Toyota Motor North America and local energy utility Pepco have announced a research partnership focused on V2G technologies for BEVs. Using a Toyota bZ4X, the partnership will explore bidirectional power flow technology that enables BEV owners to send power back to the local energy grid while charging their vehicle.
The companies together believe that V2G can benefit customers through improved energy reliability and resilience, the integration of renewables, and the possibility of reduced electricity costs. Through their collaboration, they aim to understand the needs of EV owners through their charging habits and vehicle usage in order to encourage the widespread adoption of V2G technologies.
Toyota and Pepco selected Maryland as the location for their partnership based on its EV uptake to date, and the state’s recent passing of vehicle-to-grid legislation through HB 1256. This legislation, called the Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification (DRIVE) Act, requires utilities to develop interconnection processes for bidirectional chargers.
The V2G research will take place at Pepco’s Watershed Sustainability Center, at its Rockville Service Center in Montgomery County, Maryland, using a bidirectional charger. The company will lead the effort to design and evaluate a variety of EV charging and discharging use cases that could provide benefits to both EV customers and the grid.
The demonstration project will also help Pepco understand the infrastructure needed to enable the rapid growth of EV charging infrastructure, how large numbers of V2G assets can be interconnected to the grid to better prepare the utility to implement requirements of the DRIVE Act, and support customer adoption of this technology.
