Electric vehicles could be the largest contributor to flexible capacity in our electricity grid, according to recent data captured by myenergi, the UK’s largest provider of eco-smart home technology.
In recent months, myenergi, which manufactures a range of smart home energy products – including the zappi solar EV charger – has supported UK grid events, with thousands of customers signed up to offer flexible capacity.
With more than 13MW of aggregated flexible capacity in total – equivalent to the average power consumption of almost 40,000 homes – myenergi has been sending commands to zappi chargers that have responded to grid events by reducing their consumption by an average of 2.4kW per household. This offers far more flexible capacity than other demand side response (DSR) platforms, which have largely just seen consumers reduce home energy consumption by turning off lights and other appliances. Lee Sutton, co-founder and CEO of myenergi, said, “Done right, grid flexibility should not inconvenience consumers. Indeed, it’s clear that our customers have barely noticed these brief interruptions to their EV charging, as their vehicles have invariably still been able to finish charging.”
