Intellihub Street Power Pole EV Charger with Grid Integration
- $871k Funded by ARENA
- $2.04m Total project cost
Summary
The Intellihub Street Power Pole EV Charger with Grid Integration project aims to develop a technical, regulatory and commercial blueprint for industry, councils and network providers to roll out on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging using existing power pole infrastructure.
Need
The Intellihub Street Power Pole EV Charger with Grid Integration project acknowledges that EV uptake in Australia is currently low, accounting for around 1.5% of total new passenger vehicle sales in the first half of 2021. More projects are required to prepare Australia’s electricity system for EVs by understanding the opportunities and risks. This includes accelerating charge management, deployment and commercialisation, understanding customer responses and expectations, stimulating competition and improving industry understanding of the impact of EVs.
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Report: Intellihub Street Light Pole EV Charger Project MS2 Knowledge Sharing Report
This second Lessons Learnt Report provides insights into charger hardware design, off-market vs on-market metering, and NSW service and installation rules.
Report: Intellihub Street Light Pole EV Charger with Grid Integration Project
This first Lessons Learnt report includes insights gleaned into light poles vs power poles, parking considerations, and integration of upgraded chargers.
Media Release: Utilising Local Power Poles for Street-Side EV Charging
ARENA annunced funding to Intellihub for an Australian first deployment of 50 electric vehicle (EV) chargers installed on street side power poles for EV owners without off-street parking across New South Wales.
Action
The project will install 50 EV chargers on existing power poles in New South Wales. In doing so, the project will develop a blueprint for rolling out on-street EV charging nationally.
The project aims to provide network support through localised and controllable loads in front of the meter. The project’s Distribution Network Service Provider (DNSP) and retail partners will be able to assess the potential for on-street EV charging to provide virtual power plant services.
Outcome
The project will produce a detailed blueprint showing how DNSPs, local councils and investors can implement on-street EV charging, with the aim of increasing the amount of EV charging infrastructure currently available in Australia. The blueprint will include:
- 50 installed EV chargers on street poles
- a business case
- technical standards
- approvals flowchart
- customer usage data
- validation of network/wholesale benefits
Additional impact
- Enables the acceleration of EV uptake by filling a charging gap to support 1.9 million Australian households who don’t have off-street parking. This is an increasingly important gap to address as Australia’s population increases and apartment living is widespread.
- Supports households transitioning to EVs by removing the high initial cost of an EV charger.
- On-street EV chargers address safety concerns of Australians currently needing to deploy extension cords over footpaths which are not visible or controllable by network operators.
- Councils can become the commercial operators at the end of the trial, enabling a new revenue stream for councils who can then manage and progressively deploy chargers for their communities as the EV demand increases.
- Supports the decarbonisation of Australia’s vehicle fleet and reduction of transport emissions, improving air quality.
- Supports the digitalisation and decentralisation of Australia’s energy market through facilitating greater penetration and orchestration of distributed energy resources, at a lower cost, on the grid.
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ARENAWIRE Blogs
EV charging stations on the up
Installations of electric vehicle charging stations are climbing, literally, with a new project aiming physically to lift up street-side charging.
