Nissan Pioneers Alternate Charging With EVs In Australia.

July 8th, 2020

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In an Australian first, road to vehicle charging for electric vehicles (EV) has arrived and it’s courtesy of Nissan. The shorthand is V2G, or Vehicle 2 Grid, and it’s a project that Nissan’s support of the Realising Electric Vehicle Services (REVS) project has helped bring to realisation. The project is built around 51 vehicles to be based in the Australian Capital Territory, and they’ll be part of the territory’s government fleet in a trial to measure the Leaf’s bi-directional charging ability by providing power back to an energy grid.

This will bring an energy measurement system to the fore. Known as Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS), it refers to the level of energy that’s required to optimise a power grid when demand fluctuates. The Leaf comes into play, as the world’s only factory built V2G vehicle which makes the car a potential total energy solution, by ensuring the batteries don’t just store power for driving, but can also use that energy to run a home or commercial site, or to feed power back to the grid. The trial will also evaluate the ability of the Leaf to work with the base load stabilisation in both off-peak and peak. By reducing or negating that instability, it could lead to a process to eradicate blackouts from that instability.

This trial has also been backed by ARENA, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of its Advancing Renewables Program. with battery technology for high load applications improving constantly, this forward looking trial envisions a future where the battery in an EV can become a household energy solution. Like a household oriented battery, the Leaf’s 40kWh battery could assist a house by storing solar provided energy during the day and release that at night, bringing the focus to an eye on zero-cost mobility and zero-cost home energy. In that same focus is remote power access at work or elsewhere that can then be transferred to a household when the vehicle returns to a home environment. It’s then theoretically possible to have a positive offset to a household energy bill.

“As the brand with the only V2G-capable vehicle from factory on the Australian market today, we are exceptionally proud to support this project, and to introduce this technology to Australia,” says Nissan Australia Managing Director, Stephen Lester. “The Nissan LEAF not only offers an exciting EV driving experience, it goes so much further by integrating into the energy system. Nissan has been a global leader in this space, with several successful trials conducted in overseas markets, realizing it in Australia is an important milestone.”The REVS project brings together a consortium of academic, transport and electricity-system partners to deploy the V2G service, including ActewAGL, the Australian National University (ANU), JET Charge, Evoenergy, SG Fleet and Nissan.

(Pictures and info courtesy of Nissan Australia.)