EV 'batteries on wheels' for electricity grid support mooted by government

Technology / news

Electric vehicle batteries bring energy flexibility opportunities, including supporting the grid; now the NZ government wants to enable the tech

18th Feb 25, 12:58pm by Juha Saarinen

V2G. Source: Nissan

The New Zealand government sees batteries in electric vehicles as playing a key role in the country's energy future, with regulatory work underway to enable it.

EVs store electric energy in their batteries. If they're capable of bidirectional charging, and many are already, they can also send power back to the electricity grid, or people's homes or other devices. This provided the home EV chargers are compatible with bidirectional charging, and the smart meters support the technology.

Energy minister Simon Watts told interest.co.nz that energy security and affordability are his key priorities, and bidirectional charging, also known as V2G or vehicle to grid, is one of the options being considered for that.

"Consumer generated energy storage using batteries and or electric vehicles will play a key role in New Zealand’s future energy system, and I understand “vehicle to grid” will increasingly become a reality as EV manufacturers enable this in their vehicles and networks," Watts said.

"I believe there should not be any barriers to consumers doing this now if their vehicles and electricity networks enable it," Watts said.

"The Government has a range of regulatory work underway to support smart EV use, including vehicle to grid in future; I encourage the sector to work together to look into how to enable this," he added

Australia recently released a roadmap for bidirectional EV charging, looking ahead to 2030

Issued by the federal government's Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) in cooperation with the Reliable Affordable Clean Energy research centre (RACE for 2030), the roadmap sees several uses for bidirectional charging.

EV batteries can be used as energy storage, supplying backup power for homes and businesses in case of electricity outages. This instead of dedicated home batteries.

Once V2G technology becomes readily available, EV users may be able to reduce their power bills by using the car batteries to match dynamic electricity pricing.

The batteries can also be used for grid support, helping to stabilise supply during peak demand times by feeding back into the network.

ARENA chief executive Darren Miller pointed to estimates of 1.5 million EVs being on Australian roads by 2030.

Even if just 10% of those EVs adopted V2G, Miller said it would meet 37% of Australia's National Energy Market's (NEM) total storage needs.

Several car makers are looking at introducing V2G, including Nissan, which said last year it has achieved UK certification for the technology, and plans to launch it there and in Europe.

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20 Comments

by solardb | 18th Feb 25, 1:20pm 1739838056

Whe we looked at this for motorhome systems, nz electrical regulations did not allow connection from a mobile installation to backfeed into a house.

These regs haven't been updated since 2012 , so all standards since then are for reference only, in theroy it must be inspected to the standards relevant at that time. The main standard as/nzs 3000 was finally allowed to be used on 2017, so it took them 5 years to sync the standard to the regs.

In short, don't expect any regulation to change in a hurry.

by IT GUY | 18th Feb 25, 1:24pm 1739838285

This is a great idea, but the consumer offering the power should be given a decent price for the energy....

when needed it would be replacing gas and coal, should be a good rate

in all likely hood they give you 7c etc and 8 hours later you get charged 17c to recharge your battery.

by Organix | 19th Feb 25, 10:45am 1739915100

You need to review who is supplying your electricity. For us Octopus pay us 17c/kWh for export and our night rate is 18.5c/kWh. The golden rule for any solar enabled customer is to use as much of your own generation as possible as this consumption offsets electricity that you would otherwise be importing so your generation's value becomes full retail rate (at the time of consumption) including GST. This will always trump any export rate offered, which incidentally can be reviewed at the whim of your supplier.

by Threecents | 18th Feb 25, 1:36pm 1739838961

I would rather the electrical networks were secure rather than the govt become reliant on people's car batteries for grid support. However our Mitsubishi PHEV has a three pin plug socket which is one reason we got it. If we get an extended power outage then we can run the deep freeze for a while etc.

by finite | 18th Feb 25, 2:49pm 1739843387

Likewise for me with a Mitzi PHEV. But my main reason was for maintaining communications with the outside world. When the big shake comes our remote small town will be without grid electricity for weeks/months.

by Uninterested | 19th Feb 25, 7:21am 1739902916

Are you both sure that you won't need to use your car during these times?

