Work has started on a new project, intended to aid network capacity for charging electric vehicles by opening up data from substations.

The OpenLV project is intended to open up local electricity usage data.

The OpenLV project, led by project partners Western Power Distribution and EA Technology, will provide network operators with information about levels of capacity for charging EVs on local electricity networks, enabling EVs to continue with their increasing rates of predicted uptake.

Currently, electricity network operators don’t have enough information about how much spare capacity there is on local electricity networks. This makes it difficult to know whether a cluster of EVs charging at peak times will push the demand over the limit

If the data highlights a potential capacity issue, then other initiatives could be implemented – such as smart charging, vehicle to grid technology, energy storage, or joining networks together – in preference to infrastructure reinforcement works.

The project partners are now calling for people, ranging from community groups to industry stakeholders, to come up with novel ideas for apps that can make use of this data.

For more details, visit: www.openlv.net/about/the-project/for-business-and-academia.For more of the latest industry news, click here.