Transform Your Electric Vehicle Into a Portable Power Source

If you have intentions to purchase an electric vehicle in 2024, it is essential to assess the price, range, and charging speed of different models. However, it is also important to inquire whether the car has the ability to provide power to your home when needed. An increasing number of electric vehicles being introduced to the market can utilize the substantial energy stored in their batteries to maintain electricity during a blackout and reduce your utility expenses when rates surge.

This “bi-directional charging” feature also promises to turn EVs into a significant energy source for utilities struggling to balance renewable energy production with climate-induced power outages. As sales of electric cars increase, utilities can combine batteries into virtual power plants to avoid firing up fossil fuel power plants as demand increases.

The 2.1 million electric cars currently on the road in the U.S. have an estimated 126 gigawatt-hours of battery storage, according to a paper published in September by the nonprofit Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA). That’s five times the storage capacity of the currently connected battery.

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“The need for backup power and resiliency is coming to the fore as we see more of these extreme weather events and grid outages in different regions of the United States,” said Garrett Fitzgerald, SEPA Senior Director. For example, California is routinely affected by power outages caused by forest fires and heat waves. A quarter of new car sales in the state are now EVs, and EVs account for more than 40% of sales in some Bay Area zip codes.

When Ford Motor Co. will launch the electric F-150 Lightning pickup in 2022, the automaker touted the truck’s 131-kilowatt-hour battery pack that can power an apartment for days using a two-way charger and a home power source. management system. The Tesla Powerwall home battery, on the other hand, produces 13.5 kWh.

“It’s basically 10 solid battery storage units in one truck,” says Ryan O’Gorman, Ford’s director of business strategy for energy services. As more people work from home, two-way charging also allows vehicle owners to benefit from expensive assets that would otherwise sit idle in the driveway, he adds.

Hyundai Motor Co.’s Ioniq 5 and Kia Corp.’s EV6 also have bidirectional batteries, as does the EV 9, Kia’s upcoming full-size SUV. General Motors Co. recently announced that its new Ultium range of electric vehicles will be bi-directional. The Nissan Leaf is bi-directional, and Rivian has said its trucks and SUVs are equipped for bi-directional charging.

The elephant in the garage is Tesla Inc. The company, which sells 61% of electric cars in the U.S., has previously shied away from two-way charging. But at its investor day event in March, Tesla CEO Drew Baglino said he expects the company’s cars to be bi-directional within two years. “We’ve found ways to introduce bidirectionality while actually reducing the cost of the power electronics in the vehicle,” Baglino said.

However, Elon Musk still seemed a little suspicious. “I don’t think many people are going to use two-way charging unless you have a Powerwall, because if you unplug your car, your house will go dark,” he said at the investor meeting. Musk acknowledged that there is “some value as an additional energy source down the road.”

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Buying a two-way car is just the first step in turning your vehicle into a mobile powerhouse. There are different types of two-way charging, and the costs and benefits vary.

Vehicle to Load (V2L)

With V2L, you can connect them to a vehicle socket, for example to a coffee maker at a campsite or to electronic devices at home during a power outage. For example, the extended-range F-150 Lightning has a removable power strip that provides a 240-volt outlet in the truck bed, four 120-volt outlets, two 120-volt outlets in the cab, and another four in the trunk. .

No additional equipment is needed for V2L, except maybe extension cords.

Vehicle to home (V2H)

When Kia engineers began designing the EV6 in 2016, they had an eye on integrating the car into the home and then into the grid itself, says Steve Kosowski, long-term planning and strategy manager for Kia America.

“They saw that the requirements for energy storage are huge as grids around the world began to transition to more and more sustainable energy,” he says. “Wind and solar really go hand in hand with storage, and a vehicle sitting in the driveway would be a really important part of that.”

The first step is to connect the car to the house’s electrical system so that when the network goes out, the vehicle automatically starts supplying backup power. This requires the installation of a bi-directional charger and hardware and software to manage the power flows. If you have a rooftop solar panel and a home battery, a home integration system can ensure that your car and battery are charged by solar energy during the day. At night or other times when usage fees rise, the car and the battery can deliver all the stored solar electricity to the home.

“Most of the previously created electrons were used at the point of their formation, like when you turn on a light switch,” adds Ford’s O’Gorman. “Now with electric vehicles and storage, you have the ability to take that electron and hold it for a while and use it when it’s more” valuable.

Be forewarned though: you are currently paying a premium to enable V2H. For example, a Ford F-150 Lightning charger and home integration system costs about $11,000 when installed by Sunrun, Ford’s preferred partner, according to SEPA. A traditional charger costs about $2,000 to install.

Kia is working with Spain’s Wallbox Chargers to develop a two-way charger that it expects to be available in 2025. In June, GM announced an upcoming line of home integration products, including the “Ultium Home Energy System,” which comes with a charger, an energy management system. system and fixed battery. Pricing has not been released, and GM did not respond to requests for an interview.

Vehicle to Everything (V2X)

Some US utilities have launched pilot projects to test how electric vehicles can be connected to electric grids. In California, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. aims to sign up 1,000 EV owners for a two-year V2X initiative. The first phase is underway with owners of F-150 Lightnings to allow PG&E to evaluate the vehicles’ utility in homes and as a backup energy source.

F-150 Lightning participants must install a two-way charger and Sunrun’s home integration system in their homes. They will receive $2,500 to cover those costs, plus up to $2,175 in additional incentives. Owners of other two-way electric vehicles are eligible after PG&E inspects the vehicles and other charging and energy management systems.

PG&E expects to begin connecting electric cars to the grid in 2024, which will require the installation of additional equipment. “We want to better understand how electric cars can support the grid and better integrate renewables,” said Lydia Krefta, PG&E’s director of clean energy transportation.

The power company is currently designing a pricing structure to compensate commercial customers who send electricity to the grid from their electric cars.

Tens of millions of electric cars are expected to hit the road in the coming years, so the demand for electricity is predicted to double, Krefta says. One of the goals of the pilot project is to gather information on how using a virtual power plant for electric vehicle batteries can minimize the need to build additional infrastructure to charge these vehicles. In particular, the power plant wants to avoid building expensive gas “peak power plants” that only come online when demand increases.

Krefta points out that there are already enough electric cars on the road in PG&E’s service area to keep the city of Oakland’s 430,000 residents powered for three days. “We think we can grow that to 25 days in Oakland” by 2030, he says. “We can look to the flexibility offered by electric vehicle batteries to reduce grid carbon dioxide at the lowest possible cost.”

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