It’s just gone 10 AM, and Storm Eunice is raging outside. Our lights went out and our uninterruptible power supplies started beeping a couple of minutes ago. The lights came back on and the beeping stopped a few seconds later. There are 13,884 properties suffering a power cut in Cornwall, but at least ours was brief!
However some other local residents are not so fortunate:
Western Power Distribution currently estimate that the fault will be fixed by 1 PM, but what with one thing and another that strikes me as being a bit optimistic.
[Edit – 11:00 February 19th]
WPD have been gradually fixing the faults on their network in the Davidstow area following Storm Eunice yesterday. However there are still 690 properties that have been without electricity for over 24 hours:
There are also still several more faults nearby:
[Edit – 14:00 February 19th]
It seems our flickering lights this morning meant that we’ve just dodged another metaphorical electric bullet here on the fringes of Davidstow. Whilst yesterday’s fault is now almost fixed:
another big high voltage fault hit this side of the Atlantic Highway this morning:
[Edit – 18:00 February 19th]
We may have managed to dodge the first two bullets, but unfortunately not the third. I went on a bike ride around the neighbourhood this afternoon try to find some WPD engineers. More on all that in due course, but I failed miserably in my mission until the very end of my ride. This was the sight that greeted me at the end of our lane:
This was the reason for their visit:
[Edit – 12:00 February 20th]
We’ve received some unexpected good news this morning. Thanks to the efforts of Western Power’s engineers by floodlight overnight electricity is already flowing around our ring mains once again!
Regular readers may recall our own recent power cut in the wake of Storm Arwen before Christmas? Whether we experience another one tomorrow remains to be seen, but I am confident that many other people down here in South West England will.
The Met Office issued a rare “red” wind warning for our part of the world earlier today:
The Met Office forecasts that:
Extremely strong west to southwesterly winds will develop over southwest England and south Wales early on Friday. Widespread inland gusts of 70-80 mph are likely and up to around 90 mph near some coasts, with dangerous conditions on beaches and seafronts. Winds are expected to ease from the west during the late morning.
What to expect
Flying debris resulting in danger to life
Damage to buildings and homes, with roofs blown off and power lines brought down
Uprooted trees are likely
Roads, bridges and railway lines closed, with delays and cancellations to bus, train, ferry services and flights
Power cuts affecting other services, such as mobile phone coverage
Large waves and beach material being thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and homes, including flooding of some coastal properties
The other DNOs don’t provide handy tables of real time outage numbers, but WPD’s reveal that at 12:40 there were 123,955 properties without electric power across their four regions of the UK, of which 26,479 are here in Cornwall with another 30,642 next door in Devon.
Storm Franklin arrived on our shores before all the faults caused by Storm Eunice were repaired. Hence the story continues over at:
As yet another named storm arrives on the coast of North Cornwall the UK Government has just published what they describe as an “interim report” into the events of last November when Storm Arwen struck more northern parts of the nation. As the news release puts it :
The review was launched last year by the Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in the wake of one of the worst storms in decades, with Storm Arwen bringing significant and widespread severe weather to the UK and leaving just under 1 million households experiencing power cuts, 59,101 of whom were without power for over 48 hours and 3,032 for a week or more.
Today’s Interim Report has identified early key findings and initial recommendations based on preliminary evidence including that call wait times for customers to speak to network operators were too high, and that some households, especially in rural areas, experienced unacceptably long power cuts.
Nearly 90% of those affected received compensation payments by 24 January, following the Business and Energy Secretary writing to network providers to ensure this was paid as soon as possible – with the timeliness of payments a key focus of the review.
As the government made clear at the time, it was completely unacceptable that thousands of homes were left without power for so long, which is why a specific review into how network operators responded to Storm Arwen was launched to identify lessons and recommendations for the management of future power disruption events.
Some of the key initial findings in the Interim Report include:
recognising that wait times for some customers to contact their network operator were unacceptably high, and recommending that more needs to be done to manage both the method and content of customer communications effectively during severe events to allow customers to make informed decisions about their welfare
identifying the unusual northerly wind as putting the network at more risk, recommending Network Operators and partners should better account for wind direction as well as speed and duration in their escalation thresholds
acknowledging there were unacceptably long power cuts to some households, especially those in rural areas, and recommending enhancing strategies to reduce the length of time customers remain off supply following severe and widespread power disruption
recommending that new processes should be established to ensure payment of compensation to affected customers occurs without delay
The review is in addition to the industry regulator Ofgem’s which is looking at how each individual network operator performed against the legal standards they are required to, such as whether network operators made sufficient investments in infrastructure in areas that experienced faults. Where operators did not meet these standards, Ofgem will consider if appropriate enforcement action needs to be taken against them.
