<
https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/how-batteries-on-wheels-and-bidirectional-ev-charging-could-kill-vpps/>
"Australia’s energy market regulator and the broader energy market are banking
on consumers becoming part of the electricity system through virtual power
plants (VPPs).
VPPs are seen as one way to coordinate and manage numerous small-scale,
decentralized energy resources like solar panels, EVs, and home batteries.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) predicts that in the future 30 to
40% of Australia’s electricity generation and flexible demand services will
come from VPPs that coordinate the energy assets of consumers.
But Tim Washington, the co-founder and CEO of one of Australia’s largest
electric vehicle charging services, Jetcharge, told the SwitchedOn podcast that
most Australians won’t take the extra step to participate in a VPP.
That’s because they won’t need to when they have an electric vehicle (EV) with
bidirectional charging they can charge from their solar.
Bidirectional charging is the capability of an EV’s battery to both receive
energy from the grid and send energy back to the grid or to our homes.
Washington believes that very soon consumers who have installed solar, and can
afford to own an electric vehicle, will be paying virtually nothing for
electricity.
“In a world where 1.8 [household] vehicles are both electric, both capable of
bidirectional charging, you could actually make energy free – all of it, your
house, your vehicle, all of it,” says Washington.
“Will you then go that extra step of saying, I will also participate in a VPP?
What financial incentive will get you to give up that control? Is it $300? Is
it $1,000? Is it $5000?”"
Yeah, what I want and what the electricity distributors want to sell me don’t
always match up. I’d possibly consider disconnecting from the grid and just
living with the amount of electricity I can make myself if they continue to
refuse to let me use my car as a battery. And if other customers think like me,
they could be looking at a shrinking customer base rather than a growing one,
which isn’t going to make their lenders and investors happy.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
