V2G: Giving Power to the People (Pun Intended)

Bowen identified that the priority to give households control over their energy whether from rooftop solar, solar battery storage, or in the battery of their electric vehicle.

“The other opportunity we have in our renewable energy transformation is to ensure that households are in charge of the resources that they have available to them: on their roof, in their garage – in their battery in the garage, and increasingly in the battery that sits in their driveway.”

“I'm very pleased to announce today that one of the important milestones in that Consumer Energy Roadmap has been ticked and that Standards Australia has ticked off the new standard that will allow vehicle to grid charging in Australia.”

Here’s what the Energy Council’s website says: ‘With the grid intended to serve customers, not the other way around, customer interests need to be front and centre as the roadmap is rolled out.’

Watch Bowen's instagram video here.

Vehicle-to-Grid to be available by Christmas?

With the new Australian Standards in place for bi-directional charging, Bowen said that manufacturers can start getting their bi-directional products refined to the new standard, and then put in an application to the CEC for approval.

“They'll have to meet the standard that's been ticked off by Standards Australia, but where we've got manufacturers and OEMs who are on board for that and it all happens smoothly, we'll be able to have bi-directional charging a reality by Christmas this year.

So, 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.”

Australia Making Bi-directional Charging a Reality

In our previous article around bi-directional charging and why it is taking Australia so long to get this technology available at-scale, we looked into how the lack and confusion of Australian standards around bi-directional charging where a contributing factor into why manufacturers haven’t invested into this technology in this nation.

Recent changes to the 2016 standard, AS/NZS 4777.1:2024 for inverter energy systems, accommodates changes for new technologies including vehicle-to-grid. AS4777.2 is set to be revised by early 2025, looking something like this, depending on the official version.

With this new standard specified by Bowen, this completely changes the game with the doors opened to manufacturers of both charging infrastructure and electric vehicles to implement, market, and feature V2G technologies in their products. As Bowen mentioned, they already have manufacturers who are on board.

Ausgrid has mentioned that they currently allow V2G EV chargers on its network, as long as they meet the same requirements as solar and battery installations, meeting the AS/NZS4777.2 standard and CEC approval requirements.

Companies like Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, and Volkswagen have either already implemented, or announced bi-directional charging capabilities. U.S specifications of the Tesla Cybertruck show that it also has bi-directional features via Tesla Powershare.

What’s the Consumer Energy Resources Roadmap?

The Consumer Energy Resources Roadmap, supported by a partnership between RaceFor2023 (led by enX) and ARENA, is being developed to allow mass-adoption of bi-directional charging in Australia.

According to RaceFor2030, the Australian V2G roadmap will help the CER roadmap by unlocking potential pathways to encourage commercial adoption of bi-directional technology in Australia.

It will help consult policy development and investment for all sectors and enable commercialisation.

They state that the completion of this project will be completed by December 2024.

Bowen also said “Vehicle to grid charging is now ticked, enabled under the law of the land and will become a reality before Christmas, in the real world. Possible today, technically possible today, thanks to these changes, but next couple of months, an opportunity for the companies to get their registrations in and get it happening.”

What V2G Chargers and EVs are Available in Australia?

Like current solar and battery technology, vehicle-to-grid technology manufacturers will need to register their products through the Clean Energy Council for approval. Here’s the approved battery list for example.

“And the process from now is that those manufacturers that enable vehicle to grid charging and those charging companies that enable it can register their products with the Clean Energy Council and get approval for each particular product.”

Because of the Australian standards being recently altered to allow for bi-directional charging, we expect that over the next few months that we’ll see charger and EV manufacturers submitting their products for refinement and approval through the CEC to be ready for the Australian market.

During the speech about standards, Bowen also said, “Vehicle to grid charging is now ticked, enabled under the law of the land and will become a reality before Christmas, in the real world. Possible today, technically possible today, thanks to these changes, but next couple of months, an opportunity for the companies to get their registrations in and get it happening.”

We expect to start seeing compliant bi-directional chargers to reach market at the start of 2025.

Will dedicated batteries go extinct with V2H technology?

A question we had was if dedicated home and commercial battery adoption would be affected by the increased use of electric vehicle batteries. We don’t think that this will greatly affect the adoption of dedicated batteries as they will still serve a purpose that EVs may not always be able to fulfil.

In a situation where an electric vehicle owner goes to work, they may park their car in a car park without chargers. Their solar system back at home will generate electricity and store that excess power into the dedicated battery.

When the person arrives home at peak hours during the early evening, solar is no longer available for that day, leaving only 3 ways to charge the vehicle; with expensive grid energy in the peak period, cheap grid energy after 10pm, or the stored solar energy in the dedicated battery.

Another reason could be that your electric vehicle battery capacity is only really suitable for your daily commute and not to power a house for a period of time. People are also aware of what the increased battery usage could do to the battery’s lifespan.

Essentially, a dedicated battery allows for more options for cost savings and sustainability, resulting in greater energy independence.

What is vehicle-to-grid integration?

For properties with solar and dedicated battery storage, electric vehicles with vehicle-to-grid technology would be an integrated addition to the property’s energy production, storage, and consumption.

By having an integrated vehicle-to-grid system, your property will have elements that all serve a purpose for your energy. For example, an EV would allow you to soak up excess solar energy that would typically charge the dedicated battery, and then fed back into the grid. These sorts of systems are integrated to help reduce your overall energy costs and optimise usage to consumption balances.

Will Virtual Power Plants have Vehicle-to-Grid?

In the future, we believe that an EV would act as a home battery, allowing owners to join a Virtual Power Plant and participate with your EVs battery. As we’re in the technology’s infancy, we are still trialing this technology, like the Amber and ARENA trial which is set to test how it would work.

Having vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid available for microgrids and virtual power plants would allow for greater energy security and investment returns by expanding the capacity of energy. You not only could store more solar, but buy cheap energy through off-peak times, and use in replacement during peak periods to avoid paying for electricity when it’s most expensive.