Franklin Energy and Powervault partner for smart home charging

Franklin Energy and Powervault partner for smart home charging

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Franklin Energy has partnered with Powervault to develop a new energy storage system allowing vehicle to grid (V2G) / vehicle-to-home (V2H) EV charging for domestic customers.

The system would allow for smarter use of energy, with an EV able to help support the home during peak energy use. By allowing users to take energy from the EV’s battery to reduce load on the grid, it makes for cheaper electricity bills, and improved efficiency of the National Grid.

The EV can then charge up when off-peak, with the Powervault energy storage set-up able to act as a buffer and management system for home use, or to sell back to the grid.

Smart charging is set to become increasingly important for EV drivers, and Franklin Energy’s work with Powervault will see the company’s home charge point hardware integrate with the energy storage system for EV charging capability. The Powervault system uses either new or second-life batteries from Renault.

Robert Byrne, Managing Director of Franklin Energy said: “Smart charging is essential as we move towards the mass adoption of electric vehicles. Being able to control the loads for electric vehicle charging decentralised through micro grids will allow the National Grid to become smarter and defer costly grid upgrades.

“It is estimated that to upgrade the electricity grid to meet demands of future vehicles could cost up to £40bn by 2025 (Ofgem 2016). Having a fully integrated EV charging and home battery storage system with Vehicle-to-Grid functionality will facilitate this and remove the need to upgrade the local electricity grid.

Further details will be announced when the product has been developed and is ready for launch.

Find out more about home EV charging here