At a Glance

  • This month, two U.S. automakers took steps to expand the value of their electric vehicles to the grid and support utility efforts to manage peak load.
  • On Tuesday, Rivian became the latest automaker to partner with ChargeScape, a vehicle-grid integration platform that supports managed and bidirectional charging programs nationwide. Earlier this month, General Motors announced it would release firmware updates to give existing GM Energy vehicle-to-home systems full vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability without hardware changes. GM also announced a V2G partnership with DTE Energy, a Michigan investor-owned utility, and has additional plans with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
  • With more than 7 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads and significant fleet growth expected over the next four years, utilities increasingly view managed and bidirectional charging as important load management tools.

Deep Dive

The ChargeScape platform, launched in 2023, is supported by BMW, Ford, Honda, and Nissan, and is also used by Tesla, Stellantis, and other automakers. The platform supports multiple utility-led charging frameworks, including passive managed, active managed, and bidirectional charging. Passive managed charging programs typically use time-of-use rates to encourage owners to charge during off-peak hours when grid congestion is reduced, while active managed charging programs adjust the energy flow to connected vehicles based on grid conditions.

Bidirectional charging, available only with specific vehicles and compatible charging equipment, allows energy to flow from the vehicle battery to the home or the grid itself. ChargeScape and Puget Sound Energy are conducting a small pilot in Washington state, testing Ford and Kia vehicles as demand response resources during peak demand periods. ChargeScape CEO Joseph Vellone said the pilot builds on an existing one-way demand response partnership.

Rivian, which sells only battery-electric vehicles, is at least the seventh automaker to join the ChargeScape platform, Vellone told Utility Dive. Rivian owners can now opt into bidirectional charging programs offered by their utilities, the two companies said.

"The more automakers on the platform, the more the entire industry benefits," Vellone said. ChargeScape currently supports about 70% of light-duty EVs on the road, "and we want to get to 100%," he added.

With Rivian joining the platform and the pilot with Puget Sound Energy, "Rivian owners in Washington state could save hundreds of dollars a year just by plugging in at home," Vellone said.

Vellone said Washington is a good example of a state market where EV penetration is relatively high and utilities are weighing the risks of unmanaged charging on distribution assets like transformers against the potential of private EV fleets as "a sizable flexible load resource" to help reduce system costs borne by all customers.

That is attractive to utilities like PG&E, whose populous California territory is ahead of most regions on the EV adoption curve. GM said last week that its "Vision 2030" is to have 130,000 vehicles in Northern California by 2030, with about 40% of them participating in "grid balancing agreements."

With DTE, GM plans to use its own employees' homes to refine GM's bidirectional charging capabilities and "build reliable backup capacity together, grounded in the preferences of real homes and EV owners," Wade Sheffer, vice president of GM Energy, said in a June 9 public letter.

Sheffer urged utility leaders, regulators, and automakers to work together to educate customers about the benefits of grid-supportive and enabling programs for EVs, develop and expand local time-of-use rates to lower vehicle operating costs while easing grid strain, and streamline bottlenecks in bidirectional charging, such as engineering reviews and grid interconnection processes.

"Streamlining these processes into smoother, automated steps ensures consumers can buy a bidirectional charger, plug it in, and immediately start participating in local energy markets," Sheffer said.