Utility Pilots Tapping into Electric Vehicle Power Near Approval

California utility regulators are poised to approve the first of several proposed vehicle-to-grid projects. The first is expected to be Pacific Gas & Electric's three pilots using electric vehicle batteries as alternate sources of power valued at a total of $11.7 million. They are up for a May 5 vote after being pulled from earlier California Public Utilities Commission meeting agendas.

PG&E’s projects aim to use homeowners' electric cars to store power and feed it to the grid and use commercial fleet vehicles to do the same. A third would use electric vehicles to provide power for a microgrid when the utility invokes public safety power shutoffs to prevent wildfires during wind storms.

The residential vehicle-to-grid project would get $7.5 million, the commercial project $2.7 million, and the one involving power shutoffs $1.5 million.

The projects stem from a 2019 state law, SB 676, that requires the CPUC and state’s electric utilities to work on cost-effectively integrating electric vehicles into the state’s grid by 2030. The idea is that vehicles not only would draw from the grid to charge their batteries but also at times feed stored electricity into the system when needed to keep the lights on. That would be accomplished through a two-way power flow process using what’s known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, which typically consists of bidirectional vehicle chargers and data communications capability.

Under the law, the CPUC late in 2020 asked each of the state’s investor-owned power utilities to propose pilot projects to test out ideas for actualizing long-discussed V2G technology. The CPUC at that time limited the total cost of all of the utility proposals to no more than $35 million.

After approving PG&E’s proposal, the commission is expected to act on the other two proposals from Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

PG&E’s residential project would enroll 1,000 households with electric cars and equip them with V2G technology by 2023. The project seeks to demonstrate that residential V2G can provide backup power, help customers manage their bills, and provide the grid with real-time energy. The projects also aim to help integrate intermittent renewable energy and provide grid services, such as resource adequacy and extra system capacity. The project would end after 2024 and be subject to evaluation. Enrolling customers would receive rebates of up to $3,000.

The commercial project would run for three years and involve using 200 or more medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles at commercial buildings to feed the grid at times of need. Enrollees would get inventive payments of up to $3,000.

PG&E’s third project would involve using 200 or so electric vehicles to feed a microgrid in a community that’s located in a wildfire zone that experiences public safety power shutoffs. Utility incentive payments of up to $5,000 would be given to cover part or all of the cost of needed equipment, including home isolation devices.

The commission, meanwhile, has signaled its intent to disapprove a fourth $2.3 million project proposed by PG&E that would explore V2G grid export value. The regulators will likely allow the utility to amend and resubmit its proposal.