Electric vehicles could soon do more than get drivers from place to place in New Zealand.
A new trial in Auckland aims to turn EVs into backup power sources for homes and businesses, potentially lowering electricity bills while helping households ride out outages.
Here’s what to know
New Zealand’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority is launching a trial to install up to 100 two-way chargers at homes and businesses in Auckland and other urban areas, Radio New Zealand reported. Instead of only drawing electricity, the chargers would let an EV return stored power to a property or the wider grid when demand is high.
Murray Bell, policy and regulation manager at the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, said households with rooftop solar may have even more to gain from the technology.
“Then at night they can pull [that energy] out and use it to run their household appliances,” he said.
While New Zealand is still in the early stages of two-way charging, the technology is being introduced in countries including Australia.
More background
Cost savings are only part of the appeal. During blackouts caused by storms or other severe weather, a charged EV linked to a two-way system could act as an emergency power source for the home. That could help households keep lights on, protect refrigerated food, and run essential devices without a separate home battery.
He said modern EV batteries could make a big difference in an outage. In some cases, they may support a home for multiple days, giving families more breathing room during unplanned outages.
The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment projects New Zealand’s electricity demand will rise by 35 to 82 percent by 2050 as more transport and industry move away from fossil fuels.
Bell said EV batteries could help flatten demand peaks, potentially reducing the need for costly grid upgrades such as “more poles and wires.”
Avoiding some of that construction could create savings beyond utilities alone, benefiting communities and consumers as well.
What’s being done?
The Auckland initiative grows out of a smaller Queenstown trial in progress. According to Bell, scaling it up should produce real-world evidence to help shape future policy and guidance for two-way charging in New Zealand.
Counties Energy, which operates the national EV charging service OpenLoop, is partnering with the authority on the project. Moonis Vegdani, chief network and digital officer at Counties Energy, said the company wants to learn more about how the chargers perform, including during outages, and sees potential long-term infrastructure savings.
Recruitment will focus on Auckland and other major centers with high EV ownership. The company will first secure involvement from interested automakers, then seek owners of compatible vehicles. Vegdani noted that BYD, second to Tesla in New Zealand EV sales, has taken part in trials in Australia.
One of the main barriers is compatibility, with only a limited range of charger-and-vehicle combinations available in New Zealand. Bell said there are also concerns about battery performance, home wiring, and where chargers should be installed, and that the aim is to make the system simple and reliable for everyday drivers.
“Because the batteries in the car are so large these days, you can run your household for up to three or four days,” Bell said.
Where can I learn more?
Similar efforts elsewhere offer a glimpse of what two-way charging could look like in practice.
• In Hudiksvall, neighbors now use their EVs to power homes and cut electricity costs.
• In Australia, researchers showed EVs can provide the backup needed to keep the grid running in outages.
• In Massachusetts, officials will pay EV owners for participating as cars feed electricity back to the grid.
• Researchers developed a revolutionary EV smart-charging system to ease grid strain as more drivers plug in.
• At Hope College, students made an EV charging breakthrough that could reshape how cities plan infrastructure.
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Source: www.yahoo.com
