Electric vehicles can charge to the rescue in blackouts   

The Age
July 9, 2024

Electric vehicles could provide a lifeline for the electricity grid in times of crisis, going by a world-first Australian trial in which EVs immediately discharged their batteries in response to a network failure in which storms cut power to half a million homes.

Victoria’s power supply was thrown into chaos in February when toppled transmission towers at Anakie, west of Geelong, cut power to 530,000 homes. But the event was a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the untapped resources under the bonnet of hundreds of thousands of cars across the country.

Electric vehicles charging in Canberra as part of ANU’s Realising Electric Vehicle-to-Grid Services trial.


When the transmission lines fell, 16 electric vehicles in a trial located 520 kilometres away in Canberra, as the crow flies, detected the disruption and within seconds pumped power back into the grid.

The trial tested what is known as vehicle-to-grid technology, in which devices fitted to EVs can detect small variations in the frequency of the grid that could be disruptions to power supply hundreds of kilometres away.

RELATED ARTICLE
Sales of electric vehicles in Australia are growing.
Electric vehicles
Fuelled by tax cuts, electric vehicle sales surged in Australia in 2023
Conducted by the Australian National University’s battery storage and grid program, the trial supplied only 107 kilowatts of power – a negligible amount compared with national electricity demand.

But according to lead researcher Dr Bjorn Sturmberg, the results show the tantalising potential of EVs to firm up supply.

The trial, called the Realising Electric Vehicle-to-Grid Services trial, is the first in the world to test EV response to sudden drops in power supply.

“The event in February was the first real-world test of our vehicles and chargers. We now know a vehicle-to-grid system can work,” Sturmberg said. “They’re essentially big batteries on wheels.”







Electricity retailers have previously conducted trials to take advantage of market movements, with vehicles discharging their batteries when power prices are high and charging when prices are low.



“It’s a world first, in the sense that there’s not ever been a vehicle trial to respond so quickly to an emergency,” Sturmberg said.

EVs could play a huge role in the future electricity grid.

For NSW and the ACT, the Australian Energy Market Operator has contracted about 700 megawatts of emergency reserves, which is equivalent to the combined power supply in 105,000 EVs, Sturmberg said.

Emergency reserves are contracted by the electricity market operator from operators of generators such as big batteries and gas plants, so instantaneous power can be jolted into the grid in case of a power line collapse or other emergency.

“To put that in perspective,” Sturmberg said, “105,000 vehicles responding in this way would fully cover the back-up required for the whole of ACT and NSW”.

He said vehicle-to-grid technology would not only provide the grid with an extra power supply, it could also be used to cut demand when power supplies were running low.

The February power line collapse in Victoria not only cut supply to hundreds of thousands of homes, it sent a shock into the grid that effectively tripped a fuse connecting the grid to the massive Loy Yang A brown coal plant 240 kilometres to the east of Melbourne.

The loss of this coal plant prompted the energy market operator to trigger what’s known as load shedding – intentionally cutting power supply to about 90,000 homes to preserve stability in the grid.

RELATED ARTICLE
Electric vehicle charging stations are increasing across the country, helping drive uptake of zero emissions cars.
Exclusive
Electric vehicles
Tipping point for electric vehicles as sales boom
“Stopping just 6000 vehicles charging would have kept the power on for those 90,000 customers whose power was cut on February 13,” Sturmberg said.

Carmakers could be required to fit their vehicles with technology that can respond to demand for power supply.

“It may call for an industry adjustment, for instance, to require EV manufacturers to program their vehicles to stop charging during a grid emergency, with an option for drivers to override for urgent charging,” Sturmberg said.

The federal government has not set a target for electric vehicle sales, but NSW, Victoria and Queensland have set targets for EVs to reach 50 per cent of new car sales by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035.

The number of EVs has risen rapidly to exceed 8 per cent of new cars sold in 2023, up from just 3 per cent in 2022. On the current trajectory, EVs would reach 50 per cent of new car sales by 2033.   

