Rural Energy Resilience (RER)

Cybermoor is the lead project partner on the Rural Energy Resilience project.

How can rural communities harness the opportunities in the transition to Net-Zero to improve energy resilience and mobility? The Rural Energy Resilience project
builds on work carried out on earlier IUK projects to develop a package which links rural car clubs, community buildings, local renewable generation and Distribution Network Operators (DNOs), unlocking value across 5 use cases with 3 different UK built V2X technologies (AC, DC CHAdeMO & CCS):

Rural Car Clubs – reducing charging costs from using local renewables and generating revenue by selling energy back to sites and the grid from vehicle
batteries. This improves the viability of rural car clubs, improving mobility allowing people to access leisure and employment opportunities, reducing the need for second cars and compensating for poor rural bus services.

Community Buildings
a) battery storage on vehicles for their solar PV renewables, reducing their energy bills.
b) backup power during powercuts for their resilience centres – using a vehicle battery to boil kettles & charge phones.
c) EV chargepoints for villages which are overlooked by most chargepoint operators (CPOs).

Distribution Network Operator (DNOs) interested in flexibility services where the network is constrained, saving revenue on network reinforcements.

Individual use cases are not commercially viable, but stacked together they generate a moderate commercial return plus significant social and environmental
impacts. The key research question is how do these use cases work together in a real world trial.

SOSCI

Cybermoor was the lead project partner on the very successful SOSCI project.

Scaling On-Street Charging Infrastructure (SOSCI) started in 2018 & completed in January 2021. The project carried out feasibility work on meeting a vision for 8 million homes without off-street parking to be within 5 minutes walk of an electric vehicle (EV) charge point. The project installed over 200 community charge points across the North of England. This has delivered:  an increased take-up of electric vehicles, allowing people to save money on fuel costs; reduced air pollution and CO2 emissions.

REVUP

Cybermoor has been responsible for the coordination of the project management of the REVUP project. Cybermoor used its extensive experience in managing previous broadband and EV charging infrastructure projects. Regional Electric Vehicle Unified Plan (REVUP) delivered an innovative toolkit to support Local Authorities (LAs) facilitate the installation of Electric Vehicle Charge Points (EVCPs), especially in remote and underserved communities — to avoid the creation of a so-called ‘Charge-Point Divide’.

Lancaster University

Cybermoor carried out consultation for Lancaster University who host 36 EV Charge points at a number of locations across its Bailrigg Campus. Given the rapidly developing and changing nature of EV charging systems, together with the current and future increase in EV vehicles the University wishes to implement a project to replace its current fleet of charge points with systems that will be fully controllable, flexible and future proofed.  Cybermoor worked with University officers to complete a full procurement exercise to enhance EV charging facilities on campus. A report comprised an initial feasibility assessment to identify appropriate options and a recommended approach.