Electric Vehicle Potential in Australia: Its Impact on Smartgrids

The availability of the technology and the promising acceptance of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) has encouraged car manufacturing companies to take solid steps toward the electric vehicle (EV) market. As it is spread over a vast surface area, Australia has high car usage and ownership rates, and the inefficiency of the public transportation system contributes to this. Therefore, Australia has a very large potential market for EVs. In addition to the well-known advantages, such as zero direct emissions, reduced dependency on oil, cheaper fuel, and more silent operation through smart grids, EVs also offer a unique benefit called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. Through V2G technology, EVs can support better operation of the smart grids in terms of reliability and storage. Based on reliable statistics and social studies, this article studies the EV potential of Australia and envisages the impact of large EV utilization therein. The statistics indicate that the growing population will demand more cars, and acceptance of EVs could also benefit other areas, such as environmental conservation, finance, and energy production. Accordingly, a microgrid system with V2G technology has been modeled and simulated in three different conditions: islanded, IEEE-T14-bus system, and IEEE-34-bus system. The results are presented to forecast the necessary changes in the power networks for the large deployment of EVs.