Australia is predicted to have 300,000 vehicle to grid (V2G) ready electric cars by the end of the decade, and more than two million EVs with bidirectional charging by 2040, according to a new roadmap released on Wednesday by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
By early next decade, the storage capacity from bidirectional cars is likely to surpass all other forms of storage in the National Energy Market (NEM) – including Snowy 2.0, according to industry experts, although they say policymakers must get behind the tech to sort out the country’s mess of standards and consumer nerves.
“Australia became a world leader in rooftop solar because the government engaged with early-stage commercial support,” Electric Vehicle Council CEO Julie Delvecchio said in a statement urging government and EV companies to work together.
“We went from 1,115 rooftop solar installations in 2006 to 360,745 installations in 2011, off the back of targeted government support. In the same vein, we encourage the government to work with industry to make bidirectional EV charging a reality for all Australians.”
Bidirectional charging, also known by the nickname of ‘bidi’, covers a multitude of systems including vehicle to grid (V2G), vehicle to homes and buildings (V2H/B), and vehicle to load (V2L).
Agreement on new standards in November last year allowed EV owners to use their cars as batteries on wheels for the first time.
But despite the introduction of the new National Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) in January – which opposition leader Peter Dutton is now threatening to axe – policies and standards must be whipped into a standardised line, ARENA says in its new National Roadmap for Bidirectional Electric Vehicle Charging.
Globally, at least 21 carmakers have announced or have demonstrated bidirectional-ready cars on the market, mainly using DC charging although some support both AC and DC charging, and three only support AC.
According to the ARENA report, the number of bidirectional vehicles will grow to 300,000 by 2030 and then spike to 2.6 million in Australian homes alone by 2040.
By early next decade the storage capacity from bidirectional cars is likely to surpass all other forms of storage in the National Energy Market (NEM) – including Snowy 2.0, according to the report author consultancy enX.
Australians are ready
The combination of rooftop solar with a quirk of Australia’s electricity market design, which allowed retailers such as Amber Energy to give regular people access to wholesale market pricing, provides ideal conditions for people to benefit from bidirectional charging, says enx director Jon Sibley.
“Bidirectional capable EVs are a potential answer to low-cost home energy storage. Not only do they utilise the EV’s existing battery when it is not in use, but EV batteries can provide energy storage up to 100 times less expensive than a home or utility scale battery,” he said in a statement.
“In some cases, we expect the cost of accessing 100 kWh of EV battery capacity for V2G will be under $1000.”
While bidirectional EVs can provide backup power during blackouts and most models are already technically able to do it, some quirks of Australia’s market mean carmakers can’t yet unlock this feature.
“We know a bidirectional EV will often be the second or third smart energy device at a customer’s premises. This means, Australia will need strong minimum interoperability standards to ensure all these devices can all work together. We also need greater clarity and national consistency on grid connection requirements,” Sibley says.
But what about my battery life?
But getting there – and convincing Australians that they won’t be on the hook for an eyewateringly expensive new battery because they’re plugging into their house every night – will take some work.
Key to consumer trust will be making sure Australians see the financial benefits of buying and critically, using as anticipated, a bidirectional vehicle.
Time-limited rebates for bidirectional chargers to lower the initial costs and get the devices into the market is one of the top incentives for consumers.
Part of this will come down to marketing, or educational campaigns by the likes of ARENA, governments, or other third parties, and part will be due to details such as getting the best rate for power into the grid during peak demand periods.
Electricity retailers such as Amber have pioneered letting individuals access wholesale market pricing, which allows people exposure to dynamic real-time prices.
The report argues that DNSPs need to do the same, offering benefits to willing customers who want to use their consumer energy resources (CER) to support the network.
“It was broadly considered that many mainstream consumers would need strong, evidence-based assurances about the impact of bidirectional charging on battery degradation,” the report said.
“Early consumers will need to have a higher level of energy technology literacy to navigate products and retail plans to ensure they are able to access the full value of the equipment they have invested in.”
Tied up in the details
But given Australians are already halfway there with existing rooftop solar and rising demand for home batteries, getting the technical details right will be what allows a bidirectional charging market in Australia to fly.
The report recommends that the long-awaited National CER Roadmap includes two protocols as future minimum requirements, the EV international communication standard ISO 15118-20 and the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) 2.0.1 for remote operation of chargers.
And because Australia is using the CSIP-AUS communication system to locally control residential devices such as heat pumps and hot water systems more generally, bidirectional-ready EVs must be able to talk to an interface that can handle it, so it too can talk to these devices.
Even though the CSIP-AUS protocol is the bedrock of Australia’s bidirectional competitive advantage could lie – it is how that dynamic pricing is being rolled out – inconsistencies over how it’s implemented in each state is creating “product design and homologation costs and complexity specific to the Australian market”, ARENA’s report says.
And then there is Australia’s lack of any strategy to make use of CER, the bete noir of CER advocates for years.
This is now becoming a real problem when it comes to bidirectional vehicles – and few people interviewed for the report thought this issue will be overcome.
“Queensland and South Australia were most frequently called out for divergent requirements (e.g. EVSE controlled load, interoperability requirements, and use of DRED control),” the report says.
“While various projects to harmonise network connection agreements and service and installation rules were noted by local stakeholders, they generally expressed low levels of confidence in these processes achieving substantive or timely change.”
Rules binding the Australian Energy Regulatory (AER) mean it’s unable to force the states into line.
These are all issues the federal government and the AER itself could solve, with planning and rule changes, the report suggests.
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.
