The development of electric vehicles was primarily driven by the need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and minimize impact on the environment. However, as it turns out, electric vehicles have another advantage over ICE vehicles.
During mass power outages, they can feed energy back into the grid - effectively acting as powerful charging stations. This happened during a power outage in Canberra. During a severe storm, power supply to tens of thousands of homes was interrupted. Then the reserves in the batteries of electric vehicles were used to supply energy to the Australian grid.
"This is the first time in the world that such a type of vehicle usage has been demonstrated in an emergency situation," said senior scientist Dr. Bjorn Sturmburg from the Australian National University. "It shows that electric vehicles can provide the reserve we need in such an emergency situation."
He mentioned that his team of researchers has a fleet of 51 electric vehicles across Canberra. When connected to the grid, they are able to monitor its condition and can quickly provide short-term "energy assistance" to restore the balance of the system in case of electricity shortage in the national grid.
"Essentially, these are big batteries on wheels," the research team says.
During the power outage, 16 electric vehicles were connected to the grid in the Canberra area. Immediately after the power outage, these vehicles started feeding electricity back into the grid, as programmed. The electric vehicles provided support to the power grid for approximately 10 minutes.
"Overall, they provided support to the national grid at 107 kW," added Sturmburg.
According to the researcher, the event that occurred in February was the first real test of electric vehicles and charging devices.
"If you imagine this in perspective, 105,000 vehicles reacting in this way will fully provide the backup power needed for the entire ACT (Australian Capital Territory with a population of 339,000) and NSW (New South Wales state with a population of about 8.2 million). For context, last year in Australia, just under 100,000 electric vehicles were sold," underlined Sturmburg.
Source: interestingengineering
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