As the record-breaking storm-force winds of Storm Éowyn are abating, the island is starting to pick up the pieces, literally and figuratively.
Tonight thousands of people, families and households across Ireland are starting into a cold night with no lights and no heat.
Surprisingly, electric cars could alleviate some of this problem, if we had the national grid set up in the right way.
Almost right from the start, one of the big ideas surrounding the adoption of electric cars has been the idea of vehicle-to-grid charging.
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Way back in the dim and distant days of 2010, when testing a Mitsubishi iMIEV (remember them? Cool, but compromised), this reporter was told that, in time, owners would be able to sell any excess charge in their batteries back to the nation’s electricity suppliers when they plug in at peak time in the evenings, and then buy that energy back at discounted rates in the middle of the night. A proper win-win proposal.
The thing is that, knocking on for 15 years later, that still hasn’t really happened.
Will it, ever, at a mass level? More and more electric cars coming onto the market are equipped to be able to transfer energy back out of the battery, whether directly to the grid or more locally to your other electric devices – powering everything from e-bikes to portable espresso machines – but the tech potentially goes much further than merely making electric car owners a bit of cash on the side.
More importantly, from the post-Éowyn point of view, an EV plugged into the side of your house is a big battery on wheels, which could – if the energy flow were reversed – power your own house directly.
For that, you need two things.
You need an electric car with the right technology – Vehicle To Load, or V2L. The simpler Vehicle To Grid, V2G, isn’t enough in this instance.
Currently, all Kia and Hyundai electric vehicles have V2L. So too do most of Volkswagen’s MEB-based vehicles (the VW ID.4, Cupra Tavascan and others), the MG electric lineup, BYD’s all-electric models, all Polestar models, the Volvo EX90, the Renault R5 E-Tech, and the Peugeot E-3008, while others are rolling out the tech (although, notably, Tesla is one of the laggards in this instance).
With the right car and the right meter, you could potentially keep your home running for two to three days from your car’s battery.
According to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, the average household in Ireland uses approximately 4,200 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually, so divide that by 365 and you get daily energy usage of 11.5kWh.
The average electric car battery, in the European market, holds between 75kWh and 80kWh, so that could be enough to keep you going for almost a full week.
You are of course robbing from Peter, your car’s battery, to pay Paul, your domestic electricity needs, but if it was only for a day or even two, that wouldn’t drain your car’s battery to the point where you couldn’t go anywhere.
Of course, if the power stayed out for days on end, then you’d end up with both a blacked-out house and a dead car, so there are limits to what can be achieved here.
Public charging points would of course also be knocked out in many areas in this instance, something that is playing out in real-time tonight. Of course, more EV sales mean more batteries eventually being recycled for static storage purposes, which means more energy flexibility and emergency supply, which could help to keep charging points flowing too, so there’s a real virtuous circle here.
Getting to the starting point of the virtuous circle means putting enough EVs with V2L technology onto Irish driveways, and coupling them with enough smart meters. They could form a hugely valuable power buffer at times of energy supply crisis such as this.
The benefits go further than just keeping the lights on in a storm.
In a paper, Kia Europe’s chief of electric technologies, Adrien Chaintreau, said: “Imagine a future where your electric vehicle does more than just get you from point A to B. A future where your car serves as a mobile power station, capable of powering your home during a blackout, or feeding energy back into the grid during peak demand periods. This is not science fiction, but a reality that’s unfolding right before our eyes.”
Chaintreau’s vision is for hundreds and thousands of EVs, all plugged in come eventide, sitting there waiting not only to be drawn on as a power source at peak demand times, but also as a sink or sponge for electric power generated at night – chiefly wind power – that would otherwise go to waste.
“The importance of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology for our power grids cannot be overstated. As we transition towards a future powered predominantly by renewable energy sources, the need for flexible and responsive grid systems becomes increasingly critical. This is where V2G comes into play,” wrote Chaintreau. “Renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, are inherently variable.
