EVs, Teslas ‘can help ease power bill pain’
New technology enabling a smarter use of batteries found in Teslas could help address major affordability issues, energy giant AGL reveals.
Electricity giant AGL is moving to capitalise on bumper demand for electric vehicles, following a successful trial in partnership with British energy supplier OVO that allowed Tesla owners to automatically charge their vehicles at times when energy is cheaper and renewables more readily available.
AGL and OVO entered a joint venture in March 2021 giving AGL exclusive access to the latter’s Kaluza platform, which allows for real-time data and process automation through artificial intelligence. The pair have in late 2022 completed a trial with Tesla owners, dubbed ChargeOn, which led to 98 per cent of vehicle charging occurring outside of peak periods, amid heightened anxiety around energy prices.
“As we look to the future in how we service our customers, we think it’s going to change dramatically,” AGL’s chief customer officer Jo Egan said in an interview.
“With things like solar and charging batteries, and managing things like hot water remotely, we’re a big believer that customers are going to need that to be really easy and we think we can play a leading role by managing the ecosystem through the use of technology and things like smart charging trials.”
Optimising charging for electric vehicles can unlock 20 per cent more decarbonisation on top of the benefits they already provide compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, according to Kaluza CEO Scott Neuman.
Kaluza’s cloud-based software platform monitors and controls hardware, such as batteries, electric vehicle (EV) chargers, heating and cooling systems, to create a virtual power plant. EVs can use a lot of power and as the adoption of electric car increases, this could increase the pressure on the electricity grid, he said, while smart charging can help avoid the costs associated with increasing generation capacity.
The companies are now looking to expand the trial to other vehicles beyond Teslas.
“One thing we’ve seen from overseas is that customers need to have control to override it at any time, so that was a feature we made sure we delivered,” Mr Neuman said.
“It’s exciting to see EV penetration starting to take off in Australia, but if you look at the future at some point when there’s say 50 per cent of vehicles on the road are electric, we’re going to need to think about how we best leverage batteries and unlock their impact.”
He added that EV batteries can be viewed as the future of energy storage, replacing the need for at-home batteries.
Ms Egan said that it’s currently a challenging time for electricity customers, given affordability issues and wholesale prices flowing through to higher prices for end consumers.
“When you look to the long term there are really significant savings to be had,” she said. “Not only by reducing consumption and managing your assets like maximising rooftop solar, but by reducing demands on the grid, because at the moment in Australia we have all this excess energy in the middle of the day when the sun is shining, and then everyone gets home at night, which pushes prices very high.
“So if we can use technology to smooth that demand throughout the day by controlling assets on behalf of customers, we can reduce the cost of wholesale energy and ultimately customers will see the benefit.”
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