South Australia gives green light to vehicle-to-grid technology

New regulations in South Australia will allow electric vehicle owners to drastically reduce their home power bills – and potentially turn a profit.

South Australian winemaker Joseph Evans powers his house with his Nissan Leaf. Picture: Thomas Wielecki.

SA Power Networks has become the first in the country to allow individual household customers to use technology enabling their electric vehicles to power their homes.

The move, which could cut EV owners’ household power bills by thousands of dollars a year, is likely to pave the way for similar legislation in other states.

The technology, called vehicle-to-grid, allows EV owners to store solar power in their car’s battery during the day and use it to power their house at night, when electricity is at its most expensive.

The car can also power a house during a blackout.

Nissan’s Leaf hatchback and Mistubishi’s plug-in hybrid Outlander are currently the only EVs capable of sending power from on-board batteries back to the grid.

Mitsubishi’s plug-in hybrid Outlander can send power to the grid. Picture: Supplied.

The Leaf costs roughly $53,500 drive-away with a 39kWh battery, or $64,000 with a larger 59kWh battery. The larger battery is roughly four times the size of stationary storage options such as Tesla’s Powerwall, which cost about $13,000.

The average home uses roughly 20 to 25kWh a day.

Vehicle-to-grid technology has the potential to tackle one of the biggest concerns about electric vehicles, namely the strain they will put on the grid.

Nissan EV manager Ben Graham said EVs could become an asset rather than a liability if properly managed.

“With vehicle-to-grid you can actually give power back when the grid is under stress,” he said.

Electric vehicles could also help by consuming excess power during the day.

The Nissan Leaf has roughly four times the capacity of a Tesla Powerwall. Picture: Supplied.

“So all of a sudden, any EV becomes an asset. If you can charge it in those times, it actually helps the stability of the grid,” he said.

He said the “ultimate aim would be to have kind of uniform national approval” for the technology.

“I think some of the other states will hopefully, in the new year, start to look at it a bit more seriously and we’ll be able to get a few more green lights on the board,” he said.

Installers can now apply to the existing SA Power Networks SmartApply service to register connection of a vehicle to grid charger to a home.

Charging specialist JET Charge will be opening orders for the chargers to South Australian customers in late January.

The chargers won’t be cheap. It is expected they’ll cost about $12,000 to $13,000 to buy and install.

Winery owner Joseph Evans and his wife Sue power their Ballycroft Vineyard and Cellars in the Barossa with their EV. Tom Huntley

But for small business owners with large energy bills, the payback time is relatively short.

Joseph Evans’ Barossa winery Ballycroft has been approved as a pilot site and he estimates the switch has wiped out his $6000 annual power bill overnight.

He now claims to be making $50 a week from selling excess power back to the grid.

“That is more than $2500 in annual profit, from what was once a significant cost. And what’s even better is the fact that, while fuel and electricity prices are only heading in one direction – and that direction is up – my costs are fixed, and fixed at zero,” he said.

”Instead of paying for my power, I’m getting paid for my power.”

Joseph said the new tech was a “game-changer”.

“It makes me entirely self-sufficient with my power needs, makes my home and business more sustainable and it’s so easy to use,” he said.