Electric vehicle owners paid for charging at home in landmark trial - 'All they had to do was park'

The CrowdFlex energy trial ran for three months between May and July, with drivers asked the plug their electric vehicles in whenever they are parked at home.

This allows them to earn rewards when plugged in as any pre-set charging schedule was unaffected, meaning motorists were guaranteed to have enough charge whenever they needed to leave.

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It found that 80 per cent more customers plugged in their electric vehicles during the day, and 50 per cent more overnight.

Ohme said the study helped provide insight into grid services, including shifting electricity consumption outside peak demand.

David Watson, CEO of Ohme, described the trial as "encouraging" and the company saw a "very positive response rate" from drivers wanting to take part.

He added: “Grid flexibility services are estimated to be able to save consumers £10billion per year in energy costs by 2050, so it was great to be able to reward our customers for plugging in more and being a key driver of that flexibility.

"All they had to do was park up, plug in and let Ohme take care of the rest.”

The data compiled in the study will provide a better understanding of the level that drivers can provide when it comes to "balancing" the electricity grid in the future.

Ohme is also planning to run a similar CrowdFlex trial in the winter, although this will run for a longer duration of time from September to April.

It will also involve more Britons participating and rewarded for their charging behaviour by plugging-in whenever they are parked on their driveways.

Sanna Atherton, CrowdFlex project lead at the ESO, said: "It’s exciting to see the first 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."

She added that customers would see their energy costs fall and the country would take further steps towards the decarbonisation of the energy system, especially as more EVs join the road.

There are currently almost 67,000 public electric vehicle chargers around the UK, according to Zapmap, with numbers growing massively over the past year.

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The charging database estimates that there are a further 700,000 charging devices across the UK at houses and workplaces. This total also includes community or visitor charging.