Vehicle-to-grid Policy in South Africa: State-led v. Market-directed Approaches

The Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) policy aim has been widely analyzed in policy planning literature but has not been explored for adaptation to African contexts. African countries enjoy immense renewable energy (RE) potential but currently experience minimal electric vehicle usage, since most drivers confront limited charging station access and thus range anxiety. One potential workaround surmounting this obstacle in the short term is to promote V2G charging infrastructure for a subset of vehicles with fixed, shorter-range routes: minibus commuter taxis. This study therefore uses the South African energy-systems general-equilibrium (SATIMGE) linked model in an exploratory analysis of a V2G policy for South Africa’s minibus taxi industry, which, when electrified, would combine optimal charging times for eTransport with their off-take of electricity at periods of system-wide or local peak demand. This in turn would facilitate several publicly beneficial outcomes.
 Adequate implementation requires however that network augmentation costs are addressed along with the provision of flexible charging infrastructure. From the perspective of maximizing generation capacity (and thus, over time, maximizing the proportion of RE generation capacity), the modelling finds that the most preferable scenario would be V2G without controlled charging stipulations (i.e. opportunistic charging influenced by electricity prices subject to network demand). The second most preferable provides additional charging infrastructure capital expenditure and includes controlled charging stipulations but excludes minibus V2G; then minibus V2G including provision of additional charging infrastructure capital expenditure, with business-as-usual being the least preferable. However, this ranked outcome excludes consideration of several additional variables that could realize additional public goods, discussed in the conclusion.