Moixa and Honda have launched the first stage of a new partnership with Islington Council as it seeks to electrify its fleet of 500 vehicles to meet new emissions standards and achieve its 2030 net-zero target.
The local authority yesterday unveiled the first of five bi-directional smart electric vehicle (EV) chargers that will be installed at its town hall and partly fed by a set of solar panels on the roof.
“We’re working to ensure our residents have clean air to breathe, while also saving money that can be spent on delivering essential services for the people of Islington,” said Islington’s executive member for environment and transport, Rowena Champion.
“We’re working with industry leaders – Honda and Moixa – to electrify our fleet in the most effective way for our residents and acting as a pioneer for others to follow.”
The chargers were manufactured by the Swiss firm EVTEC, which developed them in partnership with Honda.
Moixa’s GridShare software will be used to optimise their charging patterns based on driver behaviour, the price of energy and weather forecasts. The system will charge the electric vehicle batteries when the available power is cheapest and cleanest and discharge them when it is most expensive and carbon intensive.
The company already uses the platform to operate a fleet of more than 14,000 domestic batteries in Japan – the largest anywhere in the world – and it is growing by more than 1,000 each month.
Its chief technology officer Chris Wright said: “The EV revolution will put millions of batteries on wheels on our roads in the next decade.
“By using AI-driven charging technology, we can intelligently manage these fleets of batteries, securing lowest-cost charging and highest-impact carbon savings.
“Our project with Honda and Islington shows what is possible and provides a blueprint for all large organisations to follow.”
The chargers will initially only return power to the town hall to meets its own needs. However, they are also capable of vehicle-to-grid charging and Moixa is working with demand-side response aggregator Flexitricity to allow them to provide services to National Grid and UK Power Networks.
Flexitricity founder and chief strategy officer Alistair Martin said: “It’s very exciting to see how partnerships like this one are moving us closer to our vision of a greener and fairer energy system.
“The initial tests went very smoothly and the operators in our 24/7 control room in Edinburgh are poised and ready to dispatch the flexibility from the EV fleet to help National Grid balance the system, driving revenue and savings for Islington Council in the process.”