Energy supplier AGL is offering electric vehicle owners ‘all-you-can-use’ home charging for only AU$1 per day.
Australian energy company AGL recently introduced its latest sustainable offering with its home charging of electric vehicles for only AU$1 per day. In a country with some of the best conditions for taking advantage of renewable energy sources, Australia’s utility companies are having to adapt to changing market conditions with significantly altered demand.
When the incentive was announced at the 2016 Australia Energy Week conference, AGL chief executive Andy Vesey said, ‘The single biggest issue we have blocking this transition [the shift of Australia’s energy network to a low-carbon approach and structure], from a wholesale perspective, is the fact that we have a national energy market that is overbuilt. Supply way exceeds demand.’ He also said, ‘We have technologies that allow us to do today things that our systems of regulation and law do not let us do, because we don’t know the right policy frameworks to liberate those capabilities. But if you look around you can see it.’
The national electricity market currently in Australia has a 7,000 megawatt overcapacity, something that AGL hopes to address with its ‘all-you-can-use’ approach to electric vehicle charging. Owners of any brand of electric vehicle, including the popular Tesla, BMW i3 and Nissan Leafs, can take advantage of this charging plan. Customers who already own a charging station can start using the option almost immediately. Those who don’t own a charging station can buy one from AGL for around AU$800. A smart meter is required in the home to track energy usage, and AGL will upgrade basic meters for free and supply digital meters for a fee to households that don’t currently use one.
At its lowest, the plan will cost owners of one electric car AU$365 a year – a bargain compared to the AU$17,000 average cost of one petrol-powered car. Currently, charging an electric vehicle in Australia costs approximately AU$4.50 per 100 kilometres (62 miles).
AGL is also providing complimentary carbon offsetting of all the energy supplied by its Electric Car Plan. This is taking place through its Future Forests programme. The company will plant enough trees, or invest in other carbon-offsetting projects, to match the emissions created by its electric vehicle charging.
The company continues to look into a variety of new services to better support customers and their increasing reliance on smart appliances and devices and alternative power sources. One plan currently being trialled is the construction of micro power plants across South Australia. These plants will be housed in homes and businesses and will allow companies and individuals to buy and sell surplus solar power as needed.
Not long after AGL’s electric car charging plan announcement, Melbourne property group Glenvill introduced its plans to build the country’s most environmentally sustainable development. Dubbed the Tesla Town, the suburb will actually be named YarraBend after the nearby river and will come complete with inbuilt EV charging, solar roofs, Tesla batteries, high-speed Internet and a neighbourhood app that acts like a concierge. Although fairly expensive now – with the new townhouses and apartments on sale at prices from US$1.48 million – if the predictions of reductions in water use of 43 per cent, in landfill of 80 per cent and in potential energy use of 34 per cent prove true, the concept could well be adapted and scaled for wider use, helping to bring prices down.
Other projects using incentives to encourage the use of electric vehicles include Nissan and Enel’s UK vehicle-to-grid smart energy trial that enables electric cars to sell power back to the national grid and a wireless electric vehicle charging lane on highways.
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Website: www.agl.com.au
Contact: evadvantage@agl.com.au
Company name: AGL
Innovation name: AUD 1 charging
Country: Australia
Industries: Nature & sustainability / Transport & automotive