If you own an electric car, you should think about setting up V2G using a straightforward metering system and entering into a contract with your local electricity provider.
What should I think about before deciding to hook up my car to the grid?
- You must first own an electric vehicle that can be charged using a regular electrical socket.
- Finding out your basic driving habits is the second thing you should do. For example, if you commute to work and back every day, there won’t be much energy left over to switch between your battery and the grid, which makes setting up V2G somewhat pointless.
- After determining that V2G connectivity is both viable and possible, you must look at the best devices available on the market to assist you in achieving this. Specifically, which inverter to employ and which electricity trading contract would best meet your demands.
- How can you get out of a contract that would otherwise be more expensive if you determine at the last minute that V2G is not a suitable fit for you?
- Once these fundamental requirements have been met, contact your utility to begin the V2G application process. Then you can buy an appropriate inverter so you can feed energy back into the grid (this will be similar if not identical to the type of inverters used on solar PV grid connected power supplies). Of course, you’ll need to choose the appropriate inverter size.
A 5kW inverter, for instance, might cost $1000, whereas a 2kW inverter might cost $600. Therefore, you must be certain that you can recoup the $400 by being able to sell electricity at a higher rate during peak hours. You can determine the best course of action using some basic algebra, but keep in mind the various benefits of each alternative.
The benefits of Vehicle to Grid
Applications that connect vehicles to the grid have numerous advantages for various stakeholders and enterprises. V2G: Vehicle to Grid
- Smart metering enables residential customers to use electricity responsibly, saving them money over time through efficient electricity management, and it’s environmentally friendly! You lessen the need to expand the power network with more transmission lines and generators every time you provide the grid with electricity during the yearly peak energy demand.
- You are assisting towards the commercialization of commercial ev charging station.
- Your carbon footprint is shrinking! These days, this is a major one.
- The power provider can save money by lowering unit electricity costs or by lowering the demand for additional electricity transmission lines. In other words, the automobile moves the electricity to the required location.
- reduces the need for as many fuel stations
- reduces our reliance on foreign oil through the quick adoption of electric vehicles and the capacity to switch from the production of fossil fuels to that of renewable energy.
- As electric vehicle batteries may now serve as a buffer to intermittent generation, more sustainable and renewable energy can be added to the electrical grid.
- The final consideration is crucial. Given that electricity generated from intermittent renewable and sustainable sources is highly dependent on the weather, traditional transmission networks are finding it difficult to handle this situation. It is crucial to have the ability to store electricity in some manner. In several nations, power utilities are addressing this by either pumping water up a hill and regenerating during peak times (at an efficiency of around 60%) or by storing hydrogen created by electrolysis underground and ready for regeneration (at an efficiency of about 40%). The efficiency of storing electricity in batteries is substantially higher (between 60% and 90%), but it is also more expensive.
However, car to grid systems also function very well as storage devices and are anticipated to play this role in the future as more electric vehicles enter the market. Japan uses massive battery sheds to store tiny amounts of energy.
How soon we’ll see these networks depends primarily on how committed a nation is to using sustainable and renewable energy sources, as well as how much wind, solar, and wave energy is available. Although many businesses assert that their initiatives have a silver lining, the primary force behind the adoption of such technology remains its short-term profitability.
The benefit for the end user who is using a grid-connected vehicle is the electricity savings from essentially renting out the storage space in their electric car battery. As we can see, it is a win-win situation for a number of reasons, including a decrease in the strain on our electricity transmission and generation networks, the ability to add more renewable energy to the system with lower carbon emissions, and the ability to lower the cost of electric vehicles for the end user.
Additionally, it weans us off of our dependence on foreign oil through the affordable introduction of electric vehicles, a timely problem as the globe approaches peak oil status.
You could want to ask your electrical network about their smart metering pricing if you want further details. In order to use the vehicle-2-grid (V2G) technology, you should also consider buying an electric vehicle or having an existing vehicle converted to an electric one. I suppose we can all look forward to a future where carbon emissions are cheaper, greener, and cleaner, and V2G will significantly assist us in getting there!
