Parliament of Australia. Photo by Marcus Reubenstein on Unsplash
The Australian government has announced plans to allow EVs in the country to use V2G/bidirectional charging before Christmas this year, at the start of what promises to be Australia's hottest summer ever.
Australia has been struggling with grid problems for years as climate change worsens, causing scorching summers and widespread bushfires and widespread power outages.
In hot and humid climates, electrical grids are stressed from the heat itself and due to the high use of air conditioning. This can lead to power outages during peak hours, especially as the sun sets (and sunsets) but homes stay warm.
Climate change has made this problem worse, with hot days becoming hotter and more frequent, especially in tropical areas like Australia.
Access to grid-connected energy storage that is quickly deployed can help mitigate problems like this. The state of South Australia – a world leader in renewables – was an early leader in installing large grid-tied batteries when it built the Hornsdale Power Reserve in 2017 to ensure that renewable energy is always stored for nighttime use on hot days.
While large, grid-tied batteries are a good answer for immediate power backup, distributed grid storage can also do the job.
We've seen this happen in a few places already with the deployment of “virtual energy plants” – clusters of home batteries that are connected to the grid and the Internet, and can draw electricity from the grid at times of peak demand.
Homeowners who install home batteries can make money by helping to save the grid. And one of the largest power stations in the world is in South Australia.
But there is another distributed source of grid-tied batteries you can tap: electric cars, which are popular in Australia. And the Australian government has just announced that it wants them to start putting power on the grid as soon as next month.
The Australian government is announcing federal V2G standards coming next month
This weekend at the EV AutoShow in Sydney, Chris Bowen, Australia's minister for climate change and energy, announced that the government is ready to introduce new Vehicle to Grid and Vehicle to Home standards for EVs by Christmas – just a month away. half from now to the start of what promises to be another brutally hot Australian summer.
The Labor Government announced it was working on the standards earlier this year, and they are ready to go now.
This will allow EV owners to use their vehicles as home/grid batteries when connected to the home, and connected to a suitable charger with V2G.
EV batteries are typically much larger than home batteries, so they can provide even greater benefits to homes and the grid. However, home batteries are always connected, where cars have this bad habit of driving around sometimes. However, in aggregate, there are dozens of megawatt hours of EVs connected to the grid at any given time that can be tapped when needed.
Or at least – some EVs can. Not all EVs are bidirectional, and in fact, many EVs currently are not. While we're seeing more come out with this capability, as of now only a few available in Australia currently have this capability – the venerable Nissan Leaf EV and the Mitsubishi Outlander and Eclipse Cross PHEVs.
But more is coming soon, and thanks to recent initiatives like Australia's, or California's legislation that could require bi-directional power for future EVs, manufacturers may start taking the promise of a V2G future more seriously now that governments are stepping in.
Electrek's Take
For us EV geeks, V2G has been a dream for a long time. The idea of quickly fixing any number of grid problems by simply flipping a switch and turning on a bunch of internet-connected grid-connected energy storage devices is very exciting. (true story: Electrek he once turned Margot Robbie down for an interview and instead talked to some engineers about V2G for an hour. Yes, indeed).
Not only that, but we can bypass NIMBYs getting in the way of new grid projects, reward people who are forward-thinking enough to own an EV, and make the grid cleaner, all without needing to create an additional social pile. investment? It is utopian.
But, probably, it will remain a dream for a while. Something always gets in the way.
In this case, it is necessary for homeowners to privately invest in powerful V2G chargers, which often cost thousands up front, and can cost even more to be wired into the house and connected to the grid (although this may be recouped in lower electricity costs from selling electricity back to the grid). Hopefully the Australian government standards will have some way to ensure that grid connections can be installed quickly and at minimal cost (this is a problem that comes up a lot in California). And utilities and governments will effectively promote/publicize how these programs can work.
And then there is the current shortage of products that support V2G, as mentioned above that should grow over time.
That said, South Australia has done so well with renewables and battery storage that we feel they could be a leader in this space as well (they've already done a V2G pilot after all). And especially now, with the federal government and not just the state government supporting V2G, Australia has an opportunity to show the world how well a system like this can work.
And maybe this time, instead of following the example of the US as they did with the emission laws, Australia can set up an example that the US has followed in V2G.
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