Ofgem can impose financial penalties of up to 10% of a licensee’s turnover, make consumer redress orders and issue provisional/final orders, where appropriate, for breaches of relevant conditions and requirements under the Gas Act 1986 and the Electricity Act 1989.
A final report, detailing specific actions and delivery plans for their implementation, is due around the end of March 2022, when Ofgem will also publish findings from their review into the handling of the storm. In the meantime, the review will continue to work on the issues that have been identified, in order to learn lessons and develop recommendations for the prevention and management of storms.
A brief extract from the interim report itself discusses the primary causes of damage:
The impacts of Storm Arwen were felt across Great Britain’s electricity system, with 13 of the 14 network licence areas being affected, although to differing extents. The only network licence area not affected was UK Power Network’s London area.
In total, nearly 6,500 faults were recorded by the network operators, predominately to overhead line circuits. On the peak day of the storm, 27 November, Network Operators recorded 2,478 faults, 10 times more on average than a typical day. These faults on the electricity system resulted in just under 1 million customers being without electricity for between 3 minutes and 12 days. This equates to 3.2% of customers across Great Britain experiencing a power cut for more than three minutes as a result of Storm Arwen.
The damage inflicted by Storm Arwen on electricity networks was far more severe in some regions of Great Britain compared to others, with Scotland and Northern England, particularly along the Eastern Coast in regions such as Aberdeenshire, Northumberland and Yorkshire being the most affected.
The high number of fallen and broken trees was due to the high wind speeds from the north, which is not the prevailing wind direction for most of the UK. Trees grow to withstand winds coming from the prevailing direction, which in most cases is from the south-west. As a consequence, Storm Arwen brought down and uprooted/snapped more trees causing more faults on the electricity networks than similar wind speeds from the south-west would have done.
Storm Arwen caused relatively little damage to higher voltage lines, although this varied geographically, largely due to them being supported by more robust lattice towers, rather than wooden poles. The vast majority of faults occurred on the lower voltage lines. The main causes of failure were caused by:
Trees falling directly onto the overhead lines/wooden poles.
Flying debris bringing down/getting entangled in the overhead lines or on to equipment within the substations
Strong winds snapping overhead lines or wooden poles that support them.
Ice forming around the overhead lines causing them to break under the weight and additional resistance in the sustained high winds.
In some places underground cables are used in place of overhead lines. While more resilient to high winds, they pose other technical challenges, and the cost of undergrounding is between 2 and 20 times more expensive than overhead lines. The decision to invest in underground cables is driven by a balance of risk and costs that is regularly reviewed by operators and the regulator.
In a press release yesterday Ford announced that the:
F-150 Lightning with available Ford Intelligent Backup Power can provide power and security during an electrical outage – the first electric truck in the U.S. to offer this capability; in the future, new features will offer additional ways to manage energy use and potentially save on energy costs.
Truck owners are used to tapping a variety of features – torque, towing capability and more – to get things done. Now, with the all-electric F-150® Lightning™ pickup, Ford is the first in the U.S. to offer the ability for customers to power their homes with an electric truck when the grid goes dark, providing innovative new capabilities that enhance the energy independence of its customers.
Ford and F-Series, America’s best-selling trucks for 45 years*, are partnering with Sunrun, the nation’s leading solar company, to enhance home energy management, leveraging the substantial onboard battery capability of the all-electric F-150 Lightning. Americans experienced the most power interruptions on record in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration; and with F-150 Lightning, homeowners can use their truck to maintain their routines during brief or extended outages.
The press release was accompanied by this video:
https://youtu.be/oc3sQ2UcTlg
As the narrator puts it:
What if the next time the power went out, your pickup truck could electrify your home
A very good question! Which we here at V2G UK have been pondering for many a year.
Note that the narrator also points out that:
You’ll need a Ford Charge Station Pro, which comes with an F-150 Lightning Extended Range truck, and an available home integration system….
