Could you get paid to charge your electric vehicle?
Electric vehicle drivers in the UK may soon get paid to charge their electric vehicles. Chances are, Australia will follow suit.
Electric vehicle drivers in the UK may soon get paid to charge their electric vehicles at public charging points.
That’s because the power grid in the UK is increasingly dominated by wind and solar. In essence, on a sunny, windy day that power has nowhere to go – there is more supply than demand.
Whereas gas- and coal-fired power stations have to pay fuel costs, wind and solar power generators do not. The upshot is that at times, power prices turn negative – which costs generators and power companies money. So it can be cheaper for them to pay people to use power.
As a result, some energy companies are starting to offer ‘plunge pricing’. It’s the opposite of Uber ‘surge pricing’ – when there is lots of power supply and low demand, they slash the costs of charging EVs. It’s early days, but one of the UK energy companies rolling out plunge pricing (Octopus Energy, which has a relationship with Origin Energy in Australia) has indicated getting paid to use power is the next logical step.
Australia next?
Australia’s power system is still dominated by fossil fuels. But renewable power is starting to disrupt the old order – which means ‘plunge pricing’ may not be too far away. Getting paid to use power might be further off, but the signs suggest it’s coming.
According to The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), there was
a record number of negative or zero pricing periods – 20 per cent of the time – on wholesale power markets in the last three months of 2023.
Meanwhile, there were new records set by small-scale renewable power. At 1.30pm on New Year’s Eve 2023, distributed solar power in South Australia (i.e. rooftops and smaller ground-mounted solar PV set ups) generated more than the entire state required for the first time ever.
A couple of months earlier, on 29 October, solar power set a new record across the country, with smaller-scale solar PV generating more than half (51.3 per cent) of the required power demand.
Along with growth in large-scale renewables – wind and solar farms – a new record for the amount of power generated by renewables (72.1 per cent of the total mix) was set at lunchtime on 24 October.
All of which resulted in record lows for coal-fired power – and climate warming emissions.
Batteries on wheels
As renewables penetration continues to climb, using electric vehicles to take excess power from the grid could become a useful tool to help keep the power system stable.
Low-cost, free, or even paid charging could work out to be a cheaper way to manage supply and demand than other actions – and Australian energy companies will likely be watching the UK ‘plunge pricing’ schemes with interest.
Volvo Cars is also working to make electric cars a crucial part of a clean energy system. Last year, the company launched a new division,
Volvo Cars Energy Solutions, that will ultimately link EVs, homes and the grid to maximise available clean power, boost energy security and lower bills – both for Volvo drivers, and all those that use the power system.
The new EX90, now entering full production and capable of powering homes and appliances, will start to show just what is possible.
Find out more about the EX90
here.
