In the short term theyrestill expensive.
In the long term charging millions of vehicles from the electricity grid presents challenges.
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The REVS trial project uses vehicles from the ACT government fleet.
To understand the importance of this work we need to imagine electrifying all of Australias19 million vehicles.
Every electric car has the potential to be a power source for the national grid.
Thats around35%of Australias annual electricity consumption.
Still more imposing is the amount of power these vehicles could draw if they all charged at once.
Lets say, for arguments sake, there were 1 million, 7.7 kilowatt home chargers in Australia.
Thats roughlyone in ten properties.
If all these cars charged at once, they wouldadd 25%to the national load.
And electricity is widely available, unlike petrol.
This means electric vehicles can be topped up frequently instead of requiring a big charge from empty to full.
Thesesmart charging strategieshave been very effective insupporting electric vehicle power demandon the grid.
The opportunities for this are tremendous.
The battery capacity of 19 million vehicles would likely exceed 1,800 gigawatt hours.
Vehicle-to-grid in Australia
Vehicle-to-grid technology has been in development for decades.
Its now available commercially in theNissan LEAFvehicle andWallbox Quasar chargers.
The technology was demonstrated inoverseas trialsbut questions remain about customer uptake.
How attractive will vehicle-to-grid services be for customers?
What business models will be viable for manufacturers and service providers?
Our REVS project is addressing these questions.
Were deploying 50 vehicle-to-grid-enabled electric vehicles into theACT government fleet, and one into the fleet of electricity retailerActewAGL.
The national electricity market will pay these vehicle owners whenever the vehicles are plugged in.
We expect each vehicle to earn more than A$1,000 a year.
That means a vehicle wont be left drained, without any power.
