Oliver graduated from Solent University in 2022 with a first-class BEng (Hons) in Renewable Energy Engineering. During his time in Southampton, he gained a strong foundation of knowledge across a range of green energy and sustainability topics, holding a particular interest in smart grids and grid management, energy storage systems and eco-vehicle technology, a module that sparked the interest in sustainable transport which ultimately led him to join AAPS CDT. In his final year of study, Oliver was awarded the faculty prize for best project in Renewable Energy Engineering. He aimed to conduct a final year project that would combine his practical and digital engineering skills, designing and manufacturing an automated water cooling system to reduce the negative impacts of increased panel temperature on floating PV panel performance.
Joining the CDT through the open pool, Oliver used the MRes year to gain a deeper understanding of unfamiliar areas of sustainable mobility and to identify the specific area of research in which he wanted to pursue his PhD. While his MRes studies included research into topics as varied as alternative fuels, EV battery supply chains and specially designed road crossings for newts (yes, seriously!), he ultimately decided his passion remained in energy systems, choosing to investigate the relationship between consumer energy prices and mortality in England and Wales for his summer project. Outside of academia, Oliver enjoys spending time in nature, keeping fit, and watching football and ice hockey.
A key element of the UK’s decarbonisation strategy is promoting the electrification of road transport, which promises to significantly reduce national emissions when combined with an expanded share of renewable generation in the energy mix. This presents challenges from an energy system perspective, as charging demand will put pressure on network and charging infrastructure, potentially requiring costly upgrades. However, it also offers exciting opportunities; EV charging could be controlled to optimally align with renewable energy supply and network constraints, and vehicles could even return power using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, helping facilitate increased uptake of renewables and offsetting requirement for investment in other types of storage.
Oliver’s PhD will investigate the implications of future EV adoption for the grid both from a demand (charging) and generation (V2G) perspective. He will simulate the effects of vehicle charging and V2G storage on network flexibility in a range of future grid and EV adoption scenarios, incorporating realistic assumptions on charging behaviour and taking a bottom-up approach to forecasting EV uptake, building upon the research of fellow CDT student Isaac Flower. This research will help guide optimal planning and investment in system upgrades to support co-decarbonisation of transport and energy, and will contribute towards the realistic whole-system understanding of the UK energy network being developed by the power group at the university.
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