I guess that if the local roads are destroyed then the answer would be 'no'. But the may be scenarios where power pylons have fallen down miles away from your dwelling.

by nigelh | 18th Feb 25, 2:44pm 1739843081

Politicians clutching at straws for now. Maybe and only maybe in +10 years time.

by Baywatch | 18th Feb 25, 4:00pm 1739847646

The EV and Power wall technology is already here...its the power companies lagging...keep up Nigel.

by nigelh | 18th Feb 25, 8:28pm 1739863719

If you can supply solar into your lines company now, not sure what the limit is 5kW?, then with an invertor there's no reason why a this can't be done now. Grid support is in the order of MWs so a 1,000 EVs at 5kW is 5MW but most likely all at the wrong time. 10,000 EVs and all supplying when actually needed. I doubt it.

by Speedmax | 18th Feb 25, 8:14pm 1739862879

The technology is all there. Many EVs and home chargers are ready to go, just needs regulations and utility approval - which are within govt control. Gov can implement quickly if they want to but suspect there will be a couple more years of positive noise but no action in NZ.

by Speedmax | 18th Feb 25, 8:17pm 1739863046

Though TBF if the brilliantly named Mr Watts can’t do it then who can?

by Uninterested | 19th Feb 25, 7:24am 1739903059

Its Watts not mega Watts.

by Organix | 19th Feb 25, 10:53am 1739915620

The AS/NZS 4777.1:2024 standard has recently been rolled out through Australia and is soon to be adopted in NZ. It includes provision for V2G and also wider parameters for solar export onto the grid. The bottleneck now will be how quickly your lines company updates the standard version they adhere to. For some networks the antiquated state of their infrastructure will have a bearing on how quickly they move into 21st century technology and for us with Powerco grid excess voltage issues are currently limiting our solar generation and export levels so I'm not holding my breath on them updating their infrastructure and standards in any hurry.

by hamishk1 | 18th Feb 25, 3:23pm 1739845429

Makes sense. V2G and home solar/battery systems must play a much bigger role in supporting the grid. We have 2 EVs but are considered a low energy user by our power provider - thanks to our solar/battery system.

by Bob Bingham | 18th Feb 25, 10:13pm 1739870011

I never thought that would happen. The National government is in bed with the oil companies and the four wheel drive petrol heads.

by solardb | 19th Feb 25, 7:54am 1739904844

They haven't done anything yet.like the extra chargers , I doubt they will actually put money towards it.

by Spirk2 | 19th Feb 25, 9:18am 1739909919

WE need a certified inverter to attach to the grid. Discussions for years but no action. They are very expensive so can the government get a bulk good price. Got 100kw of storage ready to go.

by Citizen Smith | 19th Feb 25, 10:53am 1739915616

"I believe there should not be any barriers to consumers doing this now if their vehicles and electricity networks enable it," Watts said.

I believe the barrier is the profits being made by are generators. I'd love to be able to export to the grid at the spot price, it wont happen.

by Neddludd | 19th Feb 25, 1:00pm 1739923252

So the consumer purchases the vehicle,solar, large inverter, grid tie and gets some pay back for having a vehicle being drained randomly. My landlord will not be doing that.

Id rather just pay for generation.

by U4Mism | 21st Feb 25, 12:43pm 1740095018

This whole power thing really needs a bit of adult, joined-up thinking, so unlikely to happen from this government (if any).

We recently got quotes for solar, grid-tied, able to feed back into grid approx $45,000. Off-grid, circa $65,000 to cover the two months of winter in Auckland. An awful lot of dosh for a possible play off in 12 years time. Tesla battery was $18k!