Remember when powering your house with your vehicle was a wild idea?

A few years ago, the thought of using the batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) to provide vehicle-to-grid (V2G), vehicle-to-microgrid or vehicle-to-home power was just an idea, maybe even a wild idea.

Now these programs are inching toward reality, with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Snohomish Public Utility District (PUD), Consolidated Edison (Con Edison), Portland General Electric (PGE) and others moving forward with programs. The V2G and related efforts aim to improve utility customers’ resilience, meet the increased electricity demand because of booming EV use, integrate renewables and pave the way for EV owners to reap income. They also help utilities avoid building expensive and often fossil-fuel fired generating plants.

These benefits are expected to accrue because the batteries in EVs can be used for more than just charging a car. EVs with bidirectional chargers can charge a home or feed power to a microgrid or the grid.

“V2X (vehicle-to-everything) is emerging as the ‘must have’ feature for upcoming EVs. Certainly Nissan was an early adopter, and we have seen recent announcements from Ford and other automakers suggesting they see this future, too,” said Kevin Schwain, senior director, electric vehicles for EnergyHub, which provides distributed energy solutions.

But to make all this happen, utilities and other stakeholders need access to EVs capable of bidirectional charging and data that makes it possible to safely feed power to a grid or home. Also needed are new policies spurring utility V2G programs, plus incentives that compensate EV owners for lending their car batteries to the grid.

What the latest EVs offer

Meanwhile, car manufacturers are planning to release EVs that include bidirectional charging. To date, vehicles in the US that offer V2G capabilities include the Nissan Leaf and the Ford F-150 Lightning. One of the latest EVs is Hyundai’s Ioniq 5, which has the ability to provide vehicle-to-home charging but not V2G.

“Ioniq 5 can power 120 volt devices up to 1.9 kW,” said Ryan Miller, manager of electrified performance development at the Hyundai-Kia Technical Center. “You could power something like a single refrigerator for many days.” He noted that a customer could wire a critical load panel in the home to power a critical circuit during a power outage.

Continue reading at the source (Microgrid Knowledge.)