Nissan to launch the “LEAF to Home” V2H power supply system with Nichicon “EV Power Station” in June

30 May 2012
 LEAF to Home with EV Power Station. Click to enlarge.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. will launch the “LEAF to Home” V2H (vehicle-to-home) power supply system, which can supply electricity from the 24 kWh Li-ion battery pack in Nissan LEAF electric vehicles (EV) to residential homes when used with the “EV Power Station” unit—which is also a 6 kW charger for charging the LEAF—developed by Nichicon Corporation.

Nissan will showcase this system at its Japanese dealership showrooms beginning in June to help promote efficient electricity management and demonstrate the features built into electric vehicles. The company plans to sell 10,000 units during the fiscal year.

The Nichicon EV Power Station unit enables electricity stored in the lithium-ion batteries onboard a Nissan LEAF to be sent to an ordinary home by connecting the car to the home’s electricity distribution panel with a connector linked to the LEAF’s quick charging port.

The EV Power Station system is similar in size to an external air-conditioning unit, can be installed outdoors, and conforms to the CHAdeMO protocol for EV quick chargers.

The Nichicon system’s connector complies with the JEVS G 105 standard defined by the Japan Automotive Research Institute (JARI). This system can run on various operating modes and has a timer function which can be controlled with a liquid crystal display (LCD) touch panel. Electricity is stored or supplied automatically in accordance with a household’s electricity capacity and consumption.

EV Power Station: Specifications
When charging the LEAF
Input voltage: Single-phase, AC 200V (±15%), 50 Hz/60 Hz (±5%)
Input current range: AC 0-36A
Output voltage range: DC 50-500V (CHAdeMO Protocol)
Peak power output: 6kW
Conversion efficiency: 90% or more (at rated output)
Power factor: 99% or more (at rated output)
When supplying power to households (V2H)
Input voltage range: DC 150V-450V
Input current range: DC 0-30A (Limited by cable specifications)
Single-phase three-wire system (AC 100V x two-phase)
Output voltage: AC100V (±6%), 50Hz / 60Hz
AC 200V (±6%), 50Hz / 60Hz (Max.±2%)
Output current range: AC 0 - 30A
Peak power output: 6kW (Single-phased, AC 100V·3kW x two-phase)
Conversion efficiency: 90% or more (at rated output)
External dimensions: 650 mm (W) x 350 mm (D) x 781 mm (H) (excluding projecting parts)
Mass: Approx. 60 kg

The EV Power Station can fully charge a LEAF in as little as four hours, which is approximately half the time required when a normal charger is used. All current Nissan LEAF owners in Japan will be able to use the system, depending on their home’s installation requirements. With Japanese government subsidies taken into account, the EV Power Station is estimated to cost ¥330,000 (US$4,153) with the consumption tax and installation charge—¥300,000 (US$3,775) excluding tax.

The 24 kWh lithium-ion battery pack is sufficient to supply an average Japanese household for about two days.

See my calculations on the battery depreciation costs of using the Leaf for charging:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012/05/leaf-20120529.html

It works out to around 48 cents/kwh, OK for an emergency, but you wouldn't want to do it too often.

Dave, your numbers look good and realistic.. but note that this would replace an emergency generator and a supply of dangerous gasoline. Very valuable stuff during Hurricane season.

In the aftermath of a natural disaster it would prove very handy at your home.. you would still have to recharge the car and that could be accomplished with that same generator but during the day, when you are fully awake to monitor it.. its awful refueling a generator at 3AM with the baby awake and screaming!

There are also efficiency advantages running the generator fully loaded to recharge the car. If you are lucky you may take advantage of a nearby L3 charging station that remains operational.

Anyone who thinks this will 'help promote efficient electricity management' does not know much about power production. Load following is done with efficient base load power plants. SSGT are used to backup steam plants because they can start up quickly.

The second concept is a BEV can only be one place at a time. Either you are using it to drive to work or it is parked at home at the changer. Of the 10,000 units, how many can the power company count on for being at the changer,

Zero! The power company still has to have that SSGT sitting around for an emergency. Assuming high NG prices we are still looking at only 20 cents per kwh generating cost.

Hi Herm and Dave.
Could Herm please explain the specs on this thing.
When in V2H mode the input is 140-450VDC

The input current range is:
DC 0-30A
Single-phase three-wire system (AC 100V x two-phase)

How is : "Single-phase three-wire system (AC 100V x two-phase)" DC???????

