My V2X EV: Informing strategic electric vehicle integration

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption is growing worldwide with increasing market pull from consumers and market push from manufacturers of vehicles and charging equipment, as well as others in the supply chain. With the rapid electrification of transport expected as EVs reach price parity with internal combustion engine vehicles, a fundamental challenge emerges for their successful integration with the electricity grid. Tackling this cross-disciplinary challenge calls for new thinking, new approaches, and new collaborations. As other distributed energy resource solutions are coupled with EV charging infrastructure in buildings, rewards await those able to unlock and access the different value pools. However, customer perceptions of innovative offerings such as these – and the full extent of the impact on the energy system – are not well understood. Business as usual approaches no longer apply and innovative approaches involving strategic planning, systems thinking, and customer engagement are required to manage the risks and capitalise fully on the opportunities. This project aims to remove the barriers and enable the opportunities of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) by developing a path to implementation through technical solutions and creating partnerships for demonstrations. The research will deliver a pathway to the rapid scale up of V2X-enabled EVs. This will be possible through removing barriers, developing a commercial and economic understanding of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and building consumer, industry, and policymaker understanding and confidence in its benefits. By overcoming the above challenges EVs can provide opportunities to reduce the grid integration costs passed on to consumers and enable accelerated emissions reduction through the balancing of distributed and grid-scale variable renewables. This can be made possible by creating a nationwide V2X-enabled fleet of batteries that can dwarf the scale of AEMO’s projected utility-scale batteries and pumped hydro systems. Consumers may connect their EV to their home, their precinct, their industrial area, so that they can maximise charging from rooftop photovoltaics and discharging from the EV battery when required. Aggregated EVs connected through V2G can also be used to provide grid supporting services.