PG&E, GM Team Up To Test Using Electric Vehicles To Power Homes During Blackouts
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- With weather triggered outages becoming a way of life in Northern California, PG&E and GM announced a new program Tuesday designed to allow electric vehicles power homes amid a blackout.
The collaboration will focus on cutting-edge, bidirectional charging technology installed both in the home and built into the electric vehicle.
"Imagine a future where everyone is driving an electric vehicle ... and where that EV serves as a backup power option at home and more broadly as a resource for the grid," said PG&E Corporation CEO Patti Poppe in a news release.
The companies plan to test the pilot's first vehicle-to-home capable electric vehicle and charger by summer 2022. The goal will be to enable power to flow from the charged electric vehicle into a customer's home, automatically coordinating between the vehicle, home, and PG&E's electric supply.
It will include multiple GM electrical vehicles.
Following lab testing, the plan is to test the vehicle-to-home interconnection in a small number of homes. Both teams are working quickly to scale the pilot with the goal of opening larger customer trials by the end of 2022.
One in five electrical vehicles in the country are on the road in PG&E's service area of Northern and Central California, where customers are often early adopters of new clean energy technologies.