Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans are in place to synchronise any increased demand on the UK electricity supply in line with the growth of electric vehicle usage and the availability of charging points.

We will be engaging with stakeholders, including network companies, to ensure that increasing demand can be accommodated, whilst minimising the impact on businesses, workers and consumers across the UK, building on the significant demand and supply side measures in place.

The electricity market is already set up to promote investment in generation capacity to meet demand; for example, the Contracts for Difference scheme facilitates significant investment in low-carbon generation. This complements numerous measures to ensure a smarter, more flexible energy system, increasing the efficiency of the electricity system to prepare for electric vehicles (EVs).

‘Smart’ charging of EVs (at off-peak times) can reduce demand from EV charging at peak times; the Government has taken powers in the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act to mandate that all charge points sold or installed in the UK must be smart enabled and we have recently consulted on secondary regulations. The Government has also invested £30 million to support vehicle-to-grid technology, where the storage capability of EV batteries provides electricity back to the grid.

Ofgem, the independent energy regulator, is developing its next set of energy network price controls to incentivise network companies to be ready for the future needs of the energy system, including the required capacity to support EVs. Ofgem has a performance-based framework to set price controls, the RIIO (Revenue=Incentives+Innovation+Outputs). Ofgem uses price controls to determine the revenues companies recover, investment they make and performance standards they must deliver. Ofgem’s next RIIO framework will ensure companies make the case for investment needed to support decarbonisation. As part of the RIIO process, Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) forecast the likely uptake of EVs, in order to shape investment plans for reinforcing the network. The regime allows DNOs to seek approval from Ofgem for increased funding, should load growth be significantly higher than anticipated during the price control period.