Boom in electric vehicles will transform storage, and energy markets

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One of the significant revenue handicaps for solar PV in retail complexes is the inability to reliably reduce demand charges. Storage is seen as a cost effective enhancement to PV on these types of situations, apart from electrical storage, thermal storage is just as viable for on-supply of solar PV or off-peak electricity.

The prospect of an explosion in electric car ownership indicates a need to provide charging facilities, both for staff and customers at retail complexes.

Due to the high charging rates and multiplicity, electric cars hold the prospect of dramatically impacting demand, and therefore demand charges on these situations. Incremental storage offers the opportunity to provide a sizeable buffer to demand levels, which can be supplied from multiple renewable or off-peak electricity sources.

Robert Campbell from Vulcan Energy is speaking on the issues and solutions for EV vehicle charging and grid implications at the Australian Energy Storage Conference & Exhibition to be held in June at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney.

Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition is Australia’s dedicated energy storage event and the exhibition focuses on energy storage solutions for utilities, energy businesses, buildings and the emerging electric vehicle markets.

The event combines an industry conference, a trade exhibition and workshops, and is the only networking event in Australia that is dedicated to reviewing energy storage trends, solving existing and future issues and gives delegates a chance to talk to experts in the fields of industry storage and its usage.

The industry conference is a broad examination of the industry to date, and gives delegates the option of two streams over one or two days in topics ranging from energy storage solutions for communities, mining and telecommunications companies to a panel debate on the last day that examines “Energy storage will be the catalyst to changing from centralized to decentralized power systems”.

The trade exhibition and workshop program gives suppliers to the industry a vehicle to test the market and to showcase their latest innovations and products, and gives delegates and visitors the opportunity to evaluate new concepts and emerging technologies in energy storage from around the world.

Industry professionals from utilities and networks or companies seeking to connect renewable energy systems would benefit from attending our conference session on optimizing and expanding energy networks using energy storage. To be held on the first day of the conference this session addresses how to expand networks without building more poles and wires using case studies from Ergon Energy and Horizon Power.

There is power in being connected to other people who are active in the same line of work and have the same interests and goals as you, whether professional, business or personal.

The Australian Energy Storage Conference & Exhibition gives attendees the opportunity to connect with others in an engaging and informative manner; whether they are from large utility companies deciding the future energy supply of millions or an asset manager budgeting for new energy systems.

No matter how experienced a delegate is , they will still benefit from attending this conference. The conference gives delegates the opportunity to be exposed to different points of view, new ideas and future trends.

The Australian Energy Storage Conference is to be held on the 3rd and 4th of June at Australian Technology Park in Sydney.

For information on attending the conference or media enquiries please contact Cristina Neagu on +61 2 9556 8847 Email [email protected]

 

Comments

2 responses to “Boom in electric vehicles will transform storage, and energy markets”

  1. patb2009 Avatar
    patb2009

    this may be a big ad, but it’s spot on. EV’s will prove to be wildly synergistic
    to solar PV.

  2. Malcolm Scott Avatar
    Malcolm Scott

    ‘EV’s will prove to be wildly synergistic to solar PV.’ Will, possibly?

    We need to be careful in forecasting that an explosion in EVs will drive ‘a need to
    provide charging facilities, both for staff and customers at retail complexes.’

    Nearly all research on EV charging reveals that 80% of charging done at home when the vehicle is idle and off-peak rates are available. Compared with the petrol station model, that leaves a relatively small proportion of economic activity and functional need for convenience, destination, at work, and en route charging.

    En route charging on main roads and highways is an essential service to increase the utility of EVs to replace old world vehicles for infrequent longer range trips. Effective business models are yet to mature in this space. Given the essential
    service this charging provides, albeit of less volume than in a petrol station model, there is some potential.

    Convenience and destination charging is problematic.
    Rarely has a network connected fee based model been a good business
    proposition. There is so little utility provided by these charging stations that a full recovery customer fee can’t be justified. For a BEV, such a charging station would be
    emergency use only compared with off peak residential charging (always cheaper
    to charge at home for a vehicle with plenty of range for daily travels). For a PHEV with a short range, the next least cost option is simply to use petrol, which limits the sale price to about 60c / kWh. This is challenging business proposition when higher capital and network costs are added for a low use investment. BEVs and PHEVs also have the option to use a nearby free charging station where local businesses can capture the external benefits from their core business activities. Convenience and destination charging at retail complexes if it occurs will most probably occur to attract customers. It will not be the foundation for EV charging unless it can be a free service. An explosion of EVs in ‘need’ will not be the driver.

    At work charging can be the next least costly solution, and can align well with
    business installed solar PV to mitigate demand charges and also to consume the
    daily peak generation. But in Australia there are few charging stations below $2000 each. This makes for a challenging business case. We suffer a bit in that there is nothing available for an at work low power charge station that matches commute distances and does not in multiples drive load demand challenges. Network management software compliant with the industry standard promise load demand management, but that just drives up system costs. At work 15A power points and Holden Volt EVSE (10A plug <$400) offers some promise in the short term to soak up that solar pv.
    For my home solar pv and electric vehicle, I push my clean energy to the grid for 6.4c (VIC), and at night charge the car 100% renewable off peak at 10c. I enjoy the benefit of some hydro dam somewhere being my conceptual grid based storage system for a marginal cost to me of 3.6c kWh (solar pv in my circumstances is a sunk cost)

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