Vehicle-to-Grid

An energy management system where plug-in electric vehicles are able to communicate with a smart grid and help balance loads. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) can be used with gridable vehicles, that is, plug-in electric vehicles (BEVs and PHEVs), with grid capacity.

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) describes a system in which plug-in electric vehicles, such as electric cars (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), communicate with the power grid to sell demand response services by either returning electricity to the grid or by throttling their charging rate. Vehicle-to-grid can be used with gridable vehicles, that is, plug-in electric vehicles (BEVs and PHEVs), with grid capacity. Since at any given time 95 percent of cars are parked, the batteries in electric vehicles could be used to let electricity flow from the car to the electric distribution network and back. This represents a value to the utilities of up to $4,000 per year per car.