Aussie bidirectional EV charger unveiled

Bidirectional charging is rapidly becoming an EV buzzword and now an Australian company has got into the act.

Melbourne-based Rectifier Technologies has revealed the 7kW Highbury DC bidirectional charger.

Named after the road where Rectifier’s R&D headquarters is located, the Highbury is designed for wall mounting and claimed to be the world’s slimmest charger in its class at just 123mm in depth.

The unit is now being offered out for trial with energy providers and the like and Rectifier hopes it will be certified by the end of 2021. Pricing and public sale will come some time after that.

Bidirectional – or vehicle to grid, vehicle to home etcetera – charging means the ability for an EV to not only take power from the electricity grid, but also supply it back into the grid or power a home from its battery.

That means homeowners will be able to sell excess power back to utilities during peak periods and also power their own homes and reduce their reliance on the grid.

We’ve covered off an ACT trial backed by ARENA here and one of the possible benefits of the technology down the track here.

But bidirectional charging is in its infancy here and the second generation Nissan Leaf is the only EV on-sale in Australia that can two-way charge without voiding its warranty.

The Highbury charges with the Leaf’s Chademo plug standard and will also be able to charge with CCS-compliant EVs that are due to start arriving here in the next few years. Both versions comply with all relevant Australian standards.

“Drivers will be able to recharge their vehicles when off-peak energy is being funnelled through the grid,” explained Paul Davis, Operation Manager, Rectifier Technologies..

“When feed-in tariffs are highest during heavy demand or the grid is experiencing a destabilising event, the Highbury can rapidly react to export energy and earn a return which offsets the cost of the electricity consumed.”

“The Highbury will bring to the market a flexible approach to how people can financially benefit from the grid, while utilities will also benefit as electric vehicles can act as a dispersed power storage network.”

According to Davis, the Highbury was designed with the end-user and their needs in mind. 

“We want EV owners to be able to use this quickly and easily; when they plug it in, they don’t want to have to go through multiple stages simply to charge their vehicle,” he said. “They’ll be able to plug it in and it will begin charging. It just works.”

In the future Rectifier plans to launch an 11kW three-phase Highbury charger more focussed on commercial use.

Rectifier Technologies is a 27-year old ASX-listed company originally formed to develop switch mode technology for the for the telecom market. It has offices in Malaysia and Singapore as well as Melbourne.