“Their output depends on factors like the time of day, weather conditions, and seasons. This variability can lead to imbalances between energy supply and demand, posing significant challenges for grid stability. V2G technology can help mitigate these challenges by providing a flexible energy storage solution that can absorb excess power during periods of high renewable output and feed it back into the grid when supply is low.
“Moreover, V2G can play a crucial role in managing peak load pressures. During periods of high energy demand, the grid can draw upon the stored energy in electric vehicles, reducing the strain on power plants and potentially avoiding the need for additional, often less efficient, peaking power plants. This ability to balance supply and demand in real-time can significantly enhance grid resilience and efficiency.”
This all sounds wonderful, almost utopian, and Kia is backing up its promises by equipping its new all-electric models – even the affordable EV3 crossover, which has just gone on sale in Ireland – with the ability to transfer excess battery energy back to the grid.
However, things are never so simple. Where are all the smart meters? When we asked the ESB about its potential readiness for V2G tech, and the tech’s usefulness, we received a rather bland, non-committal answer: “ESB Networks ‘Networks for Net Zero Strategy’ sets out our commitment to delivering a net-zero electricity network by 2040,″ a spokesperson for ESB told The Irish Times.
“We have set out our approach to achieving this in a way that maintains reliable and resilient electricity supplies, enables the decarbonisation of energy and empowers customers to benefit from low-carbon technologies, including electric vehicles and heat pumps.
“This involves investment in new network capacity, renewable generator connections and smart, non-networks solutions, including storage and demand flexibility. We anticipate that the electrification of transport will play an important role in enabling this flexibility. We are continuing to scale up investment in the electricity network to enable economic growth, housing connections and climate action.”
All very laudable, but a bit light on the details. Equally, there are those within the power-generation and EV-charging industry who reckon that our march towards such flexible power use is already holed below the waterline.
One such Irish charging expert, who asked that we not use their name in this piece, said the original plan of getting one million electric cars on the road by 2030 – and having large numbers of EVs in use is a critical component of this flexible energy idea – won’t happen. “Because the incentives were too low, not because the grid won’t handle them,” he explained. “There are [currently] about 100,000 EVs in Ireland, and at about 130,000 new car sales a year, with 20 per cent being EV, there isn’t enough time.”
Beyond that, our expert was scathing about current energy policy, saying: “Ireland’s energy policy has been very poor – we kept on changing it and tried to be too smart, crushed the idea of offshore power generation, and planning is a mess. They are trying to change it on the back of fines or potential fines from the EU.”
If there is a bright spot, it’s that domestic solar panel installations are rising, partly in response to stubbornly expensive electricity prices.
The cost of batteries is also falling fast, which is not only making electric cars less expensive – the new Dacia Spring costs just €16,990 – but it also means that domestic storage batteries, another potential source of energy flexibility, buffering, and continuance of supply in an emergency, are also becoming more affordable.
Kia’s Chaintreau is convinced that the mass-adoption of V2G/V2L could represent a major evolutionary moment for the electric car, saying: “As we stand on the cusp of a new era in energy and mobility, the potential of V2G/V2L technology is just beginning to be realised. We are set to witness a significant leap forward in this journey.
“The integration of electric vehicles into our broader energy ecosystem represents more than just technological innovation. It’s a testament to our collective commitment to building a more sustainable and resilient future.
“As electric vehicles become increasingly common, technologies like V2G/V2L will play a crucial role in maximising their potential, both for individual owners and for our power grids. The road ahead is full of promise. With each new development, we move one step closer to a future where our cars are not just modes of transportation, but key players in our energy landscape. And in this future, we all stand to benefit.”
The mass adoption of V2G/V2L cars and meters would actually have a double benefit. Not only would they allow many to have kept the lights on tonight, but more EVs on the road leads to lower CO² emissions, helping to alleviate the worst effects of climate change, and reducing – if only fractionally at this late stage – the chances of more storms such as Éowyn.
