Vehicle-To-Grid Made Easy: Not Need To Disassemble The Battery Pack

Normally when attempting to use a scrapped EV battery for another use, the cells would be removed from the OEM pack and reorganized to a specific voltage. This build, however, eliminates the need to modify the packs at all. A LilyGO ESP32 is used to convert the CAN bus messages from the battery pack to the Modbus communications protocol used by the inverters, in this case a Fronius Gen24, so the inverter and battery can coordinate energy delivery from one to the other automatically. With the hard part out of the way, the only other requirements are to connect a high voltage DC cable from the battery pack to the inverter.

As the article warns, though, be careful, as these packs still contain a lot of energy.

See https://hackaday.com/2023/05/25/vehicle-to-grid-made-easy/
#Blog, #loadshedding, #technology, #V2G

15 Electric cars that could also give load-shedding backup power: None available in South Africa though

The feature that allows them to support this is called bidirectional charging, which enables energy to not only flow from the grid or a fixed power source to your car, but also from the car into a home (V2H) and appliances (V2L), or even back to the grid to help stabilise the grid (V2G).

For South Africans this could have meant instead of buying a dedicated battery backup system for the home, they could have bought one of these vehicles and used it for battery storage whilst at home (well yes, not until the SA government stops their over-and-above tax levied on all electric vehicle imports).

By way of comparison, my solar system battery capacity is a 10kWh battery that powers the whole house for about 11 hours or longer, and the Ford F-150 Lightning has a 131kWh battery!

Most drivers are only driving around 40km to work and back every day, which means the car’s battery stays 90% full and requires only a short top up charge late at night when there is usually available power. A car with this type of usage could easily have spare capacity to power a house for two or more hours of load-shedding, and then either recharge or still enough capacity for another day of use.

Many vehicle fleet agencies have 20 or more vehicles that stand overnight and typically charge. These could be used for V2G grid stabilisation.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/motoring/487433-electric-cars-that-could-also-give-load-shedding-backup-power.html
#Blog, #environment, #EV, #loadshedding, #southafrica, #technology

City of Cape Town has its own Load Shedding apps for Android and iOS

There has been some confusion between Eskom’s national stage levels and the City of Cape Town, for load shedding, mainly because Cape Town operates on a slightly lower stage level with its hydroelectric power generation. So many national apps try to cater for the different stage level for Cape Town, but citizens do get a bit confused with the stage changes.

The City’s own app shows just Cape Town and also includes a graphical map showing which areas are which, and which area is currently load shedding, and which one is next. The map also assist in finding your correct areas to add to the watch list.

The app also does a few other things, like reporting of faults and purchase of prepaid electricity, which I’ve not tested.

The app can be found at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.esri.app9002d9bd7ea24a89ac679830537afe82 and at https://apps.apple.com/za/app/city-of-cape-town/id1613339640?platform=iphone

#technology #capetown #southafrica #loadshedding #faults
#Blog, ##capetown, ##faults, ##loadshedding, ##southafrica, ##technology

There Could Be A Big Opportunity For Hyundai In South Africa With Vehicle-To-Load (V2L) to power 240V appliances during load-shedding

There is probably no better place and time to advertise vehicles with Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) capability than in South Africa right now! Vehicles equipped with V2L make it possible to power 240V appliances, for example, from the vehicle’s traction battery.

Hyundai’s website says “The V2L function can supply up to 3.6 kw of power.” The V2L port is located under the second-row seats, and it can be activated when a vehicle is on. More importantly, another V2L port is located at the charging port on the vehicle exterior. Using a converter, customers can charge high-power electric equipment. The outside port provides power even when the vehicle is turned off.

See There Could Be A Big Opportunity For Hyundai In South Africa With Vehicle-To-Load (V2L)

#environment #loadshedding #southafrica #hyundai #EV

There is probably no better place and time to advertise vehicles with Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) capability than in South Africa right now! Vehicles equipped with V2L make it possible to power 240V appliances, for example, from the vehicle’s traction battery. The Ford F150 Lightning is one of the vehicles that we are really looking forward to […]

https://gadgeteer.co.za/there-could-be-big-opportunity-hyundai-south-africa-vehicle-load-v2l-power-240v-appliances-during

There Could Be A Big Opportunity For Hyundai In South Africa With Vehicle-To-Load (V2L)

There is probably no better place and time to advertise vehicles with Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) capability than in South Africa right now! Vehicles equipped with V2L make it possible to power 240V appliances, for example, from the vehicle’s traction...