Siemens Smart Infrastructure announced it has worked with Ford on the Ford Charge Station Pro, a custom electric vehicle (EV) charger for the Ford F-150 Lightning. This innovative charger is the first bidirectional-ready EV solution set for release at retail customer scale to receive certification under the newly expanded Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 9741, an important industry-wide benchmark that ensures products meet safety standards. The new charge station also features a peak power of 19.2kW, achieving the maximum power rating currently available for a Level 2 charge station.
The Ford Charge Station Pro is needed to enable Ford Intelligent Backup Power, a system that allows the Ford-150 Lightning to become an interactive part of the home and be used as a power generation source during outages, the first electric truck to do so. In the future, additional features will be made available with firmware updates to the charger that will help customers interact even further with the grid.
“Together with Ford, Siemens is not only helping accelerate electric vehicle adoption in the residential space but is also empowering drivers to take more ownership of their energy future,” said John DeBoer, head of Siemens eMobility in North America. “The technology behind this charger is helping make charging at home more sustainable, more reliable, and more accessible. We’re incredibly proud to put our experience to work to help usher in a new era for electric vehicles and grid resiliency.”
Ford Charge Station Pro comes with the F-150 Lightning with extended-range battery. If your F-150 Lightning has a standard-range battery, it is available for purchase:
Price: $1,310.00 (plus shipping and installation)
As far as I can see there are no details available on the “home integration system” mentioned above.
P.S. It has come to our attention that at least one purveyor of EV “news” is peddling inaccurate information. Hence:
“On the ordering page of Ford’s website they have an inaccurate picture.”
Earlier this year I was on a couple of panel sessions on the topic of V2x technology at the Everything Electric NORTH event in Harrogate. Whilst there I took a look at the F-150 Lightning on show in the exhibition hall. Until now I have remained blissfully unaware that Everything Electric’s Robert Llewellyn recorded this exceedingly interesting interview with Ford CEO Jim Farley at the end of the previous year’s Fully Charged LIVE show in Harrogate:
Note in particular the part at 15:20 where Jim says:
The F-150, the main reason why people are buying the F-150, more than half the customers are new to a full size truck, is because it can power their house for 3 days. We didn’t know that a mobile battery on a work site was going to be that evocative as a reason to buy a vehicle. We thought it was going to be 0-60 4 seconds. We were wrong. So the exportable power turns out to be the main reason people are excited about the Lightning.
Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s top automaker, will stop developing new internal combustion engines in order to accelerate its transformation into an electric vehicle manufacturer.
Hyundai Motor Co., the group’s larger carmaker, closed its engine development division at its research and development center, according to industry sources on Dec. 23. The Namyang R&D Center in South Korea is the group’s brain with about 12,000 researchers.
“Now, it is inevitable to convert into electrification,” said the newly appointed R&D chief Park Chung-kook in an email to employees. “Our own engine development is a great achievement, but we must change the system to create future innovation based on the great asset from the past.”
The move came as the global automobile industry is moving towards EVs more rapidly than expected. An EV, which runs on an electric motor, does not need a powertrain, which includes an internal combustion engine and a transmission.
The engine development team was established in 1983 as the late Chung Ju-yung, Hyundai Group founder and grandfather of current Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun, ordered that the company make its own engine.
Here’s a recording of the recent, virtual Shared Transport Conference organised by Collaborative Mobility UK, which is timed to start with the keynote speech by Trudy Harrison, the current Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport responsible for the decarbonisation of transport:
Trudy says a number of things of great interest to those of us that think that owning a car really should be a thing of the past for most residents of the United Kingdom. Take for example this from near the beginning:
We certainly need more voices such as [CoMoUK’s] so that we can design a transport system that is fit for the future and free of fossil fuels, which moves us away from the 20th century thinking centred around private vehicle ownership and towards greater flexibility, with personal choice and low carbon shared transport.
I think actually that the future is much closer than we may think. When you look at the progress that has been made in just a year, we’ve launched the Transport Decarbonisation plan, our Net Zero Strategy and of course we’ve hosted COP 26. And we’re trialling Future Transport Zones across the country, unleashing British innovation and transforming inner city journeys.
Fast forward to 5:05 and Trudy points out that:
According to Warwick Business School 78% of 18-24 year olds use a shared economy service, from Zipcar to Liftshare and Airbnb. These services are high convenience, and they can help people to manage the cost of travel flexibly, and in fact it’s becoming a lifestyle choice so transport must keep pace.
