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Powerloop: Vehicle-to-Grid Technology

Balancing the grid with green energy by storing renewable power in electric cars.

We did it

Powerloop filled 135 places in its UK trial. Data gathering is now in full swing. Stay tuned to read our reports in the coming months.

What is Octopus Powerloop?

Octopus Powerloop reinvents home energy. Electric cars store green energy in the middle of the night and give it back to the grid at peak times to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Watch the video below to find out more.

The energy network of the future

Powerloop is a revolutionary way of taking green energy in the middle of the night and storing it in the battery of a Nissan LEAF. Using a bi-directional charger, the Nissan LEAF connects back into your home to provide your house energy during peak times when energy demand is at its highest.

Using car batteries as energy storage devices enables us to keep intermittent renewable energy for when we need it most. This makes our energy system more efficient and moves us to a green economy faster.

Boosting renewable energy on the grid

Powerloop releases the renewable energy stored in your car battery, feeding it back to the grid during peak demand, between 4-7pm.

With just 10 million cars storing energy and giving it back, we could power the whole of the UK at peak demand. We’re expecting up to 14 million on our roads by 2030, so we're not far away from this being a reality.

Spurring government action

The findings from Powerloop will influence the UK's Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) strategies and support the country's decarbonisation.

Powerloop is funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) with Innovate UK acting as a delivery partner.

Our history

Where we started and where we're going
  • Grant awarded

    2018: Received Innovate UK Grant and began idea forming for the delivery of Powerloop.

  • Trial begins

    2020: Series of educational workshops and events to get participants signed up. Collaboration with UKPN to allow chargers to be connected to the network with full export capability.

  • Trial rolls out

    2021: Installation of chargers and delivery of cars to 135 Powerloop customers. Learning from initial customer experience.

  • Roll out complete

    2021: Trial closes to new participants. Continuous improvements to the customers experience and creation of a Powerloop V2G tariff.

  • Data and reporting

    2021/2022: Collection of data from chargers, cars and smart meters. Commercialisation of V2G through ancillary services participation (trial with National Grid on the Balancing Mechanism underway).

What's next?

Making the data meaningful

During this market leading trial we are analysing all aspects of the Powerloop project to optimise the Vehicle-to-Grid technology for the future.

We are looking at all aspects of the process including the onboarding journey, installation of charger technology and driver use of the car and charger.

There are various reports on the horizon that will explain in detail how V2G is going to change the energy networks of the future.

Stay tuned for the following reports:

Powerloop Customer Diversity and Engagement (early 2022)

G100 Press Release (early 2022)

Guidehouse consultation on the future of domestic V2G in England/UK (Q2 2022)

Full report on Powerloop trial findings (H2 2022)

News and updates

Powerloop is in a constant state of development. This can range from joining the largest flexibility marketplace in the UK, the Balancing Mechanism, to creating a dedicated Powerloop smart app to enhancing customer satisfaction. You can keep up to date with our latest news by heading to our Powerloop V2G area of our EV Hub.

Intelligent Octopus Go

If you are in search for other smart ways of charging your Electric Vehicle check out Intelligent Octopus Go.

Intelligent Octopus Go is the next generation of green electric vehicle charging.

Intelligent Octopus Go gives you six hours of smart charging every night at a super low rate. Simply tell us when you need your car charged, and by how much, and we'll handle the rest – charging your vehicle with cheapest, greenest electrons available.

Intelligent Octopus Go pairs directly with your car's charging system, using KrakenFlex machine learning to optimise your charge.

Intelligent Octopus Go currently works with Tesla vehicles with more compatible cars & chargers coming soon.

This has now led to the UK's first publicly available V2G tariff, PowerPack.