New EV Technology Could Save our Old Electricity Grid — But Only if Drivers will Let It
3/21/2017
The electricity grid is old, and arguably the “weakest link” in our transition to a clean energy future. In the last decades our nation’s electricity demand has drastically changed (more phones, more TVs, means much higher demand for power), but the way we deliver that electricity has changed very little. This difference has made it increasingly challenging to achieve a balance between the supply of electricity and the demand of electricity across the country.
Too much demand + Not enough supply = Blackouts
Too much supply + Not enough demand = Wasted resources
Achieving the fragile energy balance needed to avoid blackouts and wasted resources is made even more difficult when intermittent renewable energy is thrown into the mix, like when excess solar energy is generated during the day in California, or excess wind power is created at night in Oklahoma.
So how can we deal with this difficulty? With world energy consumption expected to increase 56% by 2040, we’re increasingly looking toward energy storage to relieve pressure on our aging electricity grid.
Energy storage in the form of batteries is one solution at the forefront of innovation. For this reason, utilities across the country are installing megawatts worth of batteries in order to store extra energy when it isn’t needed. But large batteries are expensive and cumbersome.
What if instead, we could use existing batteries for storage, say those that already exist in electric vehicles? This thought has brought another, potentially cheaper option for energy storage to the table over the past few years — Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology.
V2G allows electric vehicles to store electricity from the grid when there is an excess (via battery charging) and send electricity back to the grid when supply is coming up short — say at 5pm on a hot summer day when everyone and their mothers have their AC’s blasting. The state of California has been particularly excited about the potential of V2G, with the largest fleet of electric and partially electric vehicles in the US and a goal to have 1.5 million zero emissions vehicles on the road by 2025. California also has complementary goals of achieving a 33% renewable portfolio standard by 2020, meaning 33% of the electricity you use would be produced by renewable sources. All these goals combined line California right up to strongly benefit from the adoption of V2G technology.
California has a Vehicle-Grid Integration Roadmap which has prompted several cutting edge pilot projects aimed at developing the technology needed for widescale V2G implementation. For example, PG&E and BMW’s ChargeForward Pilot Program, Southern California Edison’s Vehicle to Grid Pilot at the Los Angeles Air Force Base and UC San Diego’s EV Storage Accelerator Project, are all in the process of proving the capabilities of V2G technology, while also addressing the outstanding barriers of V2G integration.
But there remain 3 main challenges with V2G integration:
(1)Technology
(2) Consumer Behavior
(3) Charge Time
Technology: There are high costs to integrating the necessary hardware and software components to make V2G work. At the most basic level, the vehicle needs to communicate to the charger, which needs to communicate to the grid and visa versa. This necessitates a web of wiring and network connections that are as complicated as they are expensive to execute.
Consumer Behavior: As with most new technologies, the consumer is king and their preferences will dictate the success of V2G in the long run. A prerequisite for V2G actually working is having EV drivers who are willing to have their batteries discharged if/when demand for electricity spikes. Generally, once plugged in, drivers don’t want to come back to their vehicles with less range than what they started out with — talk about range anxiety! Therefore, getting drivers to participate in large scale V2G charging will require lots of communication with drivers as well as giving them the ability to not have their vehicle discharge — say if their dog just ate something weird and they need to get to the vet ASAP.
Also, providing drivers money for participating in V2G will help recruit early adopters — the question is what’s the minimum a driver would be willing to accept to participate? And how does that cut into the savings achieved by implementing V2G over other potential storage solutions? The jury is still out here.
Charge Time: Finally, as EVs move into the mainstream with higher range models like the Tesla Model 3 and Chevy Bolt, the demand for faster and faster charging will only increase. Ultimately people want their EV to charge as quickly as it would take a gas car to fuel up, or faster. This trend spells bad news for V2G. If a vehicle is plugged in for less than 30 minutes getting a quick charge, there isn’t enough time, or flexibility for the vehicle to send electricity back to the grid. In fact, the demand for faster charging requires even more electricity, thus increasing the imbalance and putting even more strain on our aging grid infrastructure.
V2G does have a lot of potential, hence why projects around the state and nation are being funded with millions of dollars to iron out these kinks and prove the technology. But, if the drivers themselves don’t bite…we’ll have to go back to the drawing board.
As an EV driver, would you be willing to participate in V2G — i.e. let your car’s energy be discharged (with your permission) when it was needed? What would you need to know/get/earn in order to hop on the V2G train? Let us know in the comments!
Written by: Kelsey Johnson
