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Delboy
Rank 1
Rank 1
June 7, 2019

Check out my V2G (Vehicle to grid) installation with OVO Energy!

  • June 7, 2019
  • 28 replies
  • 3687 views

Updated on 24/05/22 by Jess_OVO


Our Vehicle-to-Grid trial has now moved on to the next phase and is no longer accepting new participants.

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I had my V2G installed yesterday so it's been less than 24 hours but here's what happened.

The guys (5 of them) turned up on time and were really nice, and after a cup of tea they started work.

As you can see there is a lot of kit and fortunately it didn't rain.

A word of warning, these chaps can drink tea at an astonishing rate, make sure you have lots of tea bags and a reliable kettle ☺.

The install took about 6 hours in total and they cleared away all the rubbish and left the place clean and tidy. Once the hardware had been installed and double checked for safety etc it was time for the big switch on.

There seemed to be a communication problem between my unit and V2G control but once that was sorted and the latest firmware downloaded we were ready to plug the car in, no bang or bright flash so I assumed all was good.

The car was charging (I made sure it was at 50%ish before the install) and the V2G box started flashing, I was then given a tutorial and demonstration of how the box works and what the buttons do, seems to me that white lights are good, red lights bad. Then a quick tutorial on how to isolate the V2G if the worst should happen and that was that.

 

 

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As you can see the V2G box is not small compared to a normal type 2 charger.

I then had to access the "App" but it's really a website/portal, I am having problems with that as everytime I log out it wont let me back in until I changed my password, I am waiting for a call back to get this sorted.

But apart from that everything seems to be working as it should.

This morning my car is sitting at 100% SOC and I have exported some electricity to the grid.

But the best bit is this.........

 

 

 

 

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Last night our home wasn't using any power from the grid the car was powering everything.

We had TV, lights etc on as normal, we even boiled the kettle, the car powered it all and we were exporting 3.4 kw to the grid for which we get paid for.

From what I can tell this lasted for 3 hours before the charger went back to "idle" mode (doing nothing) until in the early hours when it topped the car back up.

It has been less than 24hrs so everything is new and it will take a few days to get up to speed but first impressions are good but I won't know what savings I'm making until the end of the month, it's the car powering the house savings plus the export tariff compared to the cost of filling the battery that concerns me.

I would like to say a big thank you to the guys for all their hard work yesterday and to OVO for picking me for this trial.

I will update you in a week or so to let you know how it's all going.

If you have any questions regarding installation or V2G please ask and I'll do my best to answer them.

Cheers for now, Del.

 

 

28 replies

Tim_OVO
OVO Staff
OVO Forum Legend
June 10, 2019
Great to get some insight on the installation process - 6 hours! 😮
Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
Delboy
Rank 1
DelboyAuthor
Rank 1
June 10, 2019
Tim,
Not sure how many hours we're spent drinking tea. 😂
Transparent
Rank 20
Rank 20
June 10, 2019
I'm not sure this is a "fair test" @Delboy. There really needs to be a lot more of us popping in and testing the power-transfer characteristics whilst using your kettle.

Can we all turn up for tea this afternoon? 😉
Save energy... recycle electrons!
Delboy
Rank 1
DelboyAuthor
Rank 1
June 10, 2019
Of course you can, bring cake. 🍰🍰🍰☕
Newcomer
June 10, 2019
Mine took around 9-10 hours. But there were complications. And tea! Not up and running yet, hopefully next week. There was a fault on the car that the charger revealed and my car had different software than they expected - turns out the 30kWh Leaf has several software variations that Nissan hadn't been very clear about, may have been lost in communications between Nissan UK and Nissan Japan. Mine will now charge/discharge at the V2G at the Indra factory where they make them, so next week hopefully they will push a software update to my V2G and we'll have another go. Great to hear yours went well @Delboy !
Newcomer
June 12, 2019
Congrats on the install, looks like they did a smart job!
NinjaGeek
Rank 12
Rank 12
June 15, 2019
Ok, I am super jealous of this and your car. I look forward to seeing your review maybe in t months time?
Renewable energy + EV enthusiast
Delboy
Rank 1
DelboyAuthor
Rank 1
July 2, 2019
Hi all,

Well I've had an interesting couple of weeks, my V2G crashed and died after two weeks of use.

Has anyone else had problems?

I had a situation where the fan on the V2G unit was going at full speed and a red light on the display, the app was saying it was either a hardware fault or no internet connection.
If I turned the box off at the isolator in the garage and few minutes later turned it back on after about an hour or so (I did not connect to the car) it went back to the fan and red light fault.
So i've been without it for a couple of weeks, Kaluza arranged an engineer to come and replace the unit which took place today.
He's just left and I now have a version two box which is now charging the car and appears to be working fine, time will tell.

I appreciate that this is a trial and faults will occur and situations like this are to be expected, I understand my box will be inspected back at the factory and it will help in the improvement of the V2G system.

Can anyone who has had V2G for a while please answer a question?
I have just got my June bill and with the V2G my electricity bill is £20.00 more than last month (before V2G) obviously V2G has charged my car more than usual hence the extra cost, but I can't see on my bill what I've exported to the grid or how much money I've been "paid", am I missing something?

I'll keep you updated on how this box behaves and how things are going soon.

Cheers for now, Del.
Hari_OVO
OVO Staff
OVO Product Team
July 2, 2019
Hi @Delboy,

Hopefully I can help you with the billing question.

Effectively, at the minute the billing process for your exports isn't quite as automated as we would like it to be. You'll receive your export credits for June on your July's statement, for July on August's statement, and so on and so forth. We are trying to make this better and hope to do so over time.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Hari
Delboy
Rank 1
DelboyAuthor
Rank 1
July 3, 2019
Hi Hari_OVO

So even though I have a smart meter that sends you my usage info every 30 minutes it's going to take OVO a month to tell me what I've exported to the grid and to reimburse me for the energy I've exported, however, I can look at the App and that tells me what I'm exporting in real time.
Could a page be added to my OVO usage to show what was exported to the grid the previous day at least then I would have an idea of what is happening?

If I'm correct I have just paid you full price for all the electricity I have used in june and you have added 5% VAT to that total, so when you finally work out what you owe me will I get 5% added so I get the VAT back that I have overpaid?

I'm sure if I decided to pay you a month in arrears you would have plenty to say.

How long before what I export is shown on the relevant bill, surely all the data is provided by the smart meter in real time so why can't it be added as the usage is?

I hope i'm wrong but I'm starting to feel like OVO are not playing with a completely straight bat here, there seems to be a lack of transparency and the attitude that us customers can be fobbed off with "we are trying to make this better".

It will be two months before I have any idea of what is going on so I would appreciate some reassurance from anyone as to what savings (if any) are to be had with V2G in the real world.

Cheers, Del.