In what’s hailed as a “world first”, Adelaide man Jai (surname anonymous), 29, a residential power user, is able to sell power back at wholesale prices to the grid from his car battery.
Using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, Jai can charge his Nissan Leaf’s battery during the day when the electricity grid is most reliant on green energy such as solar and wind and wholesale energy prices are cheapest (at times, getting paid to charge when prices go negative).
Jai then uses his V2G set up to power his home using his car’s battery, and what’s left over he sells back to the grid at a higher rate.
By signing up through Australian residential wholesale energy provider Amber Electric, Jai sells power back to the grid at the same wholesale rates as a commercial energy supplier, making $191.88 on a recent bill.
In addition to V2G, Jai has started using Amber’s home battery optimisation technology SmartShift.
This has allowed him to offset his energy bill costs by taking advantage of using and buying energy at low cost and then selling it back to the grid when wholesale prices are higher.
Amber Electric co-chief executive Chris Thompson says the company is working on developing Amber for EVs to help reduce customers’ bills even further, through smart charging in line with wholesale pricing.
Optimised V2G is set to be rolled out next year.
“Amber’s SmartShift automation is helping to improve home battery ROI (return on investment) while ensuring that more renewable energy is available when the grid needs it most,” says Thompson.
“Using Amber for EVs, an EV owner will be able to ensure their car is charged using cheap renewable energy (or excess solar if they have solar at home), rather than coal and gas,” he explains.
“By optimising the times when their car battery charges from the grid, exports to the grid, and powers their home, we believe we will be able to save EV owners with V2G capabilities as much as $2300 a year.”
