's previous work with WPD providing a flexibility service through the smart optimisation of sonnen batteries.

Kaluza, which operates as a subsidiary of energy giant Ovo, is aiming to use the new flexibility platform to shift EV charging away from times of high demand, so the devices import energy when it is cheapest for customers and greenest for the grid.

It also enables vehicle to grid (V2G) chargers and sonnen batteries to provide power back to the network during peaks in demand by helping to optimise flexibility across domestic devices.

"Every day we take a step closer to realising a smarter energy system, but the launch of this service is a huge leap forward," said Conor Maher-McWilliams, head of flexibility at Kaluza.

"While flexible, low carbon technologies become increasingly prevalent in people's homes, there hasn't been an effective way of coordinating charging across different types of devices to support grid balancing. This service changes that and will enable truly scalable flexibility so that millions of devices can store green and affordable energy in the future."

Kaluza's flexibility platform is also integrated with the NODES "shortflex" trading platform, which enables flexibility services to be traded more closely to real-time.

"The importance of creating a market for trading flexibility is of paramount importance," said Enno Böttcher, CEO at NODES. "By creating a market, where different types of flexibility can compete on a level playing field, the right type of flexibility can be procured at the right price, in the right location at the right time to ease congestion."

Roger Hey, DSO Systems and Projects Manager at WPD, welcomed the new initiative. "Our IntraFlex project and the work Kaluza and NODES are doing are bringing tomorrow's world to us today," he said. "For us as a network operator, this project enables us to understand how all of these technologies will work together."

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• Topics
• Technology
• Electric Vehicles
• EV charging
• energy storage
• Battery Storage
• Sonnen
• wpd
• Kaluza
• flexibility
• flexible grids