Australia gets a bidirectional charging roadmap
Image courtesy 123rf
ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency) has published a roadmap for policy settings and strategy initiatives to realise the benefits offered by bidirectional charging in Australia.
The National Roadmap for Bidirectional Electric Vehicle Charging, was commissioned by ARENA in partnership with energy research centre RACE for 2030 and delivered by enX Consulting.
The Roadmap lays the foundation on which key industry and government stakeholders can identify and adopt policy settings and strategy initiatives to tap into bidirectional EV charging.
Bidirectional charging, the ability of an EV or other energy storage systems to draw power from the grid to charge its battery and send power back to the grid, one’s home or directly to other devices, allows the EV to act as an energy source when needed.
According to ARENA, bidirectional charging has the potential to become one of the largest forms of flexible energy storage in Australia and to materially reduce electricity costs for millions of Australians and accelerate national emissions reduction.
While not yet directly available to Australians, the technology has been successfully tested through small-scale trials.
Future benefits of the tech, says ARENA in a release, could include tapping the EV as a backup power supply in the case of power outages, reduced power bills once widely available and a support for the power grid by supplying power back during times of high demand.
Have you read:
Australia’s national electricity market smart meter rollout rule finalised
Australia’s Endeavour Energy gains information security certification
Commenting in a release on the benefits of bidirectional charging and vehicle to grid (V2G) in particular was ARENA CEO Darren Miller: “By the early 2030s, the battery capacity of our electric vehicle fleet is projected to outstrip all other forms of energy storage in the National Electricity Market.
“With estimates suggesting 1.5 million EVs on Australian roads by 2030, even 10% of those adopting V2G could meet 37% of the NEM’s (National Energy Market) total storage needs while also giving Australians control over their contribution to the clean energy transition”
“This innovation isn’t just beneficial for the grid – it could also save Australians up to $5 billion in total by reducing the need for large-scale battery storage investments.”
ARENA has been active in this space for several years. The Bidirectional Roadmap is the latest in a series of Australian-first studies and projects initiated by ARENA since 2019.
This included ARENA’s first V2X strategy, which committed to developing a national V2X market activation strategy, in partnership with wider government, industry and academic institutions.
The announcement also follows a greenlight from the country’s federal government in November 2024 for new standards for vehicle to home (V2H) and V2G charging, enabling households to tap into the tech to use EVs to power their home and feed back into the grid during peak periods.