The result will be flat batteries and scores, if not thousands of house fires every year.

One would have to be very gullible to put the control of the energy in an EV into the hands of your power company which would deny everything when it went up in smoke.

Innovation in cars

[quote]Written by an owner of a Tesla EV in Nova Scotia
This letter to the editor was printed in the Inverness Oran in Feb 2024. It was written by an owner of a Tesla EV in Nova Scotia and this can be found online. Her view follows:

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to a letter in the February 14th publication entitled, "Benefits of Electric Vehicles." My husband and I drive a 2021 Long Range Tesla Model 3. My hope is to shed some light on what it is like living in Inverness County with an electric vehicle.

For a bit of context, I am not your run-of-the-mill naysayer. We've been driving an EV for the last three years, we are organic farmers, we lived in a fully off-grid, solar powered home for eight years, and we attended that big Greta Thunberg inspired climate change march in Halifax back in 2019.

I feel slightly embarrassed about sharing this so publicly because I truly feel that we got duped by clever and persuasive EV/doomsday marketing.

After reading Paul Strome's letter, featuring all those key marketing points, I felt compelled to write in.

Here is our electric car experience:

2021 – Rosy new car: Wow! This is great!
– The car was more expensive up front, but it only costs about $14 to "fill the tank" and we can conveniently charge with our Level 2 charger at home whenever we want.
That will more than make up for the initial cost over time, considering the price of gas!

– No pesky oil changes and Tesla's titanium shield under the car means no repairs due to rust! Great – more savings!

– When going to Halifax, we need to recharge at the Enfield Supercharger. Recharging takes 18 minutes, but no big deal: bathroom break, stretch your legs, get a coffee; just minor adjustments to how we drove with a gas car.

Not-so-nice realizations from year one:

– The undulating, electric hum while the car charges for seven hours permeates our entire home and yard. Is that healthy?

– Needing to exit the vehicle for 20 minutes at the Supercharger because it feels very unhealthy to be in such a high voltage environment while it's charging. Rain, shine, snow or sleet – Everybody out!

– Learning that every time you recharge the battery, the battery life decreases. It actually can damage the battery to charge to 100 per cent and it is advised that you don't charge more than 80 per cent for day-to-day use.

2022 – One-year-old car:

– Can still make it to Sydney and back(176klm), but we shouldn't make many detours if we want to make it home again. Having to stop in Baddeck for two hours to "juice up" just to make the 40-minute journey home doesn't make much sense...

– Can still make it to the Enfield Supercharger(226klm) when going to Halifax(256klm) , but no detours. Stick to the highway or else.

Christmas 2023 – 2.5-year-old car:

Heading to the Valley Christmas Eve (outside temperature is -5oC).
– "I don't think we're going to make it to the Supercharger..." "What the heck![highlight] We're definitely not going to make it!" The whole family, plus two dogs, wandered around Truro for 1.5 hours, in the cold twilight while charging just enough to make it to the Enfield Supercharger.

– With everyone's spirits low, we wander around the Enfield Big Stop parking lot in the cold while the car charges for 35 minutes. Can't bring the dogs into Timmy's and staying in the car while it's charging feels like every hair on your body is getting charged up too.

– Charge up again at the New Minas Supercharger, just in case, because the wall plug at Grandma's takes days to charge the car and we can't believe how poorly the car is performing.

Coming home after Christmas:
– Leave Middleton. Stop at the Supercharger in New Minas for 10 minutes to add some charge. Everyone out into the cold!

– Leave New Minas. Stop in Enfield to fully recharge for 35 minutes.

Everybody out into the cold: Kids, dogs; everyone. It's windy and half raining/half snowing. How wonderfully modern and convenient it is to drive an EV!

– Make it back home with six per cent. Phew!

January 2024 – 2.5-year-old car:
– 10oC, but dropping, so range is dropping too.