GM, PG&E Collaborate On Bidirectional Charging Pilot In California
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General Motors has partnered with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company to launch a new pilot program that will use GM electric vehicles as emergency, on-demand power sources for homes.
Through this collaboration, GM and PG&E will work together to test vehicles with “cutting-edge bidirectional charging technology that can help safely power the essential needs of a properly equipped home,” the automaker said in a statement released Tuesday. Bidirectional charging enables an EV to not only draw power from the municipal grid, but also to feed energy back into it. The pilot program will “include the use of bidirectional hardware coupled with software-defined communications protocols that will enable power to flow from a charged EV into a customer’s home, automatically coordinating between the EV, home and PG&E’s electric supply,” GM also said.
Multiple GM EVs will be evaluated during this pilot program, which is set to begin in the summer. The two companies planning larger customer trials before the end of the year, as well.
“GM’s collaboration with PG&E further expands our electrification strategy, demonstrating our EVs as reliable mobile sources of power,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. “Our teams are working to rapidly scale this pilot and bring bidirectional charging technology to our customers.”
PG&E Corporation CEO Patti Poppe said the company hopes that one day consumers will be able to seamlessly use bi-directional charging to support their charging needs and also help maintain their city’s power grid at peak hours.
“We are really excited about this innovative collaboration with GM,” she said. “Imagine a future where everyone is driving an electric vehicle — and where that EV serves as a backup power option at home and more broadly as a resource for the grid.”
Bidirectional charging technology is viewed as a potential solution to supporting the energy grid, especially in more fragile areas like California, even when many EVs are plugged in and charging at the same time. The idea would be that fully charged vehicles would feed energy back into the grid, helping to support the grid without fully depleting the battery.
“EVs play a critical role in achieving California’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and already provide customers with many benefits,” GM explained. “Bidirectional charging capabilities add even further value by improving electric resiliency and reliability.”
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This could be a very good or very bad idea. If good, it will be subject to tight regulations (how much can the power company draw? How much will the vehicle owner be paid for losing energy? Can the owner set the amount of energy that the power company cannot go beyond? etc.). If it’s bad, then EV owners will be robbed of their energy, time, and money and still need to find a place to charge. I still welcome bi-directional charging because the grid is slated to fail.
Welcome to the future.
I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Tesla has the ability to make it’s multi million car fleet bi- directional with some simple add on. They already are an energy company in California and have developed software named “autobidder “ which can buy and sell electricity at peak and off peak times to profit the owner of the battery pack (power wall now… cars in the future? It is called auto bidder⚡️)
You are correct Robert!
Considering charging efficiency is only 80%, your looking at massive expenditures of energy here. This constant charge/discharge will just be burning through what little power California does allow. Please people, just leave California. Their building back broke So fast
Correct, this is asinine on a few different levels. If anything they should be looking into storing renewables with hydrogen, but nobody wants to talk about that. Actually viable solutions that aren’t ponzi schemes for politicians, blasphemy.
Another fantasy on the part of the far left. It will be hard enough finding power to charge these EVs let alone having people give away what energy they have.
I’m sorry. If I plug in my electric vehicle, I’m plugging it in to charge it, not have power stolen to supply the electrical grid.
Utilities pay back about half of what you paid per kWh. I would use this feature to power my home, but not the utility. The 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning will have this feature.
Tesla’s power wall buys and sells electricity for profit. Once power has been transferred to a battery it is a valuable asset. Peak power cost for electricity is often more expensive than the cost to consumers (a complex problem that software can capitalize on-and power walls do!)
Actually I think if the EV maker is getting renewable energy credits, it should be compulsory. You got the benefit, you should have to help the grid. But we could always stop paying the REC’s for EV’s. I’ve never understood it anyway. Sure REC’s for turbines, panels, … things that produce power. But EV’s???? Only if the battery supports the grid.
I don’t live in CA so I don’t have to deal with these decisions, not yet… But, I would rather see more of a Costco card membership type where your annual plug-in spend determines what size of credit you receive. Since CA doesn’t have seaonal changes to deal with that determines high and low usage, your charges IMO wouldn’t be as critical so it kind of makes since to use the PG&E credits.
Again, just throwing it out there since I don’t live in CA and an EV.
Battery life should be used up only for travel. Battery life is short enough without using it for the grid.
Plug your car in at night and in the morning it’s dead. I think that’s the control they want over us.
Who is “they” and why would they want that?
It’s the UN World Government . The ones with the black helicopters !