NRMA connects at Everything Electric Show

Sydney Olympic Park was all a-buzz as the second Fully Charged electric vehicle (EV) expo – now renamed the Everything Electric Home Energy and Electric Vehicle Show – opened its door to thousands of Sydneysiders and interstate travellers from Friday 9 to Sunday 11 January. 

It was the second expo hosted in Australia by the UK-based Fully Charged team. This time around it showcased not only the growing number of EVs on offer but also how they will eventually integrate with our homes and the energy grid. 

Sponsored by NRMA, it was also an opportunity for Rohan Lund, (CEO of NRMA Group,) Carly Irving-Dolan (NRMA Energy CEO) and Vivian Miles (Executive GM for Strategy and Investments) to discuss the future of clean transport in Australia. 

Before getting into how homes and electric cars can integrate, first up was whether EVs can handle Australia’s wide open spaces in the first place.

Australia now has a starting date for a New Vehicle Emissions Standard which will bring its ambitions to clean up the transport sector in line with overseas, firming up supply of EVs, sales of which tripled year on year in 2023.

Speaking to a packed theatre, Rohan Lund spoke about the unique challenges that Australia faces in filling charging gaps in regions and in remote Australia to enable people to drive wherever they want in an EV – a challenge that NRMA has taken on with the rollout of a national EV charging network with $39.3 million in funding from the Australian Government.

“One of our businesses is Chargefox. Finding charging points isn't necessarily the issue ... it’s finding fast charging, ultra rapid charging, it's a massive issue,” said Lund.

“And the predictions are that the country probably needs 30,000 fast chargers, ultimately, to support where we are going ... we're probably in the hundreds at the moment across the country."

There is an 18-month wait from start to finish once a DC fast charger location has been identified. Numerous stakeholders are involved, and approvals required from the owners of the poles and wires – otherwise known as Distributed Network Service Providers (DNSPs) take time.

It is just one reason NRMA Energy is now including Freewire battery-integrated chargers in its stable of charging units from a broad range of suppliers as it seeks to shore up reliability and roll-out time.

"We've just rolled out two in Mittagong in New South Wales ... so that's the first in Australia to be rolled out from the Freewire perspective,” said Carly Irving-Dolan in a panel discussion talking about what’s next in the energy transition.

Put simply, the Freewire innovation allows an AC connection to the grid, circumventing lengthy waits for approval from DNSPs. The integrated battery charges via the AC connection, and outputs to EVs at a higher DC rate.

The topic of “vehicle-to-everything" (V2X), a term which encompasses V2L, V2H and V2G, was on the menu at several talks over the weekend.

Ross De Rango, Head of Energy and Infrastructure for the Electric Vehicle Council and who also spoke in the session with Irving-Dolan, explains: “...the core question here is getting energy out of a vehicle in a form other than kinetic energy, right? You're trying to get electricity out to do something with it.”

One example could be using vehicle-to-vehicle capabilities in NRMA’s roadside patrols, Irving-Dolan says.

“We're also exploring vehicle-to-vehicle ... when they go to help drivers they have to carry a heavy charger, which (impacts) the payload ... that vehicle-to-vehicle solution would be also really innovative,” she said.

Currently, NRMA has two roadside patrol vehicles capable of recharging EVs if they “run out of charge.”

Though this rarely happens, there will still be a need for the electric equivalent of a jerry can.

But there are significant logistical challenges fitting out a patrol vehicle with a heavy battery for charging. Being able to use the lithium-ion battery already present in an electric patrol vehicle to recharge another EV with a flat battery could help avoid this issue. 

Vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to home – using the EV battery to help power a home or deliver energy back to the grid – was also a hot topic at the EV and home energy expo.

De Rango says the world is currently looking to Australia’s implementation of the technology, and changes to the standards which would allow vehicle-to-grid are already underway.

 “The relevant standard in Australia was revised second half of last year and is now open for public comment and will be published in June/July. The rest of the world is watching because that standard is the one that defines Australian solar inverters. And we are the leading jurisdiction in the world on rooftop solar uptake,” he said.

Irving-Dolan says it’s not that simple.

"I think that from a regulatory and legislative perspective, just connecting to the grid for recharging infrastructure will be a hurdle. That's exactly what we're seeing now. That's the DNSP’s readiness, willingness to actually enable vehicle-to-grid to happen," she said.

“So, while we can bring in legislation, we actually need to also change the way that the grid deals with their own regulations, because they're contradictory. So, you change it here, but actually they've got other regulations and other standards that override certain things.”

De Rango agreed, pointing out that Australia could be a world leader in vehicle-to-grid: “... we have millions of homes in the country that have solar panels on them already, and are already exporting to the grid.

“And we've got all the market systems and structures in place. That groundwork has been laid. We're not leaders in EV uptake, right? But we could potentially be leaders in this area.” 

Speaking to Dan Caesar, CEO of the Fully Charged Show, Vivian Miles said that consumers could make a saving of $2000 a year by implementing vehicle-to-grid at home.

“A big part of what NRMA does is around affordability, equity, when we're thinking about the energy and transport transition, and the fact that vehicle-to-grid can give consumers $2000 in savings per year is highly attractive.”

Describing EVs as batteries on wheels, she pointed out that vehicles are an under-utilised asset.

“There's all this latent potential in the car, all these cars sitting around Australia and all around the world that we can finally do something with.

“And that value can then be shared with consumers, with ... businesses, there's a lot of value to be shared. So, for the consumers ... that $2000 per year - that's quite a lot of money.”

“But of course, we're still a while away, there is still work to be done. And there's going to be also behavioural changes, and you have to plug in your car every day. It's not just once a week. So, there's going to be ... education for consumers around how you actually get on board and how you realise the $2000 saving, so there is a focus for us to investigate now.” 

Miles says that there is work to do before vehicle-to-grid becomes part of our daily life.

"​There's going to be education for consumers around how you actually get on board and how you realise the $2000 saving, so there is a focus for us to investigate now,” she said. ​