US DOE Extends Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Work with 9 New Partners

One of the most exciting things about electric vehicles is the vast battery storage capacity in place inside electric vehicles across the country, or across the world. There’s so much potential to use those batteries to provide difference services to the electric grid, to one’s own home, to appliances and devices while camping or getting through a natural disaster.

There’s the most commonly discussed vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability, but going beyond that, you get vehicle-to-home (V2H) tech, vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability or even “vehicle-to everything” (V2X) if we want to get broad. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has had an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) on this topic in recent years, and it just extended that. “The MOU now extends through April 2027 and will continue to inform DOE’s strategy to support an evolving resilient and cyber secure grid,” the DOE writes today.

Nine additional signatories have joined the MOU. Here’s a list of pre-existing signatories:

• DOE’s Offices of Vehicle Technologies, Electricity, Technology Transitions, and Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response
• California Energy Commission
• California Public Utilities Commission
• City of Lancaster
• City of Lancaster Community Choice Aggregator
• City of Los Angeles
• Fermata Energy
• First Student
• Ford Motor Company
• General Motors (GM)
• Honda
• Stellantis
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — Chapter 11
• Lion Electric Inc.
• Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)
• Lucid Group, Inc. (Lucid Motors)
• National Electrical Contractors Association — Los Angeles
• Nissan
• Nuvve Holding Corp.
• Pacific Gas and Electric Company
• Rhombus
• Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)
• San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)
• Southern California Edison (SCE)
• Zeem Solutions
• Blue Bird
• New Hampshire Electric Cooperative
• Shell
• Revel
• Sunnova
• Weavegrid
• Wallbox
• Peak Power
• Phoenix Motorcars
• Patero
• Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
• Vehicle Grid Integration Council (VGIC).

The new signatories are:

• dcbel
• Bidirectional Energy
• NYC School Bus Umbrella Services
• Kaluza
• Landis+Gyr
• MassCEC
• New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
• City of Alexandria Virginia
• The Climate Center.

Here are quotes from representatives of each of those entities on why they joined and what they’re hoping to achieve:

•  “At Bidirectional Energy, we believe that there is a battery in every driveway that can be utilized to provide grid support as transportation electrification continues to accelerate. V2X unlocks the ability to decarbonize our energy system while providing economic and resilience value to EV drivers,” said Bidirectional Energy Founder and CEO Frances Bell.
• “NYCSBUS is proud to work with leaders across the United States to promote the potential for the batteries in our school buses to do double duty, getting kids to school in clean electric buses and supporting the electric grid while we transition our energy infrastructure. We also see V2G as a way to subsidize our investment in electric buses, which means we can buy more, or divert more resources to textbooks and teacher salaries,” said CEO of NYC School Bus Umbrella Services, Inc Matt Berlin. 
• “Cars have always been associated with freedom. EVs take things to the next level, delivering freedom even when parked in the driveway,” said dcbel Head of Ecosystems Dan Fletcher. “Thanks to dcbel’s pioneering technology, homeowners can leverage their EV to increase their energy independence — whether they need to power their home for days during a blackout, perform energy-intensive tasks like cooking dinner to circumvent peak time-of-use pricing, or earn money from the export of EV energy during times of grid distress. dcbel is excited to collaborate with the Department of Energy and other distinguished signatories of this MOU to demonstrate how V2X will play a crucial role in smart home energy.”
• “Kaluza is excited to join this V2X MOU with the US Department of Energy, leveraging our expertise in smart energy management to accelerate V2X adoption. By turning electric vehicles into vital grid assets, we can enhance energy resilience and empower customers to actively participate in the transition to a cleaner, more sustainable future. Our innovative V2X solutions have proven to be a win-win-win for customers, the grid and the planet. We look forward to bringing our market-leading insights, including key learnings from the world’s largest residential V2G project, to this partnership,” said Kaluza U.S. and Japan Managing Director Jonathan Levy.
• “The grid edge is becoming more complex than ever before. This calls for a collaborative approach to solving for load growth and reliability issues across the United States. The DOE’s V2X MOU cohort is a key tool to commercializing and coordinating technologies that deliver value from a distributed energy resource with immense potential: Bidirectional Electric Vehicles. Landis+Gyr is proud to support the next wave of innovative smart energy management,” said Landis+Gyr Chief Technology Officer Amith Kota.
• The City of Alexandria stated, “As part of our Smart Mobility Program and our commitment to driving sustainability and innovation within the community, the City of Alexandria is thrilled to announce its participation in this collaborative initiative. This partnership with the Department of Energy and its national labs provides new opportunities to learn more and better plan for future technologies that strengthen our transportation network.”
• “Acceleration of vehicle-to-grid technology can help reduce reliance on polluting fossil fuels,” said Climate Center CEO Ellie Cohen. “With more aggressive V2G policy, we can replace polluting gas peaker plants with mobile batteries to keep the lights on and stabilize the power grid, saving consumers and ratepayers billions.”
• “Vehicle-To-Everything technology has the potential to make EVs more affordable while increasing grid resiliency,” said MassCEC CEO Emily Reichert. “This important partnership will allow us to fast-track implementation in Massachusetts — bringing us one step closer to our clean energy future.”
• “New Jersey has a proud heritage of innovation, and through our partnership in the V2X MOU collaborative, we are excited to add another chapter in that story. The V2X MOU extension will help New Jersey access the synergies of bidirectional power flow from electric vehicles to help make distributed energy technologies more affordable,” said NJBPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy. “We are excited about our participation in this cutting-edge collaborative.”

Sounds good. Now let’s see what actually comes of it! I look forward to see more practical policies, programs, and projects focused on moving this EV capability along.