NYC Vehicle-to-Grid Pilot Shows How EVs – as Mobile Microgrids – Can Earn Income for Drivers and Fleets

Source: Lisa Cohn | · MICROGRID KNOWLEDGE · | January 3, 2024

Pilot vehicle-to-grid project in NYC demonstrates the earning potential of EVs serving as mobile microgrids

Three bidirectional Nissan Leaf electric vehicles (EV) – serving as mobile microgrids exporting energy to Consolidated Edison (ConEd) – demonstrated in a pilot project that it’s possible for EV drivers to earn income under New York’s innovative Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) program, one of the project partners said.

In addition, the project found that it’s generally easier to site EVs in New York City than it is to site stationary storage for the VDER program.

The pilot is a partnership between clean energy project developer NineDot Energy, Fermata Energy, which provides hardware and software to send signals to the EVs, and the electric mobility company Revel. Another partner is the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which developed a program to help identify the best times and locations to send energy from EVs to the grid.

More utilities and car manufacturers testing bidirectional EVs

Increasingly, bidirectional EVs are seen as key to aiding the energy transition by providing backup resources, income-generating opportunities and grid assets. Recently, Toyota and San Diego Gas & Electric announced a project to identify ideal experiences for residential vehicle-to-grid exports.