On April 23, it was reported that as the prospect of electric vehicles powering the grid through bidirectional charging (V2G) technology is becoming clearer, automakers, power companies and charging pile operators are calculating how many tangible benefits they can get from if car owners can sell electricity from electric vehicles back to the grid.
V2G technology, also known as vehicle-to-network interaction technology, enables EV owners to charge at a low price during off-peak hours at night, and then sell the electricity back to the grid at a high price during peak hours.
British software company ev.energy is working with Siemens, Nissan, Volkswagen and others to develop V2G technology. Nick Woolley, the company's chief executive, said that in the short term, just 1 million electric vehicles would provide the equivalent of the output of a large nuclear power plant.
Although V2G technology has remained largely theoretical for many years, the Nissan Leaf is currently the only EV with V2G capabilities.
However, this has already begun to change, supported by smart meters, artificial intelligence, and in-depth modelling of innovative energy companies.
Most major automakers, including Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, Renault, and Toyota, expect to launch V2G-enabled electric vehicles in the coming years.
Chinese automakers such as BYD have also developed the technology, and China plans to make V2G technology play a significant role by 2030.
Driivz provides customized charging software to automakers and other companies, and its systems are already connected to many electric vehicles. Doron Frenkel, the company's chief executive, said of grid balancing, "There's a lot of money to be made here, and everybody wants a piece of the pie." ”
In the U.S., bidirectional charging technology is still experimental. In Germany, Europe's main market, there are still regulatory hurdles to price energy sold back to the grid, meaning the future of bidirectional charging technology is uncertain.
Bidirectional chargers are also more expensive than traditional chargers because of the relatively small scale of production at present.
But in the UK, new energy company Octopus Energy has launched a V2G power supply solution for customers. If the owner continues to plug the EV into the charging station during the night, they can charge it for free. Octopus Energy plans to roll out similar pricing schemes in other energy markets such as France, Japan, New Zealand and Texas this year.
Alex Schoch, Global Head of Flexible Charging, Octopus Energy, said: "This has become a reality and is no longer a theoretical question that exists only in academic discussions. ”
Automotive/Energy Companies
Technological breakthroughs have brought V2G technology closer and closer to reality. To this end, major automakers have set up their own energy divisions, joining software platforms, energy distributors, and other players competing for V2G revenue.
Although the exact amount of profit is not yet known, EV owners will receive most of the profits, and middlemen will only earn a few cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity. But considering that tens of millions of electric vehicles sell electricity to the grid, the cumulative total revenue is also a significant amount.
Aseem Kapur, director of energy solutions at GM, revealed that GM will launch a Chevrolet Silverado electric pickup truck that can power homes in the coming months, with the same technology as V2G. By 2026, all GM electric vehicles will be equipped with bidirectional charging.
Kapoor said GM plans to sell energy to electric utilities and partner with aggregators with a large number of electric vehicles to sell electricity. In addition, GM has established partnerships with U.S. power companies such as Duke Energy.
At the same time, Ford's F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, a competitor to General Motors, also supports V2G technology.
Reduce expenses and balance the grid
Shilpen Patel, 39, lives in London, England. Since 2020, he has been involved in Octopus Energy's V2G pilot program. As long as his Nissan Leaf is parked at home, Patel will connect it to a charging station, which has reduced his annual household electricity bill by 700 pounds (about 6,130 yuan), or about a third of the total electricity bill.
"The savings are substantial," Patel said. ”
As pioneers in the large-scale rollout of V2G technology, companies like Octopus Energy are already offering grid balancing services. To avoid expensive additional power capacity, grid operators are willing to pay these companies to shut down EV charging stations for a short period of time.
For example, Denmark's Monta offers users of charging apps around €8 ($8.53) per month for grid balancing in some markets, while Driivz uses V2G technology to help the Netherlands' grid avoid peak surges.
Ingo Mueller, head of energy solutions at Elli, the energy division of the Volkswagen Group, said that the company is building a grid-balancing trading platform in Germany to prepare for the rollout of V2G technology, and plans to expand its business to other markets or work with partners.
In the U.S., Nuvve provides V2G services to approximately 500 electric buses. This plan is easy to implement, as these electric buses are usually connected to charging stations for most of the day and during school holidays.
But for passenger electric vehicles, it is crucial to provide accurate and attractive pricing via an app.
If a platform has reliable AI-powered predictions that accurately predict how many electric vehicles will be connected to the grid, it can get more business from companies like Duke Energy. Currently, Duke Energy is testing bidirectional charging with General Motors and Ford.
Zachary Kuznar, general manager of grid solutions development at Duke Energy, said: "You have to be able to accurately predict the available capacity at any given time. ”
Because automakers mostly have small energy departments, it can be difficult for them to gather enough electric vehicles locally to sell electricity to power companies. As a result, emerging platforms like Kaluza or The Mobility House act as middlemen, bringing together different brands of electric vehicles.
Timo Kern, head of energy systems and markets at FfE, a Munich-based energy research institute, said that if everyone charges EVs when electricity prices are low and discharges when electricity prices are high, then these middlemen also need to ensure that EVs don't overload the grid.
Renault is already working with The Mobility House, while Alexander Petrofski, head of energy solutions at Volvo Cars, said the company is developing its own platform and working with others such as Kaluza.
Neel Gulhar, Kaluza's chief product officer, said Kaluza acted as an intermediary and had partnered with automakers such as Volkswagen, Stellantis, Nissan, General Motors, Mitsubishi and Porsche, as well as thousands of power companies.
He pointed out that charging app providers or other companies can bypass automakers and run V2G services through EV charging stations. But Kaluza wants to work with automakers because it gives them more data.
"We need these partners because you get a lot more data from the car than from the charging pile," Gulhar said. ”
Source | NetEase Technology reports
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