The Department for Transport’s “Decarbonising Transport” plan, published earlier this year, goes into much greater detail. For example the “Shared Mobility” section states that:
Shared mobility services can decarbonise and decongest our transport network, offer an alternative to traditional mass transit, and provide new forms of transport for the first and last mile connecting to public transport…
And outlines the following long list of “Commitments”:
We will take action to increase average road vehicle occupancy by 2030
We will publish guidance for local authorities on support for shared car ownership and shared occupancy schemes and services
We will support car clubs to go fully zero emission
We will consult on a Mobility as a Service Code of Practice
We will use national e-scooter trials to understand their environmental impact, safety, and mode shift potential to evaluate whether they should be legalised
We will reduce the barriers to data sharing across the transport sector
We have launched a new annual statistical release and guidance about transport’s impact on the environment and support its use by third parties
We will explore the introduction of a new sustainable travel reward scheme supported by businesses, community organisations and charities
We will support transport providers to develop communications campaigns that encourage mode-switch and sustainable transport behaviours
We will encourage and support UK businesses to lead the way in taking action to reduce emissions from their employees’ travel journeys through “Commute Zero”
We will identify specific opportunities for decarbonisation through innovation in rural areas in the upcoming Future of Transport: Rural Strategy
We will help build a skilled workforce for the future of transport
We at V2G UK cannot wait to see those commitments being put into practice. Especially the final two! As Trudy puts it at 9:00:
This is quite personal to me. These benefits should not be exclusive to city dwellers… I feel really strongly that this needs to be inclusive, and I also know that for many people in rural areas a car is a lifeline.
We have previously discussed the work of the Warwick Manufacturing Group on mitigating potential battery degradation by “intelligently managing V2G technology”. In a recent press release the EV-elocity project refers to a new WMG paper on that subject, reporting that:
A number of studies have identified the strategic importance of charging infrastructure to support the introduction of electrified vehicles (EVs) and to underpin consumer acceptance of the technology. For this reason, considerable research has been undertaken to evaluate the different facets of the technology, including the ability to charge at higher rates of electrical power, the introduction of smart charging (V1G) that allows dynamic management of the charging process in terms of both power and charge time and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) that enables bidirectional energy flow between the vehicle and the supply. In recent years, the term V2G has become more generalised to V2X, to acknowledge the variability in which the EV may be integrated, either to the grid or behind-the-meter, for example within a local electrical network, such as a building (V2B).
Irrespective of the exact nature of the integration method, understanding the impact of different strategies on battery degradation is a key requirement that may ultimately underpin consumer acceptance. Only a few studies have examined the potential impact of V2G operation on battery degradation. Often their assertion is that the increased charge-throughput will negatively impact battery life. These works often neglect that the battery will equally degrade through a process of calendar-ageing in which the retained capacity of the battery reduces as the battery is stored at no-load.
As highlighted in these results from the EV-elocity project, the nature of the degradation is highly complex with dependencies that crosscut: the state of charge (SOC) of the battery with respect to the optimal SOC storage condition and the duration of the parking interval. To further compound the challenge, experimental results shows that the optimal SOC point varies with battery life.
Transport electrification is a key enabler to reduce fossil fuel depletion and related carbon dioxide emissions. However, critical barriers exist in terms of battery costs and their expected life. Vehicle-to-grid technology can bring benefits to both the electrical power grid and electric vehicle owners, while its practical implementation faces challenges due to the concerns over accelerated battery degradation. This paper presents a comprehensive study on reduced Lithium-ion battery degradation through state-of-charge pre-conditioning strategies that allow an electric vehicle to participate in vehicle-to-grid operations during periods in which the vehicle is parked. Energy capacity reduction of the electric vehicle battery are predicted using semi-empirical ageing models, which have been built and validated to capture the degradation behaviours of the battery with respect to both calendar and cycling ageing. Five charging strategies for battery state-of-charge pre-conditioning have been developed to evaluate the ability to mitigate battery ageing before commencing vehicle-to-grid operations. Simulation studies on battery degradation utilizing such charging mechanisms under two different operational profiles have been undertaken.
