Vehicle 2 Grid - octopus open

[Dave Jones]

octopus are taking signups for a lease package of BYD and wall charger to use your car as a battery for the house. First DNO approved system.

 

Looking at ordering the charger as it should work with our ID4 as it is V2G ready supposedly.

[JohnMo]

15 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

Looking at ordering the charger

Is it actually going to house? Or is it going to the grid, bypassing the house, when octopus wants it too? V2G is used to balance the grid only. The controller (energy company) uses your battery as a resource. Not sure on the impact on battery life? Bit like discharging and charging your phone a couple of times a day? Ok if leased, but if you bought the car, not sure I would bother. V2H is car to home only which may be want you want?

[Dave Jones]

my understanding is house only. 

[Kelvin]

According to this it’s V2G. 
 

https://octopus.energy/power-pack/
 

SigEnergy have a module for their system that is a V2X bi-directional DC charger. They have a 12kW and 25kW version of it. Yet to be approved for UK use but it’s coming soon apparently. My interest would be more to back the house up. It’s CCS only so no buying a cheap Leaf and leaving it permanently plugged in. I know you can get adapters but they seem to be very expensive and I’m not sure I’d trust them. 
 

Edited 23 hours ago by Kelvin

[S2D2]

For the octopus deal its the car doing V2G afaik, nothing special about the charger.

 

Octopus also control it, which is fair enough as the savings are passed on in the lease cost, but unsure if it would cover house load by design.

[Kelvin]

1 hour ago, S2D2 said:

For the octopus deal its the car doing V2G afaik, nothing special about the charger.

 

Octopus also control it, which is fair enough as the savings are passed on in the lease cost, but unsure if it would cover house load by design.

It has to be a V2G enabled charger too. They specify the Zaptec Go Pro for CCS chargers. It’s all in the link I posted. The way it’s worded it doesn’t cover the house load. If you’re on Intelligent go it will likely save you less than £200 per year doing this compared. 

[S2D2]

1 hour ago, Kelvin said:

It has to be a V2G enabled charger too. They specify the Zaptec Go Pro for CCS chargers. It’s all in the link I posted. The way it’s worded it doesn’t cover the house load. If you’re on Intelligent go it will likely save you less than £200 per year doing this compared. 

It sounded like Zaptec enabled V2G via a firmware update, is there specific hardware required for bidirectional AC or is it just some comms that other charger companies could add with a firmware update? The price of the charger indicates nothing fancy?

[Kelvin]

This suggests it’s a new charger 

 

https://www.zaptec.com/en-uk/info-hub/inside-zaptec/zaptec-go-2

[S2D2]

12 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

This suggests it’s a new charger 

 

https://www.zaptec.com/en-uk/info-hub/inside-zaptec/zaptec-go-2

The Octopus deal is for a Zaptec Pro isn't it?

[Kelvin]

15 minutes ago, S2D2 said:

The Octopus deal is for a Zaptec Pro isn't it?

I assumed that’s a mistake as the Pro is the commercial version. We had them in our work car park. The only one that mentions V2G on their website is the Go 2. Octopus only mention two compatible chargers one from Zaptec and the other from Wallbox

 

 

[S2D2]

1 hour ago, Kelvin said:

I assumed that’s a mistake as the Pro is the commercial version. We had them in our work car park. The only one that mentions V2G on their website is the Go 2. Octopus only mention two compatible chargers one from Zaptec and the other from Wallbox

 

 

Seems like specific but inexpensive hardware is required so they were planning ahead with the Pro. MyEnergi also claim to be launching a bidirectional charger this year: https://support.myenergi.com/hc/en-gb/articles/15196766224273-Can-zappi-do-vehicle-to-grid-V2G

[Dave Jones]

2 hours ago, S2D2 said:

The Octopus deal is for a Zaptec Pro isn't it?

 

by pro they mean 3-phase i think.

[Kelvin]

2 hours ago, S2D2 said:

Seems like specific but inexpensive hardware is required so they were planning ahead with the Pro. MyEnergi also claim to be launching a bidirectional charger this year: https://support.myenergi.com/hc/en-gb/articles/15196766224273-Can-zappi-do-vehicle-to-grid-V2G

Inexpensive? Some of them cost a fortune. The Wallbox Quasar 2 costs over 6000 Euro last time I looked. It supports V2H  so it’s more than just a charger as it has to safely island the car from the grid etc I’m unconvinced by V2H as a thing anyway. While batteries are still dear they have reduced in price a fair bit so you can put in a fair amount of battery storage for an almost affordable amount of money without the complication of trying to do that with your car. 

[S2D2]

30 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

Inexpensive? Some of them cost a fortune. The Wallbox Quasar 2 costs over 6000 Euro last time I looked. It supports V2H  so it’s more than just a charger as it has to safely island the car from the grid etc I’m unconvinced by V2H as a thing anyway. While batteries are still dear they have reduced in price a fair bit so you can put in a fair amount of battery storage for an almost affordable amount of money without the complication of trying to do that with your car. 

To be clear, I'm talking about bidirectional AC, where the pricey DC to AC inverter is in the car. The Zaptec Pro can be had for £800, a bit pricier than alternatives but cheaper than the AC to DC chargers like the Quasar.

 

There's also no requirement to support islanding on cheaper models, it can just shut off if it loses grid connection like a standard inverter, islanding should be a premium add on and won't be supported on the octopus deal.

 

I agree it has some way to go, but if every car supported bidirectional AC by default the decision would be much easier. My EV doesn't so I invested in an extra battery module for my hybrid inverter as it just makes more sense at the moment. I still use a granny charger as I dont want to invest in technology that's likely to become out of date immediately this year when bidirectional charging is readily available.