San Diego Gas & Electric is looking to build on its early foray into vehicle-to-grid technology and announced Thursday it has partnered with General Motors to “investigate the feasibility of integrating bidirectional electric vehicles into the electric grid as a local energy resource.”
The collaboration will focus on three bidirectional capabilities: the ability for vehicles to support home energy needs, send energy back to the grid or participate in a virtual power plant capable of leveraging other distributed energy resources.
“Expanding the capabilities of EVs represents a significant opportunity to help strengthen grid resiliency and mitigate the impact of disruptions,” Travis Hester, GM’s vice president of EV Growth Operations, said in a statement.
GM in 2021 announced plans to pivot entirely toward EVs and stop selling light-duty internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035.
SDG&E has already begun to experiment with vehicle-to-grid capabilities. In July, the utility announced it deployed a project allowing eight electric school buses in the Cajon Valley Union School District to send energy back to the grid via six 60 kW bi-directional DC fast chargers.
Through its collaboration with GM, SDG&E said it “hopes to identify new opportunities within our service territory to pilot vehicle-to-grid integration projects, like Vehicle-to-Home, Vehicle-to-Grid, and Virtual Power Plants.”
