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| EV
batteries connected to
chargers are a
potentially vast
resource that could be
utilized by the grid.
Credit: Patrick T.
Fallon/AFP via Getty
Images |
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A
Maryland utility is
touting a project that
allows owners of Ford
F-150 Lightning
electric pickups to
send power from their
vehicles to the grid
and get compensated
for it.
The Baltimore Gas and
Electric Co. project
is a partnership with
Ford, the automaker,
and Sunrun, a solar
and energy services
company. It’s the kind
of thing that, if
deployed on a large
scale, could be
transformative for the
grid.
But the nagging sense
I get when reading
about vehicle-to-grid
pilot projects is that
this is an opportunity
that remains largely
untapped. The Maryland
project, for example,
involves just three trucks.
Electric vehicles use
the large majority of
the lithium-ion
batteries being
produced in today’s
market. When those EV
batteries are sitting
in garages and
connected to chargers,
they become a
potentially vast
resource that can be
utilized by the grid,
generating income for
the vehicles’ owners.
But to realize this
opportunity,
utilities, automakers
and regulators need to
move beyond pilot
projects.
Also, the market share
for EVs needs to
continue to grow, and
the Trump
administration’s
cancellation of the
tax credit of up to
$7,500 for buying a
new EV is a setback.
The tax credit ended this week, and analysts expect it will
lead to a decrease in
EV sales at least in
the short term.
I spoke with Willett
Kempton, a University
of Delaware professor
who first wrote about
the potential of
vehicle-to-grid power
in 1997. That paper, co-authored with Steven E.
Letendre, who was then
at Green Mountain
College in Vermont,
had a central idea
that seemed almost
like science fiction
at the time, when EVs
barely existed. The
paper’s title sums it
up: “Electric vehicles
as a new power source
for electric
utilities.”
One of its key points
was that the
technology for using
EVs to power the grid
was pretty simple.
Consumers would need
to have bi-directional
chargers, capable of
sending electricity
from the grid to the
battery, and from the
battery to the grid.
And grid managers
would need software to
control the flow of
electricity to the
grid.
Kempton found that
groups of EVs could
send power to the grid
and receive
compensation that
would help to offset
the costs of owning
the vehicle. There
would be almost no
negative effect on
battery life or the
vehicle’s readiness
for use.
“The economics are
really compelling,” he
said.
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| Willett
Kempton is a
University of Delaware
professor who first
wrote about the
potential of
vehicle-to-grid power
in 1997.
Credit: University of
Delaware |
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Here’s
some of the math he
found exciting: If the
United States could
get to the point that
one-fourth of its
vehicles were EVs with
bi-directional
chargers, they would
provide the grid with
access to 660
gigawatts of capacity.
That figure, from a 2005 paper he co-authored, was close to the
total capacity of all
U.S. power plants at
that time. Since then,
other researchers have
conducted their own
versions of this
calculation using more
recent variables,
underscoring the vast
potential.
The main stumbling
block turned out to be
the reluctance of
various stakeholders
to agree on technical
standards so that they
would all be speaking
the equivalent of the
same language
regarding how the
system controls would
work.
Only recently, decades
after that 1997 paper,
have most companies
involved in
vehicle-to-grid
technology adopted a
common set of charging
standards. Now that
the standards are in
place, automakers and
utilities have a much
easier time setting up
vehicle-to-grid
programs than they
would have before.
Progress is now
happening with the
development of laws
and rules in the
states and with pilot
projects by companies
such as Nuvve of San
Diego, a leading
player in
vehicle-to-grid
technology.
Nuvve’s U.S. projects
include managing power
from a fleet of electric buses in the Cajon Valley
Union School District
in the San Diego area.
At least eight states
have recently enacted
or introduced
legislation or
regulatory actions to
foster vehicle-to-grid
technology, according
to the NC Clean Energy
Technology Center.
They are: California,
Connecticut, Georgia,
Illinois, Indiana,
Maryland,
Massachusetts and New
Jersey.
Delaware has been at
the forefront,
including the work of
Kempton and his
colleagues at the
University of
Delaware. Researchers
there, sometimes in
partnership with the
utility Delmarva
Power, have used
vehicles from Nissan,
BMW and other makers
as part of various
pilot projects.
One recurring theme
across the states is
that electric buses
and fleet vehicles are
a common early step
for vehicle-to-grid
technology because the
batteries are large
and they are often
parked in a central
location, making them
easier to manage.
