The first Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) program connected to New York City’s grid is now live, as announced today.
The announcement was made by Revel (an electric mobility and infrastructure company based out of Brooklyn), Fermata Energy (the Vehicle-to-Grid system provider), and NineDot Energy (a clean energy developer), who all partnered together to successfully deploy the new V2G system at Revel’s Red Hook warehouse, which is located in Brooklyn.
The V2G program differs from other EV charging systems because it utilizes a bidirectional charging system, which not only charges the electric vehicles (EVs) themselves, but it also puts energy back into the grid.
The system accomplishes this by using three bidirectional chargers that operate on a cloud-based platform, and what the chargers do is they discharge the EVs and safely send out some of the energy that is stored in the vehicles' batteries back into the grid.
The V2G system sends out the energy between the hours of 2 to 6 p.m. ET, which is when energy demand is at its highest in NYC. As a result, the three chargers are able to export around 45 kilowatts back into the grid itself, according to the V2G announcement press release.
This unique system of recycling and storing energy is beneficial because it supports grid resilience, meaning that the surplus of electric energy that is stored can be used either to prevent any power overloads during peak energy-usage hours, or it can even potentially be used as a potential source of backup power during power outage situations, according to this article from GreenBiz.
This efficient method of utilizing electric power is also beneficial to the environment because it should help to reduce carbon emissions, according to David Arfin, the CEO & co-founder of NineDot Energy.
“NineDot Energy is excited to see this V2G program come into operation, as we believe electric vehicles and V2G charging can play an important role in decarbonizing our environment," Arfin said.
"As a leading developer of urban community-scale energy projects, we see significant potential for V2G to augment the battery energy storage solutions we are building in the New York City and surrounding areas, and we look forward to hosting these capabilities at some of our sites,"
At the current moment, the V2G system only operates with Nissan LEAF EVs, although the plan is for the system to incorporate more EV models as V2G technology becomes more available, according to the V2G press release.
