What is bidirectional charging?
For electric vehicle owners, public, workplace, and home, charging have become a part of everyday life. While the technical side of charging might seem a little complicated when getting into topics, such as direct current versus alternating current, kWh versus kW, charge point connection types, or the many different charging speeds available, the fundamentals of plugging in your EV to gain extra range is quite straightforward.
But the change is coming. Over the next few years, plugging your EV into a charge point will mean your car becomes part of the energy grid itself, not only receiving charging but also feeding it back and providing vital energy storage for renewably sourced power.
This emerging technology is known as bidirectional charging or two-way charging.
Types of bidirectional chargers - Vehicle to Home (V2H) and Vehicle to Grid (V2G)
Vehicle to Home (V2H) bidirectional charging technology
V2H, or vehicle-to-home, uses smart EV charging and bidirectional (two ways) charging to transfer energy stored from the battery of a parked electrical vehicle (EV) to the home for use as a backup power source during outages. The battery in an EV could keep a home or small business running for several days. Homeowners living in areas where utilities offer variable pricing can use V2H to reduce their electric bills by tapping the EV battery for power during peak demand times when electricity from the grid is most costly.
Vehicle to grid (V2G) bidirectional charging technology
V2G can be called vehicle-to-grid, which refers to rechargeable electric vehicles, such as pure electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, that can communicate with the power grid and provide demand response services, which may be to transmit power back to the grid. The power grid, or adjust the charging speed according to the electricity price. V2G's power storage capability can store and use new energy power, the output of which will change with climate and time. V2G can be used in vehicles that can be connected to the grid.