When Will Vehicle to Home Charging Really Take Off?

• Clean energy company Sunrun will conduct small-scale test of bidirectional charging with a group of Ford F-150 Lightning owners in Maryland, in a technology trial to help grid stability.

• It is expected that in the future a large number of EVs could help sustain the power grid during peak times, transferring energy back to the grid when needed.

• Maryland has mandated utility companies to develop V2G technology, with the passage of the Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification (DRIVE) Act.

Bidirectional charging has been promised as a feature in a number of electric vehicles on the market today. But despite the advertised benefits of this technology, actually seeing it in use for vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging in the real world by EV owners has not been all that easy.

Of course, it's important to distinguish using bidirectional charging to power various small appliances on the worksite or on a camping trip, and actually powering a house for days on end—a reality that once again befell plenty of Texas residents earlier this summer.

Just how the latter scenario will work in real-life conditions will be tested by Ford F-150 Lightning owners and clean energy company Sunrun, which has partnered with Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) to test vehicle-to-home charging in Maryland to support the state's power grid.

Sunrun and a small group of Lightning owners, who also have Ford Charge Station Pro and Home Integration System offered by the company, will test discharging EV batteries to their owners' homes, in what is being billed as the first operational bidirectional electric vehicle power plant that uses customer EVs.

The aim is to test helping BGE's grid with EVs during times of peak energy consumption to contribute to a more reliable grid.

"This program is a significant proof of concept—no other market player has done this—and the goal is to expand these programs all around the country," said Sunrun CEO Mary Powell.

The vehicle owners themselves can expect to receive a payment during this four-month-long trial based on the amount of energy their vehicles will share, with Sunrun estimating $800 per household. Of course, that energy also has to be purchased somewhere by the vehicle owners to begin with.

Sunrun's Intelligent Backup Power, when used for powering just one home, could provide up to 10 days of power, the company says. But testing bidirectional charging in a vehicle-to-grid mode is a very different task, one that involves cooperation from utility companies.

In the longer term, it is expected that utility companies will be on board with V2G charging, and will be better able to avoid grid collapse events. But EV adoption and V2G integration rates first have to reach a certain critical mass.

"Partnering with Sunrun will allow BGE to unlock and learn the potential of how vehicle-to-grid programs will support increasing grid efficiency and reliability with distributed energy resources, while providing a valuable new benefit to customers," said Mark Case, Vice President of Regulatory Policy and Strategy at BGE.

Earlier this spring Toyota kicked off a similar trial in Maryland, partnering with Pepco on V2G charging using bZ4X models.

Why is this happening in Maryland, and not someplace with a recent history of severe power blackouts?

Maryland has recently mandated utility companies to work on V2G technology, with the passage of the Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification (DRIVE) Act.

But from a larger perspective, vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid charging is still one of those technologies that is perpetually just over the horizon, waiting for EV adoption rates to reach a certain level where they can begin to make a difference.

Will vehicle-to-grid charging take off in the coming years, once there are enough EVs, or is too niche of a technology to really go mainstream until just about all cars are electric? Let us know what you think in the comments below.