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They\u2019re launching a pilot program to see how BEVs can be used to put power back into the grid, when needed, to not only prevent blackouts but supplement energy supplies when demands are high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe see electric vehicles becoming mobile power sources, mobile batteries, if you will, offering greater energy resilience,\u201d Aaron August, PG&E vice president of Business Development & Energy Solutions, said during a media background briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bidirectional charging<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A growing number of new battery-electric vehicles are being equipped with \u201cbidirectional charging.\u201d Also known as \u201cvehicle-to-load,\u201d or \u201cV2L,\u201d it allows an electric vehicle to reverse the flow of current, using its current to power lights, appliances, even a whole home. Eventually, energy could be fed back into the grid itself, supplementing traditional energy sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
General Motors plans to begin adding this feature to its battery-electric vehicles with the 2023 launch of the Chevrolet Silverado EV<\/a><\/span><\/strong> pickup. After that, it will become a standard feature on future GM BEVs, said Rick Spina, GM vice president of Electric Vehicle Commercialization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bidirectional charging could become increasingly important in the future, the two executives agreed. And PG&E offers a case in point. The utility has faced a number of blackouts in recent years and expects even more could be coming due to climate change, according to August. But PG&E and other utilities also have the challenge of dealing with the ebbs and flows of renewable energy. In early 2021, in fact, the Texas energy grid was disrupted for days<\/a><\/span><\/strong> by a freak ice storm. Among other things, the event disrupted the state\u2019s wind generators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge, said August, is to make “power outages invisible.\u201d And PG&E wants to see if battery-electric vehicles can help. It could prove to be an especially effective solution in California. As of late last year, more than 1 million plug-based models<\/a><\/span><\/strong> were purchased in the state \u2014 including plug-in hybrids, as well as BEVs. California now has more pure electric models in operation than anywhere else in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pilot study will look at the most effective ways to use BEVs as clean energy backup systems in the event of a blackout. With the typical California home using 20 kilowatts of energy per day, a vehicle like the Chevrolet Bolt EV, with a battery pack of about 60 kilowatt-hours, could keep the lights on for up to three days, noted Spina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More likely, there would be a limit placed on how much energy could be drawn from a vehicle \u201cthat will only allow the battery to get down to a certain level,\u201d likely 50 to 100 miles of range, Spina said. That would ensure a motorist could still use the vehicle if the blackout dragged on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That limit could be set by the homeowner or by the utility, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The GM\/PG&E pilot program will begin in the lab, noted August, but real homeowners could be added to the research effort by late this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond using an EV\u2019s batteries as a sort of clean generator, the two partners plan to look at other opportunities, such as load leveling. This would see power drawn from a vehicle back into the grid to supplement conventional sources, such as renewables and natural gas generators. That could help PG&E prevent the rolling blackouts it\u2019s had to order in recent years when heat waves strained demand for air conditioning power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the new pilot project teams up GM and PG&E, there are a number of other manufacturers planning to offer bidirectional charging capabilities on new BEVs. That includes Nissan\u2019s 2023 Ariya SUV<\/a><\/span><\/strong> and the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want to work with all of them,\u201d said August about PG&E\u2019s future plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The utility currently serves 16 million customers in California. The utility is under intense pressure to improve its electric grid. It was forced into bankruptcy in January 2019 after accumulating $30 billion in liabilities due to fires caused by its equipment. One blaze destroyed the town of Paradise and caused a number of deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GM & PG&E are launching a pilot program to see how BEVs could help put power into the electric grid when needed when the system is stressed or in emergency situations, reports TheDetroitBureau.co<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,10,9],"tags":[1325,5181,5182,5180,348],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220720"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220726,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220720\/revisions\/220726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220720"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=220720"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=220720"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=220720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ford](\"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Ford-F-150-hybrid-powering-Texas-home-2020-1024x683.jpeg\")
Invisible outages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Load leveling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"2022](\"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2022-Chevrolet-Bolt-EV-front-beach-1024x682.jpg\")