Users of electric vehicles (EVs) have taken part in a three-month trial to help the Government shape the future electricity grid.

The CrowdFlex energy trail ran between May and July as an Ofgem project led by the Electricity System Operator for Great Britain, ESO and involving smart charging platform provider Ohme, which incentivised its customers to plug in their cars more often.

Ohme customers who chose to participate in the trial were asked to simply plug in their EVs whenever they were parked at home and earned rewards for doing so – any pre-set charging schedule was unaffected by the trial.

The trial saw 80% more customers plugging in their EVs during the day and 50% more overnight, which made more EVs for useful grid services such as shifting electricity consumption outside of peak demand. Data gathered from the trial will provide a better understanding of the level to which EV drivers can have a larger role in balancing the electricity grid in the future.

Ohme CEO David Watson described the results of the trial as encouraging with a highly positive response rate from the company’s customers. “Grid flexibility services are estimated to be able to save consumers £10 billion per year in energy costs by 2050, so it was great to be able reward our customers for plugging-in more and being a key driver of that flexibility,”  Watson said.

The ESO’s CrowdFlex project lead Santa Atherton described the trail as showing exciting signs of the potential for domestic flexibility to help reliably manage the grid. “CrowdFlex is developing this deeper understanding of consumer flexibility and forecasting, and will start to establish domestic flexibility as a predictable resource for the control room, also helping consumers reduce their energy costs and another step towards decarbonisation of the energy system,” Atherton said.

A second winter trial will now take place between September until April and will see an increased number of drivers rewarded for altering their behaviour by plugging-in whenever their EV is parked at home.