Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) fans tout bidirectional charging as a way for fleets (or perhaps even individuals) to generate income and defray the cost of going electric. Now Fermata Energy has announced the results of a summer-long pilot project in which a customer-owned EV earned over $4,200 by participating in a utility demand response (DR) program.

In May of 2021, startup Electric Frog provided a Nissan LEAF to the Burrillville Wastewater Treatment Facility in Rhode Island. Fermata Energy installed its FE-15 bidirectional charger and proprietary V2X software to manage the charging of the EV and deliver power on call to the building.

The project used energy stored in the battery pack of the parked EV to help offset peak electrical loads at the treatment facility and on the grid itself, as part of National Grid’s ConnectedSolutions DR program. Fermata’s V2X software manages charging and discharging of the battery in response to targeted peak loads so that power is delivered where it’s needed at the right time and for the prescribed duration.

National Grid’s ConnectedSolutions program pays participants $300/kW for up to 60 peak energy events between June and September. Fermata Energy helped offset 27 peak energy events over the summer in Burrillville, and Electric Frog received a $4,200 check from the utility. Fermata’s proprietary demand charge management (DCM) software also lowered the building’s energy cost, resulting in savings for the Burrillville facility.

“The electric vehicle and charger delivered power for 57 peak hours this summer when demand was at its highest,” said John Isberg, VP of Customer Sales and Solutions at National Grid. “These results help to give us confidence that electric vehicles can be a reliable partner in providing a clean and resilient electricity grid for the future.”

“The results achieved at the Burrillville Wastewater Treatment Facility should change how we think of electric vehicles,” said Fermata Energy founder and CEO David Slutzky (see our interview in the September/October 2019 issue of Charged). “Until now, people thought of an EV as a single-use asset for mobility only. As we just proved, an EV equipped with a bidirectional battery paired with V2X technology enables the EV owner to access a variety of value streams. We have shown that, not only can our technology save you money, but it will also drive the costs of EVs down with the value we can generate.”

Source: Fermata Energy