Plymouth City Council has partnered with E-Flex to trial its existing fleet of electric vehicles taking electricity from the grid and releasing it back when not in use.

As part of a broader local energy strategy, the council will make the six electric vehicles in its fleet ‘more practical and commercially viable’. The move will see the city council’s existing fleet of Nissan Leafs equipped with bi-directional chargers, expected to help relieve pressure at times of peak usage on the local grid.

With a carbon neutral target of 2030, the trial will also expected to boost the existing charging infrastructure for an increase in the number of EVs.

Dan Turner, Low Carbon City Officer at Plymouth City Council said: “Plymouth is a particularly strained part of the grid, with Cornwall generating a lot of renewable energy but delivering this further up the country at times of high demand. For businesses to grow, we need to find new ways to support their energy consumption whilst reducing connection costs across the city so the V2G concept appeals to us from a grid management perspective as well as a commercial one.”

Plymouth City Council was recently awarded £7.6 million from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund to help change how people travel in and around Plymouth. The grant could see as many as 100 charge points installed and is aimed at work places with vehicle fleets and their staff who have an electric car or who are thinking of getting one by ensuring they can charge up while at work.