Samantha Donovan: Back home now and a fleet of electric cars in Canberra has achieved what researchers say is a world first. In a blackout caused by extreme weather, the vehicles sent power from their batteries into the national grid. Advocates say this so-called vehicle-to-grid technology could help stabilise the electricity supply. Declan Gooch has more.
Declan Gooch: It was the promise of cutting-edge technology that convinced York Stanham to buy an electric car.
York Stanham: I work in IT, so electric vehicle was kind of like a big gadget which was quite attractive. And then there was the whole environmental benefits side.
Declan Gooch: The Canberra man is intrigued by the idea that one day his car could be used to send power stored in its battery back into the electricity network. It's a technology known as vehicle-to-grid and it could help improve the stability of an electricity network powered increasingly by renewables.
York Stanham: I think it's pretty cool. Obviously you'd have to have people plugged in if there was, I know everyone's out driving at night or something, you couldn't really rely on it too much. But if you could use that rather than something like fossil fuels it'd be pretty good. Although I don't know how you get around the uncertain nature of availability.
Declan Gooch: Extreme weather in Victoria has given researchers a much better idea of how it might work. Back in February a storm knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and shut down a key coal-fired plant. About 500 kilometres away from the blackout, 16 electric cars in Canberra switched from charging their own batteries to sending power back to the grid. Bjorn Sturmberg from the Australian National University says it was the first time in the world vehicle-to-grid technology had been used in a blackout.
Bjorn Sturmberg: Those 16 vehicles provided about 100 kilowatts of power to the grid and it would take about 100,000 electric vehicles to provide that amount of power to the grid to provide all the power reserves that the grid operator holds in store for such emergencies. To give that some context, Australians bought 100,000 electric vehicles last year.
Declan Gooch: And the researcher says it demonstrates how the technology can work in reverse, helping to ease the load electric vehicles place on the grid at peak times as their numbers increase.
Bjorn Sturmberg: So in this event in February, power ended up being cut to 90,000 customers in Victoria. If we had stopped 6,000 electric vehicles from charging, that would have had a comparable effect. I think to me it's vastly preferable that we stop a few electric vehicles charging than cutting power to customers.
Declan Gooch: But Bjorn Sturmberg says most electric cars don't yet have the ability and the technology needs support from governments. Ross De Rango, the head of energy and infrastructure at the Electric Vehicle Council, believes there should be financial incentives for EV owners if the technology is widely rolled out.
Ross De Rango: If you're looking to encourage people to install solar panels, we provide people with the opportunity to feed into the grid and they are paid for contribution to the energy system. With vehicle to grid, the prospect is that they would be feeding into the grid at peak time when energy is worth significantly more than it is on average. And they would be compensated in line with that.
Declan Gooch: He believes the battery in an electric car is more than just a means of moving people.
Ross De Rango: The opportunity that is presented by all of these batteries in people's vehicles all over the country goes well beyond the transport options. Vehicle to grid done well has the potential to bring forward the dates at which we close coal and gas fired power stations.
Declan Gooch: Meanwhile, EV driver York Stanham says owners would need to have some input into when their batteries could be accessed and how much power could be drained.
York Stanham: You'd have to have some sort of limit, like maybe use any additional power over 60 per cent because you know I have to drive to work tomorrow and that could just be a pre-set.
Samantha Donovan: Electric vehicle owner York Stanham ending that report from Declan Gooch.
