V2G – Vehicle to grid technology and its future

Source- Live Mint

Synopsis –  V2G solutions could be the future of decentralized power in India. EVs could be used as a buffer against the inconsistency of renewable energy.

What is V2G?

V2G stands for vehicle-to-grid and is a technology that enables energy to be pushed back to the power grid from the battery of an electric car to balance variations in energy production and consumption.

• The V2G technology requires a bidirectional charging infrastructure so that surplus energy can be transfer.

Advantages of V2G technology-

• Reduce power storage building cost – building energy storage facilities that operate as a buffer are more expensive to supply and require significant investments to establish. As the number of EVs is continuously rising, electric cars provide a storage option with no extra costs.
• V2G will be reliable as conventional energy – Solar and wind energy are weather dependent, while the V2G is not.
• Environment friendly- Vehicle-to-grid helps mitigate climate change by allowing energy system to balance more and more renewable energy.
  • V2G will help to reduce carbon emissions by contributing clean, green energy.
  • The EV batteries can act as a buffer against patchy power supply from renewable energy sources.
• Extra income for EV owners by selling surplus energy of batteries back to grid.

Scope of V2G in India-

There are some positive steps taken in this directions-

• India has set itself an ambitious target of achieving 100% EV sales by 2030.
• Manufacturing EVs batteries in India- To meet EV demand, the government plans to develop Tesla style giga factories in India.

What need to be done?

Need of technical and regulatory frameworks – The framework that allows EVs, producers of renewable energy and the electricity grid to seamlessly interact with one another. So EV can be dynamically utilized by the grid.

• The deciding factor for V2G adoption would be the development of V2G enabling infrastructure, and its integration in flexibility markets in the future.

Way forward-

• V2G technology is one of the few potential flexibility assets that could support the grids, help avoid peak power plants usage and at the same time benefit the EV users financially.
• EVs are simply the smartest way to help with the renewable energy production, as EVs will be part of people’s life in the future.