At this point you may be wondering exactly what the various charging mechanisms entail? Here’s a summary of the assorted strategies from the press release:
and here’s a summary of the results:
Going back to the abstract from the Bui et al. paper, the brief conclusions are that:
The analytical results show that the proposed charging strategies do not accelerate battery degradation and are capable of mitigating the total ageing process from 7.3 – 26.7% for the first 100 days of operational life and gradually vary to 8.6 – 12.3% for one-year continual operation compared to the reference standard charging approach.
To summarise, leaving your electric vehicle plugged in and “fully charged” is not good for the “state of health” of its traction battery. Here’s a video from Euan McTurk that delivers a similar message:
As we anticipated yesterday, Storm Barra has been officially named by Met Éireann even though the remaining power cuts due to Storm Arwen have yet to be repaired:
#StormBarra has been named by @MetEireann and is forecast to bring strong winds to much of the UK and snow to northern areas on Tuesday and into Wednesday
You could argue that Toyota’s recent launch of a 100% battery, non hybrid, electric vehicle was worthy of an article on this web site, but what with one thing and another we had more important things to write about. However that has now changed!
Today, Toyota presents the world premiere of the all-new bZ4X, the first model in a new series of bZ – beyond Zero – battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
Faithful in its design and technology to its concept predecessor, revealed earlier this year, the production-ready bZ4X is the first model to be developed by Toyota entirely as a BEV. It is also the first car to be built on the company’s new dedicated BEV platform. Based on e-TNGA philosophy, this has been co-developed by Subaru and Toyota.
Incorporating the battery unit as an integral part of the chassis, beneath the vehicle floor, it gives the fundamental benefits of a low centre of gravity, excellent front/rear weight balance and high body rigidity for high levels of safety and ride and handling quality…
With a fully charged battery, expected range is more than 280 miles (depending on version, exact data to be confirmed later). The bZ4X will also offer advanced technology features, including a solar panel roof to help charge the battery while driving or parked, and third generation Toyota Safety Sense with new and improved active safety and driver assistance systems.
The bZ4X will have its European premiere on 2 December; customers who want to be among the first to obtain the new model will be able to place a reservation via the Toyota.co.uk website from 15 December.
Toyota has drawn on almost 25 years’ experience in electrified vehicle battery technology to ensure the new lithium-ion unit in the bZ4X has world-leading quality, durability and reliability. Its confidence in the technology is reflected in an extended care programme that guarantees the battery will still operate to 70 per cent of its original capacity after up to 10 years of ownership or one million kilometres driven, subject to the customer taking their vehicle to an authorised Toyota service centre for an annual health check. To ensure this guarantee could be offered, Toyota developed the battery with a target of 90 per cent of capacity retained after 10 years/240,000 km.
This level of quality and performance is supported by multiple monitoring of the battery’s voltage, current and temperature, from individual cell level. If any abnormal heat generation is detected, controls are automatically triggered. Countermeasures have been put in place to mitigate any material degradation, and there are safeguards in the manufacturing process to prevent foreign matter from entering the battery. In a Toyota first, the battery is water-cooled.
All very interesting of course but still no mention of any mechanism for discharging the bZ4X’s water cooled battery to the outside world. Until now that is! Earlier today my attention was drawn to the Toyota Global bZ4X launch video:
On board solar panels included with the bZ mean that the electricity generated can not only run the vehicle but also be used like a mobile power station in emergencies and in outdoor activities.
Which sounds an awful lot like V2L to me! Close inspection of the associated press release reveals the following information:
Roof solar panel (specially equipped vehicles)
Generates electricity equivalent to 1,800 km of driving distance per year (in-house estimate), contributing to superb cruising range. Can charge in parking lots where there are no charging stations, and solar power can be used to charge in disasters or other emergencies.
DC external power supply function (Japanese specifications)
Can connect to a power feeder to supply high-output electricity to homes and home appliances for outdoor activities, and during disasters and other emergencies.
When used with home solar power generation, solar power can supply electricity to the house in the daytime, surplus electricity can be used to recharge the vehicle via a power feeder, and electricity stored in the vehicle can be used to power the home at night.
The bZ4X is scheduled for launch in all regions from mid-2022.
Which is extremely interesting, because unlike other V2L/V2H capable EVs that have been announced recently this one seems to claim that it offers a “high-output DC” rather than a “low-output AC” feed:
However be sure to read the (very) small print. Only in Japan by the sound of it.
