Electric vehicles are basically giant power banks on wheels. They swallow up lots of electricity at charging stations or home outlets in order to power the vehicle. However, in principle, they could also send back that stored up energy to power appliances and homes or even send it back to the grid to bolster the local utility. This sort of capability is called vehicle-to-everything, or V2X.
In California, this is already happening. The West Coast’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, is expanding its V2X program to include a variety of EVs from Nissan, Volvo, Polestar, Kia, and General Motors. Ford F-150 Lightning and Tesla Cybertrucks were already part of the program.
V2X can help reduce strain on the power grid during periods of high demand as well as give EV owners another source of backup power during outages and natural disasters. It can lower power bills and even be a source of income for EV owners.
At the present time V2X involves a complicated combination of specialized software platforms, compatible vehicles, and specialized chargers. The PG&E program is a pilot program that partners with Bidirectional Energy, a software company that operates a platform that connects EVs to home and the grid.
Residential customers of PG&E can receive incentives of up to $2,500 for installation.
As the number of EVs continues to grow, the amount of stored electrical energy just sitting in driveways and parking lots gets larger and larger and represents a significant resource that is crying out to be exploited.
**********
References:
More EV Owners Can Now Get Paid To Power California’s Grid
