SM ART GRIDS
WHO WILL DRIVE
VEHICLE-TO-GRID? by Dr Bjorn Sturmberg, Dr Kathryn Lucas-Healey and Laura Jones, Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program, Australian National University
Vehicle-to-Grid technology presents a huge opportunity by making the batteries in electric vehicles available for grid services, but who will this benefit and who will drive uptake of the technology?
T
he energy sector is working hard to be more customer-centric, see for example the article Customers at the centre of the energy sector in the February 2022 issue of Utility magazine. We are very supportive of this shift, but wish to raise the provocation that some innovations, such as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), offer primarily “grid wide” or public benefits. Where this is the case, we believe it should be acknowledged. This enables a shift in focus from making
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private financial value propositions to disinterested customers to realising system wide benefits that flow to all customers. This is particularly important where value can be realised with minimal impact to customers. In many cases, including that of electric vehicles (EVs) and V2G, this means reasserting the grid as a common resource and establishing systems that lead customers to act as good grid citizens by default.
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