Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen has announced that Standards Australia has approved new regulations that will allow electric vehicle (EV) owners across the country to use vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.
Speaking at the EV AutoShow in Sydney on Saturday, Bowen said V2G charging is now ticked, enabled under the law of the land and will be “a reality by Christmas this year.”
“Standards Australia has ticked off the new standard that will allow vehicle-to-grid charging in Australia,” he said, adding that it will allow EV owners to use the “battery that sits in their driveway” to discharge back to their house or to the grid when it suits.
“Now the process is that car manufacturers and charging manufacturers can register their produces with the Clean Energy Council who will be our regulator for this, and if it complies with the Australian standard, they’ll be able to get that registered and underway,” he said.
“By Christmas, we hope, there will be products registered and people can undertake that journey.”
V2G technology allows for the energy stored in an EV’s lithium-ion battery, which is often four to five times bigger than a typical 12 to 14 kWh home storage battery, to be used to power the home or put back into the electricity grid.
Bidirectional charging has been technically possible for years but currently South Australia is the only state that allows V2G chargers to be installed in homes. V2G trials have been conducted in other jurisdictions, including the Australian Capital Territory, Western Australia and New South Wales.
Bowen says the new standards, designed to regulate the hardware, including inverters and bidirectional chargers, that enable an EV to participate in two-way power sharing, will help consumers get maximum benefit out of their EV for themselves and also for the electricity grid.
“It’s about ensuring grid stability, and it’s about ensuring maximum use of every single electron, ensuring consumers get maximum value from their assets,” he said.
Bowen said it is now up to the car manufacturers and suppliers of charging hardware to gain approval for individual products.
“I really am encouraging manufacturers both of vehicles and charging infrastructure to get their act together and get their applications into the Clean Energy Council – I’m sure they will, they’ve been waiting for this – as quickly as possible so we can make it a reality,” he said.
“It’s not going to happen overnight for everyone. Not every manufacturer is at the same place, but it’s now going to be enabled in our system.”
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
”
Bowen said it is now up to the car manufacturers and suppliers of charging hardware to gain approval for individual products.
“I really am encouraging manufacturers both of vehicles and charging infrastructure to get their act together and get their applications into the Clean Energy Council – I’m sure they will, they’ve been waiting for this – as quickly as possible so we can make it a reality,” he said.
“It’s not going to happen overnight for everyone. Not every manufacturer is at the same place, but it’s now going to be enabled in our system.”
”
Because of the obfuscation and antipathy of the feral government (and the Western Australian state government), to the adoption of clean energy in Australia, only one model of BEV available in Australia, the Nissan Leaf, has V2H capability, and, that uses the Chademo standard connector, which is deprecated, and so, unl;ess a Nissan Leaf owner already has aV2H “bi-directional charger” (apparently, allowed to be connected to the grid, only in South Australia), the announcement by Bowen, will have no benefit, for a number of years, until the BEV manufacturers provide vehicles that have V2H capability.
In the meantime (with widespread V2H implementation in Australia, probably taking at least ten years to start, due to hostility from the members of the feral parliament), the closest option is using the V2L capability, in conjunction with a HOEM device.
I am surprised that there is no V2L adaptor to interface to the grid? I understand the problems:
-Grid synchronisation,
-Grid Isolation
-Earthing issues
but I feel these should be easily sorted by a AC>DC>AC hybrid inverter using the isolation of the high frequency transformer. Of course, limited to the output of the vehicle (typically 3.5Kw) but that is useful output. That would be sufficient power to limit domestic max demand between 5pm>8pm for instance, or sell back to the grid, then recharge Midnight to dawn on discount power rates.
All that would be required is an understanding by the power approval authorities that the inverter supplied sufficient isolation to enable V2G via the approved inverter without vehicle approval. There would also need to be a way to charge the vehicle perhaps by a changeover contactor.