- PG&E and BMW of North America expand collaboration by testing
vehicle-to-everything technology that will improve grid reliability
and help EV customers lower their electric bills by exporting power
back to the grid during peak demand periods
Mountain View, Calif. – May 16, 2023… As electric
vehicles (EVs) become more prevalent, with approximately 40% of all
EVs in the United States driving on California roads, BMW of North
America (BMW) and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) are
collaborating to test how vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology can
serve as a solution to offset growing demand on the power grid,
improve reliability for electric customers, and maximize the usage of
renewable energy. In addition, V2X technology could eventually enable
customers to use their vehicles as backup home generation when needed.
The V2X testing is taking place at PG&E’s Applied Technology
Services (ATS) Lab in San Ramon and is the focal point of an extended
partnership to advance V2X technology and explore the utilization of
EVs as a flexible grid resource. The collaborative testing builds on
the momentum of the ChargeForward smart
charging program, which was announced in 2015 and offers PG&E
customers who drive a BMW EV, incentives to align vehicle charging
with renewable energy to help support the overall sustainability of
the electric grid.
“Electric grid sustainability is becoming an increasingly complex
challenge across the U.S.,” said Adam McNeill, Vice President,
Engineering, BMW of North America. “That’s why we started our
ChargeForward program in 2015, to connect our vehicles, our customers,
and the grid. V2X takes smart charging to the next level, exploring
how EV batteries can be used for backup generation and other grid
services. We’re excited to continue pursuing additional customer
benefits while helping make the grid more dependable and sustainable.”
V2X technology will someday empower EV drivers to return excess
stored energy from their vehicle batteries back to the grid in
exchange for compensation, presenting an ideal response to high-demand
power conditions and a key solution for grid stability and resiliency.
Additionally, V2X technology could play an important role in
increasing the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG)-free resources powering
the grid by storing solar and wind energy generated during the day to
supplement the availability of clean energy during the peak evening
demand period and overnight.
“The utility and automotive industries are creating a transformative
clean energy future together. At PG&E we are working with partners
like BMW to unleash the full potential of EVs to enhance grid
resilience and reliability for our customers, while reducing carbon
emissions in our hometowns” said Aaron August, PG&E Vice
President, Utility Partnerships and Innovation. “Clean-powered EVs are
vital to the battle against climate change. Using V2X technology to
create virtual power plants from EVs can help utilities like ours meet
peak electricity demand without the need for non-renewable energy
resources. With smart, managed bi-directional charging, we can
decarbonize our planet at a lower cost to our customers.”
The pilot is assessing how a typical home could maximize its
renewable energy usage by switching between EV battery stored
renewable energy and grid-provided renewable energy. The EV battery
charges when the renewable energy mix on the grid is highest and the
battery discharges throughout the day to support the household load.
Results show that a vehicle-to-home connected EV is capable of
providing roughly double the amount of renewable energy that a typical
California household would be able to use on an average day,
significantly increasing customers’ ability to use more green energy
on a daily basis. Testing also offers insights on how V2X vehicles
perform under real-world scenarios, taking into consideration vehicle
functionality and driver behavior to ensure that EVs can be used as a
viable grid resource while still meeting customer needs.
PG&E and BMW will continue collaborating to better understand how
these learnings can be applied to consider other customer and utility benefits.
ChargeForward Program
This expanded partnership, focused on V2X testing, is a direct result
of the success of ChargeForward. Conceived eight years ago, and now in
its third pilot phase, BMW and PG&E were the first to offer
customers cash incentives for maximizing renewable energy by
optimizing their EV charging times to support the overall reliability
of the electric grid. It is available to all BMW battery and plug-in
EV drivers in Northern and Central California who are also PG&E
residential electric customers.
This last year showed that by aligning charging with renewable
energy, BMW drivers helped the grid generate and support more clean
energy. In California 1.4 million miles were powered by 100% renewable
energy in the last 12 months.
What’s next?
BMW and PG&E have agreed to extend their partnership until March
2026 with a focus on smart charging testing. In the next stage of this
collaboration, BMW and PG&E will work together to continue testing
V2X-enabled vehicles, specifically vehicle-to-grid (V2G), in a field
trial at BMW Group Technology Office USA located in Mountain View,
California. BMW will develop a test fleet of V2X vehicles that will be
used in day-to-day operations and serve as a grid resource to help
integrate renewable energy and balance the grid. This field test will
evaluate how V2X technology can be used for advanced use cases that
can be commercialized in future years and help support renewable
integration on a neighborhood level to increase grid reliability on a
larger scale.
# # #
BMW Group In America
BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since
1975. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in
2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include
marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW
brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars; Designworks, a strategic design consultancy
based in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various
other operations throughout the country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC
in South Carolina is the BMW Group global center of competence for BMW
X models and manufactures the X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7 Sports Activity
Vehicles as well as the BMW XM. The BMW Group sales organization is
represented in the U.S. through networks of 350 BMW passenger car and
BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers,146 BMW motorcycle retailers, 104
MINI passenger car dealers, and 38 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. BMW
(US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North
America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric
utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles
in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/
and http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/.
PG&E Communications
415.973.5930 | www.pge.com