PG&E to pilot home bidirectional EV charging technology
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is to test how Ford’s F-150 Lightning truck – the first with bidirectional charging technology – can provide reliability benefits to the grid.
PG&E and Ford will test the F-150 Lightning and its Intelligent Backup Power bidirectional charging capabilities in providing backup power to customers’ homes.
Ford’s Intelligent Backup Power, which debuts on the F-150 Lightning, gives customers the ability to use the bidirectional power technology from the all-electric truck to provide up to 10 days of power to their homes (dependent on usage) during an outage.
The first installations of Ford’s Intelligent Backup Power in customer homes are beginning in spring 2022, supported by Sunrun as the preferred installation partner.
Have you read?
Ford F-150 Lightning – the EV truck that can power a home
Volkswagen and Ford expand e-mobility collaboration
PG&E intends to explore how the Intelligent Backup Power technology interconnects to the electric grid, which is necessary for the truck’s battery to power the home and how it can support customer resiliency during grid outages.
Additionally, PG&E expects to learn more about the overall customer experience to help inform future collaborations as this emerging technology becomes more readily available.
“Today, we are seeing breakthrough opportunities at the intersection of the energy and transportation industries,” said PG&E Corporation CEO Patti Poppe.
“As more EVs and new charging technology become available, it is critical that we better understand how they can interact with the electric grid and how we can best support our customers.”
PG&E anticipates that emerging technologies to optimise EV integration with the electric grid could provide further value to all PG&E customers.
Beyond the initial deployment with a small number of customers’ homes, PG&E and Ford plan to explore additional customer and grid use cases for bidirectional charging technology.
EV adoption is growing rapidly in California and PG&E estimates that one in five of the country’s EVs are on the roads in its northern and central California service area.
