Tech for EVs to power the grid not for everyone

Power the grid

I got on a Zoom call the other night that was to discuss a tech program for EVs to power the grid. Turns out its not for everyone. Not even close.

The call was to discuss pilot project in Connecticut overseen by a company called Bidirectional Energy. The program will test the use of electric vehicle (EV) batteries to supplement the grid when he vehicle is not is use, which it turns out is 95% of the time!

I had hoped to discover that they had technology that would allow any EV to supply power as well as accept it. Not only is this not the case, as it stands, only a single model, the Hyundai EV9, is currently approved and any model in the running will need to already be capable of powering a home.

Further, there are less than 200 spots available for the pilot program and only 300 EV9s registered in Connecticut!

The excitement fades. And for the record, the only other state participating is California.

I’ve sent follow up questions asking if bidirectional hardware and software is currently in development for the thousands of EVs that currently sit idle the vast majority of time.

It seems to us that there could be a market for this. We’ll stay on it…

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