Ofgem visit the 1st FEVER Demonstrator System

Mr Henry Green, Deputy Director of Strategy at Ofgem, visited the first FEVER containerised demonstrator system, based at the University of Southampton Wide Lane Sports Fields, on Thursday 20th February 2025. Although the weather was not great on the day(!), Henry was impressed by the installation and operation of the first fully off-grid, containerised demonstration of the FEVER EV (electric vehicle) charging station and commented: “It was great to visit the demonstrator up close. Innovations like this have the potential to play a critical role in our future system, and it’s really impressive seeing first hand the energy and ambition of the people involved.”

Mr Henry Green (Ofgem) at the 1st FEVER containerised demonstrator system

The Wide Lane Demonstrator, fully commissioned on 16th Dec 2024, is an entirely off-grid, renewable energy supplied, containerised demonstration of the FEVER EV charging station concept. It has roof mounted solar pv panels, a wind turbine (mounted on a 6m pole affixed to the container), an internal hybrid energy storage system, 4G based remote monitoring control and communication system and utilises a switched bank of internal load resistors to emulate the EV recharging demand.

It embodies the first step ‘out of the laboratory’ of the FEVER concept, where initial learning from a university laboratory based demonstrator has been engineered to operate externally and fully independently of the grid, managing the available renewable energy generation via the internal hybrid energy storage system, to satisfy user defined EV load patterns.

The FEVER team are continuing to learn valuable lessons about how a full scale FEVER demonstrator system should and could operate, and how to design and rate such a system. This 1st demonstrator is key to validate the initial modelling and design work undertaken, and will facilitate the next generation of ‘active’ FEVER demonstrator systems, which will then permit direct EV recharging.

The FEVER team believe that the delivery of cost-competitive, off-grid, renewable powered, FEVER EV charging stations will significantly accelerate the Government’s ambitions to enable ready national access to EV recharging infrastructure, enhance the UK’s energy security through these stand-alone, off-grid systems, and stimulate rapid economic growth via avoidance of the grid connection queue and costs. Ofgem recently provided (July 2024) an update on progress in connections reform which noted that the queue for connections continues to grow and, at the time, stood at 714 GW, with projects facing delays of 5.5 years between the requested date and the connection offer[1]. FEVER systems could also help to create greater equity in terms of access to EV charging, as it can be deployed in areas that could otherwise miss out due to grid constraints.

Further, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) published Great Britain's Connections Reform: Overview (PDF) in November 2024[2], which sets out its proposals to introduce a reformed connections process that would be based on a combination of project ‘readiness’ and ‘strategic alignment’ that is hoped will mitigate the current queue. In concert with the Connections Reform, the UK Government has stated that “we are accepting government’s central role in steering the creation of this new energy system, setting our expectations for the 2030 capacities of key technologies at national and regional level”. This is embodied in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan[3] which plans to add “flexible capacity, including 23-27 GW of battery capacity, 4-6 GW of long-duration energy storage, and development of flexibility technologies including gas carbon capture utilisation & storage, hydrogen, and substantial opportunity for consumer-led flexibility”.

The FEVER research team welcomes these Government initiatives to assist and stimulate the transition to a clean, secure and affordable future energy system, however would draw attention to the continuing innovation occurring within the energy sector and encourage the UK Government to formally recognise and support the role that off-grid solutions such as the FEVER EV charging system can provide

The visit by Henry to the 1st FEVER containerised system is an encouraging start on our journey to promote and demonstrate secure, resilient and clean off-grid solutions for the UK’s energy concerns.

The Wide Lane system includes a remote CCTV system to allow remote external monitoring and security of the container, and also includes an internal webcam to the container to allow secure and instant visualisation of the safe operation of the hybrid energy store and load emulator.

Wind Turbine, solar PV panels, CCTV and 4G antenna on the FEVER container demonstrator at Wide Lane

The FEVER project team will be demonstrating the system at two forthcoming events:

1)      University of Southampton Science and Engineering Day, Saturday 15th March 2025, on the Highfield Campus, Southampton, https://www.sotsef.co.uk/SED/whats-on/?id=93.  

The All-Energy Exhibition and Conference, 14th and 15th May 2025, SEC, Glasgow, https://www.all-energy.co.uk/.

[1] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2024-0156/, 22nd Nov 2024.

[2] https://www.neso.energy/industry-information/connections/connections-reform

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/clean-power-2030-action-plan