{"id":120921,"date":"2025-05-21T22:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T22:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120921\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T22:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T22:22:08","slug":"vessel-to-grid-technology-on-river-thames-could-help-balance-londons-power-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120921\/","title":{"rendered":"Vessel-to-grid technology on River Thames could help balance London\u2019s power grid"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK Power Networks (UKPN) is exploring how floating batteries on board electric vessels could support London\u2019s electricity grid.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Electric Thames project, led by UKPN, aims to reduce the river\u2019s carbon emissions. Partners include LCP Delta, Marine Zero, ev.energy and the Port of London Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The aim is to address critical challenges around electricity demand, infrastructure deployment and grid impact for vessel operators using the waterway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One area the project is exploring is vessel-to-grid or boat-to-grid technology. Electric vessels can store surplus renewable energy during periods of low demand and feed it back into the grid during peak times, helping to balance supply and demand.<\/p>\n

The electric vessels will act as floating batteries, feeding surplus power back into the electricity grid when moored.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project analysed tracking data for 62 of the 180 commercial vessels operating regularly on the River Thames, which used 38GWh of energy a year. UKPN says this is equivalent to 10 million litres of diesel, resulting in 27,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This analysis will help inform UKPN\u2019s long-term network planning and the upgrades to the grid that would be required.<\/p>\n

The project also analysed 21 riverside sites that could potentially host charging infrastructure to support commerce, transport and tourism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luca Grella, head of innovation at UKPN, said: \u201cThe River Thames has always been a vital lifeline for the capital, and now, as we look to decarbonise our world, we have a chance to transform the maritime sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work being done to integrate electric vessels with technologies like vessel-to-grid is a major step forward, offering new ways to balance the grid and deliver cleaner, more efficient energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Hurley, operations director at Marine Zero, said: \u201cVessel and site operators have been incredibly engaged and very keen to support this important project. We have been able to undertake wide-scale energy and power analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat, in turn, has allowed us to build informed models and financial projections that reflect real-world conditions and constraints. This data-driven approach has optimised our decision-making process and strengthened stakeholder confidence in our implementation strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Electric Thames is funded through the Strategic Innovation Fund, an Ofgem programme managed in partnership with Innovate UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK Power Networks (UKPN) is exploring how floating batteries on board electric vessels could support London\u2019s electricity grid.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,1312,393,4884,37849,257,22025,53952,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-120921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-electricity","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-grid","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-marine","15":"tag-marine-environment","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114548162308283156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}