But GM sees itself as perfectly positioned to be that middleman between EV owners and their various utilities-and, importantly, to do so at scale. To say that's a complex task would be a gross understatement. 2024 Chevy Equinox EV Aims at Heart of the Market. Now the automaker is reaching out to hundreds of large utilities to start the lengthy process of negotiating deals to connect those EVs as storage resources-for which utilities will pay GM. And it can communicate with the home stations it sells that charge them. It will know where every single Ultium vehicle is located, via the cars' cellular connections. The most forward thinking of the nation's 3500-plus electric utilities see EVs “more as a solution than as a problem to be solved,” said Travis Hester, vice president of GM EV Growth Operations.īut those utilities often don't know where EVs are located, let alone have the ability to connect to them "bidirectionally," to pull out (small amounts of) energy for short periods to stabilize the grid or supplement their own generation during high demand. To your local electric utility, your EV-and your neighbors'-represent a tantalizing pool of energy storage, with a relatively low total power draw if charged overnight, when demand is lowest. Not only do batteries keep the grid stable against those fluctuations, they let utilities store renewably generated energy for the highest-demand periods: those hot, muggy Friday afternoons when everyone comes back home, cranks up the A/C, and turns on lots of electronics. So utilities are experimenting with climate-controlled battery bunkers to store and buffer that intermittent generation. Wind is strongest at night, but intermittent. Solar only comes on during the day, except for. Storage is more needed than ever now, for the growing percentage of renewable energy, which doesn't always provide steady, consistent power to the grid. The classic form of energy storage is a dam: You can use excess generation to pump water uphill, then release it through hydroelectric turbines to return that power to the grid. For 100-plus years, they've generated just enough power to meet demand, turning plant output up and down as needed. The Energy Storage ProblemĮlectric utilities today have little way to store energy. If successful, it's not hard to imagine a future GM role in helping homeowners and commercial customers install solar panels or hydrogen fuel cells, set up microgrids, and participate more actively in all facets of energy generation and storage. Its first products and services won't go into production for a year, sometime in the fourth quarter of 2023. Specific details of how that will work have yet to be spelled out. Its new unit will provide a range of Ultium Home products and services, including bidirectional wall-mounted charging stations, to let any of its new EVs based on the Ultium platform provide backup power. If there's a grid outage, your charging station switches automatically from recharging the battery to using that battery to power your house. EVs offer an alternative: Plug in the car at night and get the same backup. Many homeowners don't want to wrestle with a noisy gasoline-fired generator, which can't be used indoors and produces exhaust emissions. As more frequent extreme weather events cause widespread, heavily publicized power outages, interest in simple, convenient, automatic backup for home energy will grow. The other is lower electric bills from charging the EV when rates are lowest, then using some of its energy to power the house during peak demand periods, substituting for grid electricity when rates are highest.Įmergency backup power gets greater attention, though. (Cue glossy advertisements of a silent EV parked next to a remote lake, powering a picnic-table lamp, an electric grill, a fridge, maybe even a portable stereo.) Their output of up to 6.6 kW won't power your entire home, though it might keep your kitchen refrigerator running.īackup power for emergencies is one of two home applications GM discussed. Other EVs offer power-out capabilities, at lower rates: the latest EVs from Hyundai and Kia have conventional three-prong, 120-volt outlets at the base of the rear seat to run various consumer electronics. That was the ability to power a home at up to 19.2 kilowatts for up to several days on a fully charged battery-at least in the top version, with modifications to home wiring. Last year, Ford seemed to have been caught off guard by intense public interest in an aspect of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup.
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