What I don’t see
anywhere are projects
with hundreds or
thousands of
residential EVs. In
this way,
vehicle-to-grid
initiatives are not as
far along as some of
the efforts involving
home battery systems
used in virtual power
plants, which are
groups of batteries
that work together to
function like a power
plant. Sunrun is a key player in virtual power plants and it
has several
vehicle-to-grid
projects, including
the one in Maryland.
Sunrun describes the
Maryland initiative as
the first in the
country to use
residential vehicles,
as opposed to
commercial or fleet
vehicles. Last week,
it announced that the
vehicles had
successfully sent
power to the grid,
after about a year of
setting up systems to
allow this to happen.
“In addition to
showing how electric
vehicles can power
homes, add electrons
to the grid, and help
utilities meet peak
electricity demand,
this program also
creates extra income
opportunities for
customers,” said
Sunrun CEO Mary Powell
in a statement.
Beginning in July, the
utility had the
ability to use power
from the trucks during
the peak demand hours
of 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on
weekdays. The
vehicles’ owners get
paid based on the
amount of electricity
they share, which caps
at $1,000 for a period
that ran from July to
September, Sunrun
said.
Sunrun has been
working with Ford to
develop programs such
as the one in
Baltimore. The
long-term goal is to
make it commonplace
for an EV owner to be
able to use their
vehicle’s battery for
backup power at home
or as an income source
by selling power to
the grid.
Some of the most
significant
developments in
vehicle-to-grid
technology are
happening in Europe.
BMW announced a program last month in Germany
where consumers could
receive essentially
free charging at home
in exchange for
allowing their battery
to provide power to
the grid when it’s
connected to a
charger.
In 1997, Kempton
expected that this
technology would be
much further along
than it is today.
“I thought the world
was going to beat a
path,” he said.
But he is optimistic
that today’s pilot
projects indicate a
market on the cusp of
something big. He
notes that most of the
new EVs coming onto
the market have
built-in capability
for bi-directional
charging, and many
utilities are in some
phase of integrating
this into their grid
management.
So, let’s see a
utility do a
vehicle-to-grid
project with hundreds
or even thousands of
vehicles. And let’s
see it soon.
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Other
stories about the
energy transition to
take note of this
week:
The Consumer
Credit for EVs Has
Ended. What’s Next?
The tax
credit of up to $7,500
for buying or leasing
an electric vehicle is
no longer available
after the clock turned
to midnight on Oct. 1,
the result of the
Trump administration’s
One Big Beautiful Bill
Act. Ford CEO Jim
Farley said he thinks
the sudden end of the
credit could lead to a
substantial
contraction of the
market, with EVs
falling to as little
as 5 percent of all
new vehicles sold,
about half as much as
before, as Michael Wayland reports for CNBC. While it’s
not much of a silver
lining, the financing
affiliates of Ford and
General Motors have
undertaken financial
maneuvers that will
allow those automakers
to continue offering
the $7,500 credit for
leased vehicles at
least until their
current inventory is
sold, as Mike Colias reports for Reuters. Analysts
expect EV sales to
plummet for the rest
of 2025 as prospective
buyers raced to make
purchases before the
end of the credit.
What’s much less clear
is what may be ahead
in 2026 and beyond as
automakers continue to
introduce new EVs and
the rest of the world
is making a rapid
shift to this
technology.
States Are Key
Battleground Now on
Wind and Solar
Permits: A
new report tracks how
states are taking a
variety of approaches
to issuing permits for
new wind and solar
projects, with some
states adding
restrictions and
others reducing
limits. According to
the think tank Clean
Tomorrow, 148 bills
were introduced in the
first half of this
year that would make
permitting more
restrictive, while 89
bills were introduced
that have a neutral
effect and 68 would
make it easier to get
permits, as my colleague Aidan Hughes reports for ICN.
Solar Led the
EU in Electricity
Generation in June:
Solar was the
leading source of
power in the European
Union in June,
generating 22 percent
of the bloc’s
electricity, which was
slightly ahead of
nuclear, as Pilar Sánchez Molina reports for PV Magazine.
For the second
quarter, renewable
sources accounted for
54 percent of total
electricity, up from
52.7 percent in the
same period in the
prior year. Denmark
was the EU’s renewable
energy leader, with
94.7 percent.
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