National roadmap for bidirectional EV charging in Australia

Chief Investigators

Jon Sibley (enX)

Purpose of project

The National Roadmap for Bidirectional EV Charging was commissioned by RACE for 2030 in partnership with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). It outlines the critical path to achieving commercial adoption of bidirectional EV charging in Australia and highlights the potential of bidirectional EV charging to reduce electricity costs and accelerate national emissions reduction.

Impact of project

The report identifies key actions and policy settings needed to support this technology, including consumer value transfer, smart grid maturity, interoperability standards, and national policy commitment. It also directly contributes to the Australian Government’s National Consumer Energy Resources Roadmap , and informed several recommendations made in the National CER Roadmap update in August 2025.

Modelling conducted in collaboration with enX Consulting and Endgame Economics also provided an estimate of the wholesale market and distribution network cost savings through V2G in the NEM between FY2027 and FY2050. Different V2G uptake rates were modelled as well as various V2G operating models with different proportions of static time-of-use (ToU) tariff profiles and more wholesale market responsive operations. It was found that in a future high renewable penetration world, V2G reduces firming needs from grid-connected generation and storage assets – with a wholesale market benefit, of between $0.7bn to $1.2bn in the slow uptake scenario and between $1.7bn to $2.7bn in the fast uptake scenario. The more aggressive, fast uptake view of V2G uptake would reach 16GW, 90GWh of storage by 2050 NEM-wide, which equates to over 30% of total required dispatchable storage (GW) by 2050, or 14% of total energy storage (GWh) NEM wide.

What’s next?

RACE is now building on the recommendations from the roadmap, working further with ARENA, enX, and a wide group of industry stakeholders to take recommendations to the next stage. A summary is provided below of some of the ways these recommendations are currently being progressed in national research and policy development ( SEP 2025).

1. National policy commitment
   • RACE for 2030 is developing several proposals for non-residential commercial V2G pilots (recommendation A4)
2. Consumer value transfer
   • RACE for 2030 has been engaging with senior government and industry stakeholders on the development of potential V2G installation rebates (recommendations B2)
3. Smart grid maturity
   • The Consumer Energy Resources Information 2030 (CERI 2030) project is currently being led by enX consulting with support from ARENA, RACE for 2030 is participating as a stakeholder in the project’s development (recommendation C1)
4. Interoperability and standards
   • Several bidirectional roadmap recommendations (D1, D2, D3) are being explored as part of the National CER Roadmaps 20205 update – particularly with regard to CER roadmap actions T1.1 (technical standards for CER interoperability), T2.1 (adoption of standards and regulatory framework), T.0.1.2 (minimum EVSE technical standards) and T.0.1.3 (minimum operating standards for government supported public EV charging infrastructure)
5. Supporting consumers
   • Several bidirectional roadmap recommendations (E1, E2, D4, D5) are being explored in development of a major research proposal with engagement from ARENA and wider industry.

Project partners – industry and research

enX, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)

RACE, ARENA and enX would like to acknowledge all parties who made time to participate in the consultation process. An extensive list of all those who participated can be found in The National Roadmap for Bidirectional EV Charging Summary Report.