The Government has announced a £9.8 million investment in a Vehicle to Grid (V2G) charging trial, led by Nissan.

V2G technology allows electric vehicles (EVs) to be fully integrated into the electricity grid. Drivers can connect to the grid to charge at low-demand, cheap tariff periods, with an option to then use the electricity stored in the vehicle’s battery to feed back to the grid which could generate additional revenue for the EV owner.

The project will install 1,000 V2G charging points over the next three years to evaluate a commercial offer to electric vehicle fleet customers.

Nissan will the lead a consortium that includes V2G infrastructure/aggregator provider Nuvve, National Grid, UK Power Networks and Northern Powergrid. The research and analysis activities will be supported by Newcastle University and Imperial College London.

Francisco Carranza, managing director of Nissan Energy, said: “Our EVs can be plugged into the grid and support the transmission and distribution companies in making the UK grid more sustainable and more stable. The increase of electric vehicles penetration, the introduction of more and more distributed generation and storage and the overall increase in renewable energy penetration should be done smartly.”

Over the past year and a half in Denmark, Nissan has been testing the V2G technology extensively.

V2G gives private EV owners and businesses with large EV fleets the opportunity to create mobile energy hubs by integrating their vehicles into the grid.

Claire Spedding, head of business development at National Grid, said: “V2G technology presents a great opportunity to support the growth of electric vehicles and manage the anticipated increase in electricity demand.

“Energy stored in electric vehicles can be fed back into the electricity network to help manage the network at times of high demand and be an additional tool for operating Great Britain’s electricity system.”

Ian Cameron, head of Innovation at UK Power Networks, added: “Selling electricity back to the network could help boost the business case for major fleet operators, making the large-scale adoption of electric vehicles more viable”.

DriveElectric launched V2G charging equipment, priced at £8,000, last year for private EV owners.