A trial of EV charging flexibility services that could play a pivotal role in supporting the widespread adoption of EVs and renewables has gone live in the UK.

The trial is expected to show the huge potential for EVs to contribute positively to balancing the grid

The six-month initiative is being run by Pod Point and British Gas and will explore how participating customers can use their electric cars to help support balancing the grid, while benefiting from reduced energy costs and minimised carbon emissions.

The launch builds on Pod Point’s expansion into energy flexibility via EV charging – the management of the energy demand of flexible assets connected to the grid to optimise electricity distribution and consumption across the grid.

The trial, which went live at the end of February 2024, recruited over 2,000 joint British Gas and Pod Point customers. The initial 26-week pilot will focus on delivering flexibility services to customers in combination with Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, and its Demand Side Response (DSR) platform which encourages customers to move their electricity use out of peak times so they can access cheaper and more sustainable electricity.

All participating customers could be rewarded amounts of £30 and £50 in the form of a credit on their British Gas bill if they participate in every event over the course of the trial.

Centrica, which operates one of the UK’s largest virtual power plants (VPP), aggregates energy flexibility from a number of sources to provide a more dynamic approach to managing electricity demand and supply across the grid. Onboarding the joint British Gas and Pod Point customers onto Centrica DSR’s VPP provides an ideal opportunity to increase Centrica’s flexibility capability to help balance the UK’s energy system.

The scheme has been made possible following a successful trial led by the Power Responsive Programme at the ESO (electricity system operator). Run between September 2023 and January 2024, the Power Responsive trial demonstrated the willingness of households with smart EV charging to optimise their charging in response to instructions sent from the ESO.

The initiative looks to demonstrate how EV charging can emerge as a valuable source of flexibility in the Balancing Mechanism, showing the huge potential for EVs to contribute positively to both the ESO and the collective customers involved. The ESO estimates that by 2030, there could be up to 6GW of DSR from smart charging in the transport sector alone. The Pod Point and Centrica trial will play an important role in enhancing the market’s understanding of how these assets interact with the energy system, the flexibility they can provide and the value this can offer to consumers.

Stavros Sachinis, demand side response director from Centrica, said: “EV uptake is a key part of the UK’s drive to net zero. Our partnership with Pod Point supports this and represents a strategic step towards a more sustainable and flexible energy future. By optimising EV charging we’re aiming to provide our customers with greater control over their energy usage and costs while also accelerating the journey towards a greener future.”

In addition to enabling British Gas and Pod Point to help their customers make charging cheaper and greener, the findings from the trial are also expected to support the ESO in establishing new rules which open up the Balancing Mechanism to EV charging flexibility more widely.