Aussie company develops vehicle-to-grid EV charger

Electric vehicles might not exactly be kicking butt in the sales race in Australia yet, but that hasn’t discouraged Melbourne company Rectifier Technologies.

It has just announced its Highbury bidirectional charger for electric vehicles has reached the trial phase of its development.

Developing a bidirectional charger really is a niche within a niche right now in Australia, as the only EV that can perform the function without voiding its warranty is the second-generation Nissan LEAF.

FYI, bidirectional – or vehicle to grid (V2G), vehicle to home (V2H), etc – charging means the ability for an EV to not only take power from the electricity grid, but also supply it back into the grid from its battery.

That means homeowners will be able to sell excess power back to utilities during peak periods and also power their own homes and reduce their reliance on the grid.

The bidirectional concept is only just in the experimental phases here. ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency) is backing a project in the ACT involving 51 Nissan LEAFs.

Separately, we reported here how bidirectional charging has the potential to eventually have some positive paybacks for things like commercial parking fees.

“Drivers will be able to re-charge their vehicles when off-peak energy is being funnelled through the grid,” said Paul Davis, operation manager at Rectifier Technologies.

“When feed-in tariffs are highest during heavy demand or the grid is experiencing a destabilising event, the Highbury can rapidly react to export energy and earn a return which offsets the cost of the electricity consumed.”

“The Highbury will bring to the market a flexible approach to how people can financially benefit from the grid, while utilities will also benefit as electric vehicles can act as a dispersed power storage network.”

Rectifier isn’t too concerned that bidirectional charging is a year or two away from starting to gather momentum here. At best, it’s aiming for certification of its unit by the end of 2021.

For now it’s looking for partners such as energy providers to test its 7kW DC charger. Later it will be rolling out an 11kW three-phase unit as well.

The Highbury charges with the LEAF’s Chademo plug standard and will also be able to charge EVs that use a bidirectional version of the CCS plug that are coming within a couple of years.

Rectifier claims its charger is the world’s slimmest at just 123mm in depth and therefore perfect for mounting in small garages and the like.

“We want EV owners to be able to use this quickly and easily; when they plug it in, they don’t want to have to go through multiple stages simply to charge their vehicle,” said Davis.

“They’ll be able to plug it in and it will begin charging. It just works.”