The ActewAGL’s Realising Electric Vehicle-to-Grid Services (REVS) project seeks to unlock the full economic and grid benefits of V2G services in Australia. As part of the project, Australian National University researchers have produced the ‘A to Z of V2G’, a comprehensive review of international V2G projects.
Report extract
A transport evolution is happening. The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is accelerating in many parts of the world, driven by their lower environmental impact and running costs compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, as well as by consumer preferences. EVs depend on electricity grids for charging their batteries, and as a result a “sector coupling” between automotive transport and electricity systems is underway, creating new and complex interdependencies.
Collectively, the relatively high power requirements of EV charging will change societal electricity consumption patterns and if not managed well will place significant strain on the grid. However, the large storage capacity of EV batteries presents an opportunity for better grid management, especially considering the long periods of time that most vehicles spend parked. Vehicle to grid (V2G) is a new technology that promises to connect these dots.
V2G is the concept of discharging an EV battery in order to serve a secondary purpose. It fits within a broader landscape of charging technologies as shown in Figure 1. It can be used to manage energy within a home (V2H), a building or microgrid (V2B), the grid (V2G), or many other purposes (V2X). In this report we use the term V2H to describe local energy use cases, and V2G where the discharge capability is providing wider system services.