How EVs could cause – and cure – power blackouts

Australia could face power shortages if the national energy network is not updated to handle the additional load demanded by the increasing number of electric vehicles, an expert has warned.

Dr Kathryn Lucas-Healey, a research fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, says that consumers, car-makers, charging infrastructure providers and the energy sector need to come together to re-invent the way that EV owners consume electricity while also offering the ability to protect the electricity grid by becoming a back-up power source.

Dr Lucas-Healy is heading up a program at the ANU called Realising Electric Vehicle-to-grid Services (REVS), which is employing 51 Nissan LEAF EVs across 11 sites in Canberra to realise the potential – and current shortcomings – of using V2G technology.

Electric cars with vehicle-to-grid capability can reverse the power flow from EV batteries to supply power back into households.

Dr Lucas-Healey will use the early findings of the REVS program to educate, lobby and promote to industry, government and the public on the benefits of EV energy storage.

Initial results will be presented at the upcoming Energy Next Conference – a free expo that will showcase ideas and innovations on how to transform the clean energy sector – at the Sydney International Convention Centre on July 19-20.

“Our energy grid needs more flexibility because we’re changing from centralised coal generators to energy being provided by lots of different sources – solar, wind etc,” said Dr Lucas-Healy.

“The grid needs ways to adapt and manage change due to the flux in demand and flux in the energy being produced by these renewable energy sources.

“Batteries in vehicles would be useful for managing some demands from the grid. Most of the time, cars are parked not doing anything, particularly overnight when they are charging. Using a special charger, when the grid needs extra power (or less power), we can call on those cars to do that for a short time.”

In her presentation, Dr Lucas-Healy outlines that if all of the 19 million vehicles on the road in Australia today were EVs, the energy required to keep them running would equate to around 35 per cent of the current national annual consumption – or approximately 60 terraWatt hours of electricity.

“Still more imposing is the amount of power these vehicles could draw if they all charged at once,” she adds.

“Let’s say, for argument’s sake, there were one million 7.7kW home chargers in Australia. That’s roughly one in 10 properties. If all these cars charged at once, they would add 25 per cent to the national load.

“Adding public fast-chargers and ultra-fast chargers, say along highways and in car parks, would increase this further.”

To counter the potential issues, Dr Lucas-Healy says that if all electric cars were equipped with V2G functionality (which is essentially the ability to supply power back into the power grid) they can also play a critical role in providing energy stability.

“There are a lot of things that need to coalesce in order for it to be done,” says Dr Lucas-Healy.

“The REVS trial has brought up lots of challenges. Part of it is that the standards that V2G chargers need to comply with – the same standards that home solar or battery inverters use – don’t yet fully accommodate the way these chargers operate.

“Additionally, the grid needs to be equipped with the right technology so that the network operators know where V2G response is needed. At this stage, some parts of the grid do and others less so – it is somewhat localised as to where this could happen.”

Dr Lucas-Healy added that this new technology should put consumers in the driving seat for their energy requirements, and more education on the benefits of EVs with V2G will help push industry to adapt and further protect the national electricity grid.

“We need to make the argument to the consumer about why they need to get involved and we need to listen to how they want this to work for them,” she says.

“Do they want to put the energy back into the grid and get paid or would they rather use the technology for their own back-up power?

“More broadly, people are interested in more localised networks where they could just share energy with their family or neighbours, but this isn’t generally possible at the moment.

“I think the energy industry needs to stop focusing on how it can sell its own ideas to consumers and give people more space to decide what they want from this kind of technology.

“Much of the work we are doing at ANU is figuring out in practice how this can be done, working with energy industry stakeholders that are interested in finding out.”

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