Thx,
GSB

Davemart: good to see some numbers in this context. I could never see why an individual would agree to help peak shaving. Then again a source of emergency power may provide peace of mind which is as valuable as the individuals fears are strong.

@Davemart,

Your calculations on price per kWh are not really useful since you ignore some important battery properties.

Shallow cycles cause very little degradation. You can probably do 10's of thousands of cycles between, say, 50% and 80%, without any measurable degradation.

Another thing is power draw. Driving @ 120 km/h probably draws >20 kW, or about 1C. This V2H inverter has a limit of 6 kW, only 0.25C.

The 100,000 mile limit has probably a lot to do with the fact that fast charging degrades the battery faster. People doing lots of miles probably fast charge on a regular basis.

I think only practical tests can reveal the real number. Just deriving this from some Nissan guarantee (which is of course on the safe side to not have 100's of 1000's of claims) is just too simplistic for my taste.

A nascent but inevitable step toward distributed power in Japan. With their nukes shut down and high technical aptitude - they will likely lead the world in alternatives, CHP, V2H and implementations of non-radiative nuclear.

While $3775 is a lot to spend on a home backup system - it's also a charger and Japan is not happy with their grid power companies. Another example of EV flexibility. Of course, some could send their future fuel cell Hydrogen to their toasters, refrigerators, laptops, .. Why not just use lead acid batteries ? You want 6 Kw for 2 hours for 60 days/year. So you need 12 KwH of storage, doubled so call it 24 KwH. Lead acid costs about e100 / KwH, so you you could do it for e2.4K for the batteries + the cost of the charger / inverter. You will probably have to replace the batteries every 3 years, but you may be able to recycle them and get some money back. Grid storage batteries don't have to be light, they just have to be available. It might be a quick way to get started - one would hope that this crises will pass once they figure out how to get their Nukes back on line. In which case, a 3 year (repeatable) LeadAcid solution might be better than a deluxe 10 year LiIon solution 3 x 2.4k = 7.2k too expensive for storage that does nothing but wait for blackout. LiIon mobilizes you and offers backup. If you get your vehicle home with a charge on it. @Anne: I use the best figures I can find to get an estimate at any particular time whilst recognising that they will not be perfectly accurate. What do you do? Nissan said that their 100,000 mile rating of the battery was down to 80% for normal charging, and 70% for regular fast charging. The avoidance of deep discharge does help battery lifetimes, but since most figures quoted on the Leaf are for annual mileage of around 12-15,000 miles then it appears that deep discharge is assumed not to happen very often. Since Nissan also recommends that the Leaf is normally charged to only 80% of capacity and provides the software to make that easy to do it is unclear whether the 100,000 mile rating given includes that assumption. In short, I do not know if the Leaf battery will perform above specification, but on the manufacturer's specs given the figures I have arrived at seem reasonable and your assumption of major gains beyond them unfounded and unjustified. When the automobile is not connected to the charger, a bank of lead acid batteries, as proposed, could be and the cost per year would be far less. Buy a computer UPS for the Baby monitor and computers. It can be modified to get power from an automobile or an additional battery. At one time a 12 volt magnesium battery activated with salt water was available for sailboat emergency power. A cogeneration system can also charge the batteries. A Prius can be used with a 12 volt input inverter for emergency lights and it can be put into a mode that starts the engine if the main battery is too low while it is parked. The 12 volt battery is charged from the main battery with a voltage converter. For long term use a 12 volt deep-cycle battery should be made part of the system. ..HG.. High efficiency wired and/or wireless quick charge (level !, 2 and 3) stations are not much of a technical challenge. Both could be mass produced in many countries at a reasonable price. Producing more or releasing enough existing e-energy for future electrified vehicles is also not a major challenge. It has been demonstrated that effective e-energy saving programs could reduce domestic consumption enough for two + electrified vehicles per household. With very high efficiency heat pumps, much better windows and doors, improved appliances, improved hot water heater, electronic programmable thermostats, better CFL/LED lights, etc., we have already reduced our daily e-energy consumption from 65+ Kwh/day to an average of 22 Kwh/day. The annual cost has gone down from$3200 to $700. The saving are relatively more important than the energy consumption reduction because we leveled the winter time costly high consumption. Our consumption between 23h and 07h is almost zero. The savings are enough for 4 average size electrified vehicles without adding extra load to the grid. At the current$5.15/gal price for local gas, that would represent a potential saving of \$10K + per household.

The comments to this entry are closed.