From theory to reality: WESA trial integrating dynamic EV flexibility with daily life

Coordinating EV charging demand in response to signals from national or local markets can enable flexibility at national or local levels. Commercially available smart charging services manage EV charging to react to national signals known in advance. However, the ability of such services to automatically react to signals that change in near real-time, or that reflect local conditions, is less well studied and understood. We report results from an initial real-world trial to investigate such potential.
Building on the previously introduced Whole Energy Systems Accelerator (WESA), the reported field trial makes the following novel contributions:
Mapping 34 geographically separated real-world participants’ EV charging loads to a single section of simulated LV network as if they were on the same street, enabling observation of clustering effects.
Real-time feedback in which WESA-generated signals influence EV charging schedules in response to the real-time simulated LV network status.
Real-time automatic network load-based rescheduling via a commercial smart charging provider.
Over the course of the trial – more than 120 smart charging sessions were conducted, with over 2000 kWh of energy delivered. The paper highlights novel WESA testing capabilities and identifies the real-world challenges which must be overcome to unlock the potential of smart EV charging.