Flexitricity and ev.energy have joined forces to use the flexibility of electric vehicle charging to register to help in short term management of the power system.

The companies will use ev.energy’s smart EV charging platform,  which can harness over 10,000 electric vehicles, and Flexitricity will trade their flexible charging in the Balancing Mechanism (BM). When the EVs charge flexibly it will creates an opportunity for customers to save or even earn money whilst also helping National Grid ESO.

Flexitricity will be able to trade this domestic flexibility as a Virtual Lead Party (VLP).

Instead of charging immediately they arrive home, at the peak time for energy consumption – and also the peak time for costs and carbon – EV owners will set a ‘ready by’ time for their vehicles using ev.energy’s smart charging app.

During the time before their car needs to be fully charged, ev.energy’s smart charging platform and Flexitricity’s automated platform will work in unison to ensure that the optimal charging strategy is deployed. This delivers  flexibility to the system operator and the lowest prices possible for the consumer.

ev.energy’s smart charging platform automatically reacts to real-time electricity price signals, including within the Balancing Mechanism, one of the tools National Grid ESO uses to balance supply and demand on the electricity system in real time. It’s a profitable market where providers can offer to increase or decrease their generation or demand to help balance the system.

Andy Lowe, Chief Commercial Officer at Flexitricity said: “This partnership has the potential to revolutionise the way the EV market operates and most importantly it will make a significant impact on our 2050 net carbon zero targets.

“Flexitricity made history last year when we were first to utilise the Balancing Mechanism Wider Access arrangement to trade one of our customers’ battery assets. Now we’re looking to do the same with a network of EVs.”

William Goldsmith, ev.energy’s Head Commercial & Grid Services, said: “With a rapidly growing 60MW capacity of EV load currently on our platform, ev.energy is in an excellent position to help balance the GB energy system. By partnering with Flexitricity we are able to offer energy suppliers an advanced trading service that reduces their cost, benefits the grid, the environment, and delivers better value to their customers.”